Women have served widely as pharmacists. However, as with women in many jobs, women in pharmacy have been restricted. For example, only in 1964 was the American Civil Rights Act of 1964 enacted, which outlawed refusing to hire women because of their sex including though not limited to in the profession of pharmacist. Even today, not all countries ensure equal employment opportunities for women.
Women in medieval pharmacy
is one term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons, and patients; the modern pharmacist has taken over this role. Throughout medieval times, apothecaries were not trained in universities as physicians were. More often, they were trained through guilds, and apprenticeship. Apothecary businesses were typically family-run, and wives or other women of the family worked alongside their husbands in the shops, learning the trade themselves. Women were still not allowed to train and be educated in universities so this allowed them a chance to be trained in medical knowledge and healing. Previously, women had some influence in other women's healthcare, such as serving as midwives and other feminine care in a setting that was not considered appropriate for males. Though physicians gave medical advice, they did not make medicine, so they typically sent their patients to particular independent apothecaries, who did also provide some medical advice in particular remedies and healing.
Margaret Elizabeth Buchanan, became the first woman to be elected to the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1918, serving until 1926.
Cora Dow, a pharmacist in Cincinnati, Ohio, the leading female pharmacist of her time, with eleven stores under her name when she died.
Fanny Deacon, became the first female pharmacist in the United Kingdom in 1870.
Julia Pearl Hughes, the first African-American female pharmacist to own and operate her own drug store.
Jean Irvine, became the first female president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1947, which position she held until 1948.
Charlotte Jacobs, became the first female pharmacist in the Netherlands in 1879.
Caroline Copp, became the first female pharmacist in Australia in 1880.
Ella P. Stewart, one of the first African-American female pharmacists in the United States.
Christina Jesop Wilson, became the first female pharmacist to qualify in the south of Ireland in 1900.
Mary Munson Runge, became the first woman and the first African-American elected president of the American Pharmacists Association, which occurred in 1979; she was president for two terms, from 1979 to 1981.
