Marie Durocher
Marie Josefina Mathilde Durocher (6 January 1809 – 25 December 1893) was a Brazilian obstetrician, midwife and physician, and the first female doctor in Latin America. Born in Paris to French immigrants, she moved to Brazil with her family at age eight. Widowed young with two children, she earned the first medical degree from Rio de Janeiro’s Medical School in 1834 and practiced for about sixty years. She wore men’s clothes for practicality in her work and served as the midwife to the grandchildren of Emperor Pedro II. In 1871, she became the first woman to join the Academia Nacional de Medicina, and she remained the only woman member for fifty years.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 03:26 (CET).