Mary Elizabeth Green

Mary E. Green (1841–1910) was an American physician, the first woman admitted to membership in the New York Medical Association. Green served as President of the American Household Economic Association.

Early life and education

Mary Elizabeth Green was born in Machias, New York, August 6, 1844. Both her parents, Allen Green and Emeline (Wicks) Green, were of New England ancestry. They moved to Michigan when she was very young, and with limited means, they were obliged to endure the challenges of a pioneer life. As there were no brothers in the family, Mary worked both indoors and outdoors, preferring outdoors work, until, the house being built and a few acres about it cleared, she was allowed to think about education.

She went to a neighbor's, several miles away, where she worked for her board and began to attend school. At the age of 14, she passed the required examination and began to teach, her salary being US$2 a week, with the privilege of boarding at others' houses. She was soon able to enter Olivet College. There she earned her own way, mostly by doing housework, and partially so in Oberlin College, which she attended later.

While yet in her teens, she realized the necessity of choosing some life work for herself, and as she desired to pursue the study of medicine, she quietly determined to do so. Undaunted by the criticism of her friends, in 1865, after one year's study with a physician, Green entered the New York Medical College. She was soon chosen assistant in the chemical laboratory, and besides that work, she was present every evening, making the dissections to be used on the following day by the demonstrator of anatomy. She entered Bellevue Hospital and remained there, in spite of sexual harassment. On account of its hospital advantages, the next year she entered the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, and for two years was an intern of the hospital. In 1868, she was graduated from that college with honor, her thesis being entitled "Medical jurisprudence."