The story of
Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to earn a degree in medicine, begins in
the anatomy class at the medical school of Geneva
College Elizabeth
insists she is an equal and with gracious finesse and direct persistence she
overrides his objections and accomplishes yet another first for women and
medicine.
Born in Bristol
England , Elizabeth ’s
life suddenly becomes altered at an early age when her father’s sugar refinery
explodes and burns to the ground. That becomes the impetus for his decision to
begin a new life in the United States .
Setting up residence in New York City
the family no sooner settles in when Samuel Blackwell finds the matter of indirect
slavery imposed upon his business to be intolerable and another move is made. Cincinnati ,
Ohio Elizabeth , encouraged
by a dying friend, gives strong consideration to becoming a doctor; a
preposterous idea that is totally against all acceptable norms and rules of
society.
But after careful
thought, earning a degree in medicine does not seem to be all that outlandish
to Elizabeth . With support from
various quarters including her family, Elizabeth
eventually breaks the prohibitive barrier and is finally admitted to a school
of medicine. That triumph, however, does not come without punishing attacks
from the all-male medical community with vulgar insinuations, insults and
discrediting lies being the common stones thrown at this woman who dares
challenge the status quo.
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| School of Medicine, Geneva College 1849 |
As part of her
training, and because all private hospitals reject her, Elizabeth
spends seven months between semesters at the Blockley Almshouse charity hospital
in Philadelphia under some of the worst
conditions found in the United States .
The experience leaves her totally committed to being of service to poor women
and children once she receives her degree in medicine.
Her graduation is
not only a grand affair but draws attention to this new kind of rebel. Attempting
to acquire her post graduate practical work at a hospital in the United
States , and being firmly rejected by all,
she turns her attention to Europe . Encountering the same
prejudices in England ,
she eventually is accepted at a maternity hospital in Paris ,
France London
where she completes her post graduate work and becomes certified.
Returning to the United
States she again encounters the same
hostilities she had fought once before. Despite those oppositions she opens a
small dispensary in New York for
poor women and children. Again, as with Blockley, she deals with the dreadful
plight of the poor. Consequently she sees a bigger need and along with her
sister Emily, who now has also become a physician, they labor harder to
establish a full hospital, eventually succeeding. During the Civil War, the
hospital under Elizabeth ’s guidance
helps with selecting candidates for the army’s field nurses.
After three
decades of pioneering work Elizabeth
feels her work is done in America .
She returns to England
and there she engages in the plight of women being admitted to medical schools,
helps open a hospital for women and establishes a medical school for women. She
eventually settles into a position of Chair of Gynecology at the medical school
she helped create. Woven into these ventures she encounters a serious illness
requiring rest, meets and becomes enchanted with a young man, writes a highly
controversial book on sex education for children and sustains a serious fall that damages her mental well being requiring
her to retire from an active life.
Three years after her fall, in 1910,Elizabeth dies of a
stroke. She is buried in Scotland
where she had come to enjoy the peace and serenity of a small village on the
banks of the Holy Loch. She was 89 years old and at the time of her death 7,400
women in the United States
had become licensed physicians and surgeons.
Three years after her fall, in 1910,
