Fe del Mundo (1911–2011) was a Fili

Fe del Mundo (1911–2011) was a Filipino pediatrician who was the first woman to be admitted to Harvard Medical School in 1936 — over ten years before the school officially began admitting women. She was also the first woman to be named National Scientist of the Philippines in 1980, and founded the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines.

Born in Manila in the Philippines in 1911, Fe decided to become a doctor when her older sister died from appendicitis at the age of 11. She enrolled in the University of the Philippines in 1926. While earning her medical degree, she decided to pursue pediatrics.

Fe del Mundo

Fe graduated in 1933 as valedictorian of her class. The president of the Philippines, Manuel Quezon, offered her a full scholarship to study any medical field of her choice at any school in the United States. She chose Harvard Medical School.

Women had been earning MD degrees in the United States since Elizabeth Blackwell became the first in 1849. Still, not many schools allowed women to enroll. (Even Elizabeth Blackwell was only admitted to Geneva Medical College because they thought her application was a joke.) The first woman to apply to Harvard Medical School, Harriet Hunt in 1847, was denied after the students organized a protest against her and three black students.