Elizabeth Blackwell

Elizabeth Blackwell was the first modern woman physician and the first modern woman doctor.

Elizabeth Blackwell, February 3, 1821 - May 31, 1910, was not only an abolitionist and a women's rights activist, but the first woman in the United States to practice medicine with a college degree. She supported medical education for women and helped many other women achieve their goals. She established the New York Infirmary in 1857, thereby offering practical solutions to one of the many problems facing women who were rejected from internships elsewhere. She published several important books on the issue of women in medicine. She has become a role model for young women everywhere.

Early Life

Blackwell was born in Bristol, England, the third of nine children born to Samuel Blackwell, a sugar refiner who insisted that his children, sons and daughters receive a good education. In 1831, the family emigrated to the United States, and set up a refinery in New York City. Unfortunately, Samuel Blackwell was not a very successful businessman and moved the family several times before his death in Cincinnati. After the death of her father Blackwell, her mother and her two sisters having no financial resources started a private school. Desiring to apply herself to the practice of medicine, she took up residence in a physician's household, using her time there to study from the family's medical library.

Her father had been very concerned with social reform. His involvement with abolitionism led to a friendship with William Lloyd Garrison. Blackwell following her father's lead became active in the anti-slavery movement (as did her brother Henry Brown Blackwell, who married Lucy Stone), in the course of which she made friends with Harriet Beecher Stowe. Another brother, Samuel C. Blackwell, married another important figure in women's rights, Antoinette Brown.

Medical School

Blackwell traveled to Kentucky then to the Carolinas to teach school. She loved teaching but still longed to become a doctor. She read medical books secretly while teaching. She is quoted as saying, "The idea of winning a doctor's degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me." She soon began searching for a medical school that would accept a woman student.

Blackwell applied to several prominent medical schools but was rejected by all. Her second round of applications was sent to smaller colleges, including Geneva College in New York. She was accepted there anecdotally, because the faculty put it to a student vote, and the students thought her application a hoax. When it became apparent that she was serious the entire school was appalled. Blackwell persevered even in spite of having no friends and being ostracized. At first, she was even kept from classroom medical demonstrations, as inappropriate for a woman. She braved the prejudice to complete her training, ranking first in her class. On January 23, 1849, she became the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.

Career

Barred from practice in most hospitals, she founded her own infirmary, the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, in 1857. When the American Civil War began, she trained nurses, and in 1868 she founded a Women's Medical College at the Infirmary to formally train women, physicians, and doctors.

In 1869 she left her sister Emily in charge of the College and returned to England. There, with Florence Nightingale, she opened the Women's Medical College. Blackwell taught at the newly-created London School of Medicine for Women and became the first female physician and doctor in the UK Medical Register. She retired at the age of 86.

Blackwell was commemorated on a postage stamp.

Her sex education guide, The Moral Education of the Young, was published in Britain, as was her autobiography, Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women (1895). Upon her death, she was buried in a remote part of Scotland.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Ashby, Ruth, and Deborah Gore Ohrn. Herstory: women who changed the world. New York: Viking1995. ISBN 9780670854349
• Blackwell, Elizabeth. Pioneer work in opening the medical profession to women; autobiographical sketches. [New York]: Source Book Press 1970. ISBN 9780876810804
• Boyd, Julia. The excellent doctor Blackwell: the life of the first woman physician. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Pub 2005. ISBN 9780750941402
• Klobuchar, Lisa. Elizabeth Blackwell: with profiles of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Susan La Flesche Picotte. Biographical connections. Chicago: World Book2007. ISBN 9780716618263
• Leavitt, Amie Jane. Elizabeth Blackwell. Hockessin, Del: Mitchell Lane Publishers 2007. ISBN 9781584155799

External links

• "Elizabeth Blackwell, America's First Woman M.D." National Institutes of Health observed March 18, 2007.
• "Elizabeth Blackwell" About, Inc. observed March 18, 2007.
• "Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell" National Institute of Health observed March 18, 2007.

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