January 23: First Woman Doctor

2016-01-23On 23 January 1849, at the age of 27, a young woman by the name of Elizabeth Blackwell achieved something that at the time many woman were told they would never be able to do. She received an M.D. degree. At the time woman were thought to be morally unfit to practice medicine. They were considered ignorant, inexact, untrustworthy, un-business like, lacking sense and mental perception, and contemptuous of logic.

Blackwell had never thought about becoming a physician until she went to care for a sick friend. Her friend explained how difficult it was to have exams and treatments performed by a male doctor.

Blackwell spent a year reading medicine with some physicians that were known by her family. Then she applied to medical school in Philadelphia and New York and was rejected. Refusing to give up, she applied to a dozen schools in northeast New York and was accepted to Geneva Medical College in 1857. The faculty thought the all-male student body would never approve so they had the student body vote. The male students thought it was a joke so they voted “yes.” She was granted acceptance.

Blackwell was not well received, but she didn’t let it stop her and she became one of the best students they had ever had. She graduated at the top of her class in January of 1849.
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Elizabeth Blackwell went on and paved the way for woman for years to come. She went to Europe to study with midwives. When she returned to New York, Blackwell was turned away and not allowed to practice in New York hospitals and offices. She began to see women and children out of her home. In 1853, she opened a practice in the slums of New York and was joined by her younger sister, Emily Blackwell, who became the third woman to graduate with a medical degree.

Elizabeth and Emily were ridiculed for their work and successes in New York, but on their return to England they were viewed as heroines for all women. They established schools where women would be able to study medicine.

— Carolyn Spendlove

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