author
Marie E. (Marie Elizabeth) Zakrzewska
1829–1902
A pioneering doctor who helped open the medical profession to women in the United States, she turned determination into lasting institutions. Her work in hospital training and women’s medical education made her an important figure in 19th-century American medicine.
2 Audiobooks
A Woman's Quest: The life of Marie E. Zakrzewska, M.D.
by Marie E. (Marie Elizabeth) Zakrzewska
A Practical Illustration of "Woman's Right to Labor" A Letter from Marie E. Zakrzewska, M.D. Late of Berlin, Prussia
by Marie E. (Marie Elizabeth) Zakrzewska
About the author
Born in Berlin on September 6, 1829, to Polish parents, Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska trained first in midwifery before emigrating to the United States in 1853. She earned her medical degree from Western Reserve University in 1856 and soon became known for her skill, discipline, and commitment to expanding opportunities for women in medicine.
She worked with other early leaders in women’s health, including Elizabeth Blackwell, and helped establish important institutions for female physicians and patients. Zakrzewska is especially remembered for founding the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston, where women physicians could practice and train in a profession that often excluded them.
She died on May 12, 1902, in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. Today she is remembered as a physician, teacher, and institution-builder whose career helped make medical education and hospital work more accessible to women.