In 1759, French king Louis XV launched a project to reduce infant mortality in the country and commissioned Parisian midwife Angélique du Coudray to train peasant women as midwifes. From 1760 to 1783, she trained approximately 10,000 women across France, visiting poor women in rural areas and sharing her extensive knowledge with them.
Betsy Thung Sin Nio was an Indonesian-Dutch women’s rights activist, medical doctor, economist and politician.
Adah Belle Samuels Thoms was an African-American nurse who co-founded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses and served as president from 1916 to 1923.
Minnie Fisher Cunningham was an American suffrage activist, who was the first executive secretary of the League of Women Voters.
Irish medical doctor who was the first female radiologist in the United Kingdom
Winifred Kennan worked with Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital as its medical superintendent from 1921-1923 and later as honorary consultant obstetrician.
Dr Margaret Clark practiced medicine in remote areas of Western Australia at Lake Grace, often working under difficult conditions.
Janet Graeme Travell was an American physician and medical researcher. She was the first woman to be appointed as the presidential physician, by John F. Kennedy in 1961.
Dr Agnes Elizabeth Lloyd Bennett OBE was a New Zealand doctor. She served as the Chief Medical Officer of a medical unit during World War I and was later awarded an O.B.E. for her services in improving the health of women and children.