New England Female Medical College

New England Female Medical College (NEFMC), originally Boston Female Medical College, was founded in 1848 by Samuel Gregory and was the first school to train women in the field of medicine. It merged with Boston University School of Medicine in 1874.

Prior to 1847 when Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to enroll in a United States medical school when she entered the Geneva Medical College, many women such as Harriot Kezia Hunt had served as family physicians, but women were denied attendance at medical lectures and examinations. Blackwell set a new standard for young women everywhere, helping them gain entrance into the medical world by claiming that women had something unique to offer medicine that men could not.

The Female Education Society opened in Boston in 1848, and was created exclusively for the medical education of women. It was incorporated and officialially recognized by the Massachusetts Legislature on April 30, 1850. The first classes were held in the home of Boylston Medical Society President Dr. Winslow Lewis. The Female Medical Education Society sought to establish a medical school in Boston complete with its own teaching hospital that would teach women midwifery and nursing so they could treat women and children. Although it was a time of gender prejudice, the foundation of the College was accepted by many as it "provided women with a socially sanctioned position in a feminized occupation."On May, 27 1857, by an act of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the name was changed to New England Female Medical College and the school was reorganized.

NEFMC is the oldest medical school in the United States exclusively for women. In 1870 the New England Female Medical College building was dedicated on a lot between East Concord and Stoughton Streets, giving the school its own home after 22 years of existence. After only 26 years of existence, the New England Female Medical College merged with Boston University School of Medicine in 1874.

The main motivation for the school’s foundation was that male physicians should not generally assist in childbirth. Founder Samuel Gregory saw male-midwifery as unnatural and improper and believed that women should be allowed to have a formal medical education in order to become certified midwives and attend to their own sex.

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