The famous Elizabeth Blackwell was born to Samuel and Hannah Blackwell in Bristol, England on February 3, 1821, and since her father denied the authority of all of the established churches, Blackwell was deprived of access to public education altogether. This is why Samuel had to arrange private tutors for Elizabeth’s schooling, and that is when he also instructed the private tutor to teach the girls the same subjects as were taught to the boys of the family. When Elizabeth was 12, Samuel moved his family to New York and through that time in New York, Blackwell saw her father join the movement against slavery.
After Samuel Blackwell had passed away during the family’s time of financial crisis; Elizabeth, her mother and a few of the sisters started working as teachers to earn money for the family to live on. In the year 1842, Blackwell had to find residence in Kentucky in pursuance of a teaching position, and this was the time when she realized that there were very few positions for women of that time save for teaching. Following the same realization, Elizabeth settled on the decision to become a credentialed doctor, despite the fact that there was no history of women following the career path that she had set for herself.
In her own memoirs, Elizabeth mentioned that at its inception, the idea of becoming a licensed medical practitioner had not touched her heart very much, and she also admitted to hating anything which was in any way linked to the human body. Her own areas of interest were history and metaphysics. The ideas finally became an inspiration for her after the passing of a close friend who had admitted to her not long before her death that her physical suffering could have been spared to a great deal had her physician been a woman.
She was initially at a loss as to how a person was to set onto the path of becoming a medical professional. In her time of confusion, she consulted with a number of physicians who were acquaintances, and many of them said that becoming a doctor was difficult because not only was her field of choice every expensive to study, rather that it was also a position which was not widely available to women.
In the year 1845, Blackwell moved to Asheville where she taught school and also pursued the study of medicine at the time that she could spare with the help of a physician named John Dickson. The following year, she made and pursued the decision to move to a girl’s school in Charleston where she devoted more of her time to the study of medicine this time, under the mentorship of Mr. Dickson’s brother. She attempted to enroll in many of the medical schools in Philadelphia and was rejected by all of which, she wrote to many of the smaller colleges and finally found herself an acceptance from Geneva, New York.
She was the only woman student at her college and was initially also barred from attending classes for the same reason. Later, her quiet personality and the spirit of hard work won the hearts of her classmates and her teachers. The event of her graduation in 1849 was made very public in the newspapers and soon after, she became associated with the La Maternite Hospital for further education and practical experience in her area of education.
After the completion of her educational goals, Blackwell established her own practice in the New York City but her challenge came in the form of very few patients and even fewer physicians that she could seek advice from. She also applied for a woman’s position at a widely known dispensary in the city but was turned down yet again. She started her own dispensary from a single room in 1853 which was then moved to a small house the year following. Her dispensary later grew into an infirmary for women and children with the help of two other doctors and this infirmary not only provided training to women who wished to pursue the medical profession rather it also provided medical services to the poor who could not afford it. In between the years 1875 and 1907, Blackwell also taught as the professor of gynecology at the London School of Medicine for Women.
The first and foremost accomplishment which Blackwell is specifically known for is her achievement in becoming the first woman who was able to complete a medicine degree. That, however, is hardly the half of all of the accomplishment which she partook in. She was also an active advocate for making the people aware of the facilities of proper nutrition and sanitation for the people.The fact that she was the first woman gynecologist also helped a number of women which was initially not a luxury available to the people like her friend who died to wish for a woman gynecologist to help her through a time of sickness.
Not only did Blackwell establish precedence for the women to pursue the career of medicine, but she also started clinics and support groups which supported the women who had been bold enough to make the same tough choice that she herself had made. She actively took part in every effort which could make sure that the problems of rejection that she had faced for being a woman did not become problems for other women who took the same career path. Her clinic was also especially helpful to the people who did not have resources to burden the cost of the medical expenses that they had needed at the time. In the end, not only did Blackwell make effective utilization of the skills that she had acquired, but she also made sure that she could further those skills by teaching other women at the London School of Medicine for Women.
Works Cited
Encyclopedia of Wold Biography. Elizabeth Blackwell Biography. n.d. 18 May 2016 <http://www.notablebiographies.com/Be-Br/Blackwell-Elizabeth.html>.
National Women's History Museum. Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910). n.d. 18 May 2016 <https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/elizabeth-blackwell/>.
NLM. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. n.d. 18 May 2016 <https://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_35.html>.
Rosewall. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell’s accomplishments. n.d. 18 May 2016 <https://kirkr3.wordpress.com/dr-elizabeth-blackwells-accomplishments/>.
