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  • Home
  • What is an Awesome Woman?
  • Activists & Community Builders
    • Oyinkan Abayomi
    • Jane Addams
    • Fatima al-Fihri
    • Jessie Daniel Ames
    • Susan B. Anthony
    • Inessa Armand
    • Ella Baker
    • Nellie Bly
    • Lady Bird Johnson
    • Anne Carroll Moore
    • Rosa Parks
    • Alice Paul
    • Eleanor Roosevelt
    • Ghenia Avril de Sainte-Croix
    • Sophie Scholl
    • Doria Shafik
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
    • Sojourner Truth
    • Harriet Tubman
    • Ida B. Wells
    • Malala Yousafzai
  • Authors & Visual Artists
    • Etel Adnan
    • Ama Ata Aidoo
    • Anna Akhmatova
    • Louisa May Alcott
    • Isabel Allende
    • Maya Angelou
    • Sofonisba Anguissola
    • Jane Austen
    • Hildegard von Bingen
    • Mary Blair
    • Margaret Bourke-White
    • Gwendolyn Brooks
    • Octavia Butler
    • Julia Margaret Cameron
    • Judy Chicago
    • Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
    • Marjory Stoneman Douglas
    • Artemisia Gentileschi
    • Maija Isola
    • Lois Mailou Jones
    • Frida Kahlo
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Dorothea Lange
    • Edmonia Lewis
    • Julia Morgan
    • Toni Morrison
    • Marianne North
    • Sappho
    • Harriet Beecher Stowe
    • Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun
  • Business Owners & Entrepreneurs
    • Mary Kay Ash
    • Olive Ann Beech
    • Polly Bemis
    • Marguerite Boucicaut
    • Juana Briones
    • Clara Brown
    • Nellie Cashman
    • Nicole-Barbe Clicquot
    • Ellen Demorest
    • Katharine Graham
    • Hetty Green
    • Isabella Greenway
    • Ruth Handler
    • Annie Turnbo Malone
    • Charley Parkhurst
    • Eliza Pinckney
    • Lydia Pinkham
    • Mary Ellen Pleasant
    • Muriel Siebert
    • Ruth Wakefield
    • Madam C J Walker
    • Maggie Lena Walker
    • Marie Webster
    • Oprah Winfrey
  • Civil Servants, World Leaders, & Warriors
    • Corazon Aquino
    • Queen Yaa Asantewaa
    • Mavis Batey
    • Empress Taytu Betul
    • Boudicca
    • Mary Bowser
    • Charlotte Hawkins Brown
    • Gro Harlem Brundtland
    • Empress Catherine II of Russia
    • Shirley Chisholm
    • Pharaoh Cleopatra VII
    • Sarah Emma Edmonds
    • Queen Elizabeth I of England
    • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
    • Noor Inayat Khan
    • Belva Lockwood
    • Sandra Day O'Connor
    • Trung Sisters
  • Computer Scientists & Mathematicians
    • Maria Agnesi
    • Jean Bartik
    • Kimberly Bryant
    • Annie Easley
    • Sophie Germain
    • Margaret Hamilton
    • Grace Hopper
    • Hypatia
    • Katherine Johnson
    • Sofya Kovalevskaya
    • Ada Lovelace
    • Maryam Mirzakhani
    • Emmy Noether
    • Ruchi Sanghvi
    • Dorothy Vaughan
  • Doctors, Nurses, & Medical Researchers
    • Virginia Apgar
    • Sara Josephine Baker
    • Alice Ball
    • Clara Barton
    • Patricia Bath
    • Elizabeth Blackwell
    • Louyse Bourgeoise Boursier
    • Rachel Brown
    • Mamie Phipps Clark
    • Gertrude Belle Elion
    • Marie Equi
    • Elizabeth Hazen
    • Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
    • Mae Jemison
    • Anandibai Joshee
    • Florence Nightingale
    • Ogino Ginko
    • Mary Seacole
    • Rosalyn Yalow
  • Engineers, Inventors, & Scientists
    • Mary Anning
    • Marie d'Arconville
    • Hertha Ayrton
    • Florence Bascom
    • Laura Bassi
    • Katharine Burr Blodgett
    • Annie Jump Cannon
    • Rachel Carson
    • Emilie du Chatelet
    • Martha Coston
    • Marie Curie
    • Sylvia Earle
    • Dian Fossey
    • Rosalind Franklin
    • Lillian Gilbreth
    • Jane Goodall
    • Catharine Littlefield Greene
    • Mary Jackson
    • Shirley Ann Jackson
    • Margaret E. Knight
    • Stephanie Kwolek
    • Hedy Lamarr
    • Mary Leakey
    • Wangari Maathai
    • Lise Meitner
    • Maria Sibylla Merian
    • Ynes Mexia
    • Maria Mitchell
