Every year in March, we celebrate Women’s History Month. It’s a time to share inspiring stories of women who have achieved much and blazed new paths throughout history. It’s also an opportunity to celebrate obstacles overcome, greater equity for women, and to think about even more ways to include women in spaces at every level of our society.
This Women’s History Month, our practice in Turlock put together a short list of some amazing women who were trailblazers in the dental profession. Read on to learn more about some of the ones who left indelible legacies in the world long after they were gone.
Emile Robert Jones
Despite her husband, who was a dentist, telling her dentistry was not a suitable profession for women, Emile Robert Jones became one anyway. She’s widely credited as the first woman to professionally practice dentistry in the United States.
Jones lived from 1836-1916 and worked in dentistry for more than 60 years of her life. She started as her husband’s assistant, became a dentist, and practiced dentistry into old age long after the death of her husband. During her life, she served in and was given honorary membership in several important professional dental associations.
Lucy Hobbs Taylor
Lucy Hobbs Taylor lived a life that was defined by her perseverance. Taylor was a schoolteacher and dentist, and she is credited as the first woman to graduate from dental school. She completed her doctorate in dentistry at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in 1866.
Taylor applied to the Eclectic Medical College first to study dentistry, but her application was denied because she was a woman. She tried again, applying at the Ohio College of Dentistry, but was again denied entry. She moved to Iowa to practice dentistry and join the Iowa State Dental Society, which would recognize her as a dentist, and applied again once she had been a member. Finally, the Ohio College of Dental Surgery waived their policy against admitting women and Taylor went on to finish her degree.
Ida Gray Nelson Rollins
The first African American woman dentist was named Ida Gray Nelson Rollins. Rollins graduated from the University of Michigan’s College of Dentistry in 1890. She was born in Tennessee in 1867 and was orphaned as a teenager. After her mother died, she started working as a seamstress and made dresses and eventually went to work in a dental office.
At the time of her graduation at the University of Michigan, she was the only African American woman to hold a graduate degree in dental surgery. After graduation, she opened a practice in Ohio and ended her career at her own practice in Chicago. There is an annual award in her name given to honor diversity at the University of Michigan.
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We hope you enjoyed learning about some of the amazing women who made dentistry what it is today. If you enjoy our posts, please consider liking our Facebook page to see when we share the newest ones.