Margaret F. Butler

Margaret F. Butler (1861 – October 16, 1931) was an American physician who chaired the otorhinolaryngology department at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. In 1908, she became the first woman to preside over an international congress of physicians, as the only woman and only American in attendance. She was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

Life and career Butler was born into a Quaker farming family in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1861. The eldest of seven children of James Butler and Rachel (James) Butler, she was the niece of prominent state politician Samuel Butler and federal judge William Butler. She commenced schooling at the age of four, attended Darlington Seminary, and taught school from the age of seventeen. She subsequently took correspondence courses through the Society to Encourage Studies at Home.

Encouraged to study medicine by Dr. Theophilus Parvin, Butler earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1894 and pursued postgraduate courses in Vienna under physicians Ádám Politzer and Hyack. Returning to Philadelphia, she was appointed professor of the ear, nose, and throat at her alma mater in 1896. She taught at the Woman's Medical College until her death and also served as chair of the otorhinolaryngology department from 1908 until her death.

On October 16, 1931, Butler died suddenly of a heart attack while performing a tonsillectomy at the college hospital. The operation was completed by Dr. Ann Catherine Arthurs, and the patient suffered no ill effects. Regarded as a "preeminent" diagnostician and surgeon, Butler was elected a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1918.