    • Mary Sherman Morgan
    • Ellen Ochoa
    • Sally Ride
    • Stephanie Schwabe
    • Donna Shirley
    • Kathryn Sullivan
    • Wang Zhenyi
    • Peggy Whitson
    • Wu Chien-Shiung
  • Exploration & Sports
    • Nicola Adams
    • Laila Ali
    • Ann Bancroft
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    • Anita DeFrantz
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    • Mia Hamm
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    • Florence Griffith Joyner
    • Jackie Joyner-Kersee
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    • Misty Copeland
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    • Evelyn Glennie
    • Martha Graham
    • Audrey Hepburn
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Ogino Ginko

March 3, 1851 - June 23, 1913
(Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, Japan - Tokyo, Japan)
  • FIRST female doctor in Japan
  • Inspired to become a doctor when her husband gave her gonorrhea and her treatment at the hands of male doctors was invasive and humiliating
  • Across Japan, women would often avoid going to doctors because they didn't want a man seeing them naked
  • Although no medical schools were open to women, she sought help from the president of the Red Cross Society and feminist leaders to get accepted to Kojuin, a school at Koju Hospital
  • Faced severe harassment from her classmates and received no support from the administration or her family
  • ​Graduated in 1882, although she still couldn't practice medicine because she had to pass two state licensing examinations, neither of which women were allowed to take
  • She managed to convince the head of the licensing bureau that there was historical precedent, and he opened up the exams to women
  • Opened the Ogino Hospital in Yushima, specializing in obstetrics and gynecology
  • Moved to Hokkaido with her second husband and started her own private practice
  • Also a member of the Tokyo Women's Reform Society, which fought against restrictive traditions placed on women, such as staying silent in front of men, and prostituting themselves to earn money for their family
  • Ginkogino, minor planet #10526, is named after her
Picture
Public Domain Photo, via Wikimedia Commons
Bibliography: Maggs, Sam. Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2016. Print.

Support this organization dedicated to preserving her story and mission:

Kumagaya Municipal Ogino Ginko Museum

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  • Home
  • What is an Awesome Woman?
  • Activists & Community Builders
    • Oyinkan Abayomi
    • Jane Addams
    • Fatima al-Fihri
    • Jessie Daniel Ames
    • Susan B. Anthony
    • Inessa Armand
    • Ella Baker
    • Nellie Bly
    • Lady Bird Johnson
    • Anne Carroll Moore
    • Rosa Parks
    • Alice Paul
    • Eleanor Roosevelt
    • Ghenia Avril de Sainte-Croix
    • Sophie Scholl
    • Doria Shafik
    • Elizabeth Cady Stanton
    • Sojourner Truth
    • Harriet Tubman
    • Ida B. Wells
    • Malala Yousafzai
  • Authors & Visual Artists
    • Etel Adnan
    • Ama Ata Aidoo
    • Anna Akhmatova
    • Louisa May Alcott
    • Isabel Allende
    • Maya Angelou
    • Sofonisba Anguissola
    • Jane Austen
    • Hildegard von Bingen
    • Mary Blair
    • Margaret Bourke-White
    • Gwendolyn Brooks
    • Octavia Butler
    • Julia Margaret Cameron
    • Judy Chicago
    • Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
    • Marjory Stoneman Douglas
    • Artemisia Gentileschi
    • Maija Isola
    • Lois Mailou Jones
    • Frida Kahlo
    • Yayoi Kusama
    • Dorothea Lange
    • Edmonia Lewis
    • Julia Morgan
    • Toni Morrison
    • Marianne North
    • Sappho
    • Harriet Beecher Stowe
    • Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun
  • Business Owners & Entrepreneurs
    • Mary Kay Ash
    • Olive Ann Beech
    • Polly Bemis
    • Marguerite Boucicaut
    • Juana Briones
    • Clara Brown
    • Nellie Cashman
    • Nicole-Barbe Clicquot
