Two Pioneer 19th-Century Women Who Breached Ophthalmology's Glass Ceiling

Abstract

This editorial pays tribute to the first 2 women who became regularly trained ophthalmologists in late 19thcentury America. After the graduation of Elizabeth Blackwell from Geneva Medical College in 1849 and the establishment of the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia the following year, a gradual trickle of female physicians entered the ranks of the medical profession in the United States. Yet an even more formidable barrier existed for more than half a century subsequently for any woman who sought to enter a training program in a medical or surgical specialty. The first American women to take specialized training in ophthalmology were Isabel Hayes Chapin Barrows (Fig 1) and Elizabeth Sargent (Fig 2). Although they practiced on different coasts, the paths of these female ophthalmologists