Elizabeth Blackwell: Pioneer for Women in Medicine
Image via the Library of Congress
Recognizing – and celebrating – the 200th anniversary of her birth
Being the first woman in a field makes your mark on history a prestigious one, but it also signifies a struggle to overcome barriers and challenges. The life and career of Elizabeth Blackwell, MD, the first woman in the United States to receive an MD, provides a striking example. Though she faced many difficulties throughout her career, she paved the way for other women to study and practice medicine with boldness and determination.
Becoming a Doctor
Born in England in 1821 into a family of activists and trailblazers, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell hadn't originally planned to practice medicine. Her first career was as a teacher and, she explained, she was repulsed by the body and the study of it. However, when a dying friend told her that she believed her worst sufferings would not have happened if her doctor was a woman, Dr. Blackwell turned to medicine.
Dr. Blackwell received her MD in 1849 from the Geneva Medical College. It was the only medical school that accepted her, and only after the male student body had voted on her admission, quite possibly regarding it as a joke. If even one male student had objected, she wouldn't have been admitted. They voted in her favor, and her medical career began. During her studies she faced routine discrimination from a system that had no idea what to do with her at best, and was hostile at worst. But she stood her ground and graduated first in her class.
The challenges continued after graduation. Only a few months after becoming a doctor, Dr. Blackwell caught a bacterial eye infection from an infant patient. She lost sight in the infected eye, and with it, lost any chance of becoming a surgeon. Promised letters of recommendation by the Dean at Geneva were not forthcoming. Hospitals didn't want to hire her and patients didn't want to be treated by a woman. In 1850, she went to London to study with Sir James Paget at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, befriending activists and meeting luminaries of the medical reform movement.
Practicing Medicine
Dr. Blackwell returned to the United States in 1851 and opened a clinic for poor women and children. She championed preventative medicine and good hygiene practices. In 1857, she opened the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children with her sister Emily, who had also become a doctor, along with another female colleague. The Infirmary was staffed by women, with a mission to employ female physicians. During the Civil War, they trained nurses.
In 1868, Dr. Blackwell founded a medical college in New York City of which she left Emily in charge upon her return to England. There, she became a professor of gynecology at the London School of Medicine for Women, participated in founding the National Health Society, and published several books, including an autobiography about her life and career as a pioneer for women in medicine.
Dr. Blackwell remained an advocate for women in medicine throughout her life, which ended after a stroke in 1910.
Legacy
Dr. Blackwell's contributions have been recognized in biographies, a PBS documentary, museum exhibits, artworks, and even a children's book. Her letters, writings, and papers have been archived, and the Elizabeth Blackwell Women's Health Center is named for her.
First, But Not Last
2021 marks the 200th anniversary of Elizabeth Blackwell's birth. While there are still challenges to face, it is a different world for women in medicine. In 2020, more than half of the applicants to medical school in the United States were female. Blackwell once remarked, "A hundred years hence, women will not be what they are now." Thanks in no small part to her own efforts, she was certainly right.