    • Ellen Demorest
    • Katharine Graham
    • Hetty Green
    • Isabella Greenway
    • Ruth Handler
    • Annie Turnbo Malone
    • Charley Parkhurst
    • Eliza Pinckney
    • Lydia Pinkham
    • Mary Ellen Pleasant
    • Muriel Siebert
    • Ruth Wakefield
    • Madam C J Walker
    • Maggie Lena Walker
    • Marie Webster
    • Oprah Winfrey
  • Civil Servants, World Leaders, & Warriors
    • Corazon Aquino
    • Queen Yaa Asantewaa
    • Mavis Batey
    • Empress Taytu Betul
    • Boudicca
    • Mary Bowser
    • Charlotte Hawkins Brown
    • Gro Harlem Brundtland
    • Empress Catherine II of Russia
    • Shirley Chisholm
    • Pharaoh Cleopatra VII
    • Sarah Emma Edmonds
    • Queen Elizabeth I of England
    • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
    • Noor Inayat Khan
    • Belva Lockwood
    • Sandra Day O'Connor
    • Trung Sisters
  • Computer Scientists & Mathematicians
    • Maria Agnesi
    • Jean Bartik
    • Kimberly Bryant
    • Annie Easley
    • Sophie Germain
    • Margaret Hamilton
    • Grace Hopper
    • Hypatia
    • Katherine Johnson
    • Sofya Kovalevskaya
    • Ada Lovelace
    • Maryam Mirzakhani
    • Emmy Noether
    • Ruchi Sanghvi
    • Dorothy Vaughan
  • Doctors, Nurses, & Medical Researchers
    • Virginia Apgar
    • Sara Josephine Baker
    • Alice Ball
    • Clara Barton
    • Patricia Bath
    • Elizabeth Blackwell
    • Louyse Bourgeoise Boursier
    • Rachel Brown
    • Mamie Phipps Clark
    • Gertrude Belle Elion
    • Marie Equi
    • Elizabeth Hazen
    • Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin
    • Mae Jemison
    • Anandibai Joshee
    • Florence Nightingale
    • Ogino Ginko
    • Mary Seacole
    • Rosalyn Yalow
  • Engineers, Inventors, & Scientists
    • Mary Anning
    • Marie d'Arconville
    • Hertha Ayrton
    • Florence Bascom
    • Laura Bassi
    • Katharine Burr Blodgett
    • Annie Jump Cannon
    • Rachel Carson
    • Emilie du Chatelet
    • Martha Coston
    • Marie Curie
    • Sylvia Earle
    • Dian Fossey
    • Rosalind Franklin
    • Lillian Gilbreth
    • Jane Goodall
    • Catharine Littlefield Greene
    • Mary Jackson
    • Shirley Ann Jackson
    • Margaret E. Knight
    • Stephanie Kwolek
    • Hedy Lamarr
    • Mary Leakey
    • Wangari Maathai
    • Lise Meitner
    • Maria Sibylla Merian
    • Ynes Mexia
    • Maria Mitchell
    • Mary Sherman Morgan
    • Ellen Ochoa
    • Sally Ride
    • Stephanie Schwabe
    • Donna Shirley
    • Kathryn Sullivan
    • Wang Zhenyi
    • Peggy Whitson
    • Wu Chien-Shiung
  • Exploration & Sports
    • Nicola Adams
    • Laila Ali
    • Ann Bancroft
    • Simone Biles
    • Bonnie Blair
    • Bessie Coleman
    • Nadia Comaneci
    • Dominique Dawes
    • Anita DeFrantz
    • Amelia Earhart
    • Gertrude Ederle
    • Althea Gibson
    • Mia Hamm
    • Sonja Henie
    • Amy Johnson
    • Florence Griffith Joyner
    • Jackie Joyner-Kersee
    • Billie Jean King
    • Katie Ledecky
    • Lisa Leslie
    • Nancy Lieberman
    • Ellen MacArthur
    • Cheryl Miller
    • Jackie Mitchell
    • Martina Navratilova
    • Annie Smith Peck
    • Wilma Rudolph
    • Sacagawea
    • Annika Sorenstam
    • Freya Stark
    • Bessie Stringfield
    • Pat Summitt
    • Sheryl Swoopes
    • Valentina Tereshkova
    • Dara Torres
    • Lindsey Vonn
    • Serena Williams
    • Venus Williams
    • Lynette Woodard
    • "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias
  • Performance Artists
    • Alicia Alonso
    • Marian Anderson
    • Josephine Baker
    • Lucille Ball
    • Misty Copeland
    • Dorothy Dandridge
    • Ellen DeGeneres
    • Katherine Dunham
    • Ella Fitzgerald
    • Evelyn Glennie
    • Martha Graham
    • Audrey Hepburn
    • Katharine Hepburn
    • Annie Oakley
    • Dolly Parton
    • Mary Pickford
    • Ma Rainey
    • Maria Tallchief
    • Sister Rosetta Tharpe
  • Picture Book Biographies
  • Bulletin Board
  • About the Library
  • Contact