DDS 1881 University of Michigan
Jennie Kollock Hilton was the first American woman to graduate from the University of Michigan’s dental program, in 1881. Hilton frequently defended a woman’s choice to become a dentist.
Equal Rights
Like many professional women of her day, Hilton had a larger agenda beyond her career. She and her sister, Florence Kollock, a minister, promoted equal rights for women and worked actively for women’s suffrage.
No Pushover
In December 1889, Items of Interest published an article by W.R. Spencer decrying women as dentists or in any profession. He also complained that since women worked for lower wages than men, they were unfair competition. His final barb: professional women “must result in moral depravity.”
In a tart response to W.R. Spencer’s attack on women dentists she said, “Let us cover him with a mantle of charity; a very small one will suffice… if his effort to belittle woman should prove his death, our earnest prayer shall be that when he is “filling his last cavity,” it may be written on his tombstone, Here lies the last obstructionist to woman dentists.”