Let's play word association: we say "doctor," and you say ________? What did you come up with? Oz, Welby, maybe Pepper?
Here are three more choices for the next game: Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, and Sophia Jex-Blake. They became physicians at a time in history when women were largely barred from the medical profession.
But they persisted, creating an entirely new concept: medical care for women, by women. Their story is told in Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine.
Medical journalist Olivia Campbell wrote the book and visits the JX with an overview.