Born on March 31, 1865, in Kalyan, India, Anandi Gopal Joshi was the first Indian female physician. She was the first woman from the then Bombay presidency to study and graduate with a degree in western medicine in the U.S.. She graduated from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1886. Joshi was inspired to become a physician following the death of her child just ten days after birth due to lack of medical care.
At a time when women’s role was confined to the kitchen, Joshi, supported by her husband, stood up to pursue higher education and inspired several women in the country to do so.
“Be grateful for challenges because… Had there been no difficulties and no thorns in the way, then (each woman and) man would have been in his primitive state and no progress made in civilisation and mental culture.”
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