Q: Who was the first woman awarded a medical degree by an American college?
A: Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to receive an M.D. degree from an American medical school, graduating from New York’s Geneva Medical College in 1849. The school’s faculty, assuming that the all-male student body would never agree to a woman joining their ranks, allowed them to vote on her admission. Thinking it was so ludicrous it must be a joke, the male students voted “yes,” and she gained admittance, despite the reluctance of most students and faculty.
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