Who Was the First Female Plastic Surgeon in the U.S.?

There is documentation of women performing surgical procedures as far back as 3500 BCE.

But new regulations issued during the Middle Ages prohibited women from practicing surgery unless they were given privileges by a jury or took over their deceased husbands’ practices.

Fast forward 1400 years or so to the inaugural class of 1057 fellows of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) in 1913 had five women in the fields of general surgery, ENT, and gynecology. And the first female plastic surgeon in the U.S. wouldn’t be admitted to the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ASPRS, later ASPS) until 1948.

The First Female Plastic Surgeon in the U.S.

The first woman to be recognized in the field of plastic surgery in the U.S. was Dr. Alma Dea Morani.

Graduating from the Women’s Medical College in Pennsylvania (now Drexel University) in 1931, she completed her internship at St. James Hospital in New Jersey. She was the sole female physician there so she had to live in the nursing quarters.

Morani went on to become a fellow of the ACS in 1941 after she passed her general surgery boards. Given her passion for art, she was interested in applying her surgical skills to the emerging field of plastic surgery.

It Was No Easy Feat

In 2022, over 86% of cosmetic plastic surgeries were performed on women, while 13.8% were on men. Even so, the field of plastic surgery is still dominated by men. And the journey for Moreni to become a plastic surgeon was not an easy one.

Over the course of six years, she tried six times to apply for plastic surgery training. Each time she was turned down until a surgeon in St. Louis accepted her. There were different rules for her than for the male pupils though. She was allowed only to observe and not permitted to scrub or assist in cases. In addition, she could only operate on Saturdays when the male colleagues had the day off.

Despite this, she completed her training and then traveled the world to learn from other plastic surgeons including Drs. Gillies and McIndoe in Great Britain and Dr. Severino-Roselli in Italy. Eventually she

worked with the first female cosmetic surgeon in France and assisted in training other female plastic surgeons.

Morani Continued to Blaze New Trails

Eventually Morani returned to the United States to the Women’s Medical College in Pennsylvania. There she practiced a wide range of plastic surgery procedures, including general reconstruction, burns, facial trauma, and hand surgery.

She would go on to found The Hand Clinic there and continued to act as an advocate for women in plastic surgery and medicine as a whole. She also remained active in medical societies including the American Medical Women’s Association and the Medical Women’s International Association – and helped found the Pennsylvania Plastic Surgery Society in 1954. It was there that she served as its third president and second historian.

Plastic Surgery for Everyone

To this day, many consider the first female plastic surgeon in the U.S. as the “mother” of plastic surgery for multiple generations of women who went on to practice in the field.

And Morani was just that.

So whether you’re a woman or a man looking to make some adjustments (cosmetic or otherwise) through plastic surgery, don’t hesitate to contact us. Discover what it can do for you.