Elizabeth Blackwell Research Paper
Elizabeth Blackwell, the girl who opened the pathway to the medical field for women. Elizabeth was born on February 3, 1821 in Bristol, England. You most likely don’t know about the first woman to become a doctor, as for many people don’t recognize the name Elizabeth Blackwell. I found out about this amazing woman and her journey through life and I thought I should share it so here is the early life and late life of Elizabeth Blackwell as well as how she became famous in 1847. Elizabeth grew up in England before she was in America. Her parents gave her the same education any boy would have, and just like her siblings, she was privately tutored and was denied public schooling. When Elizabeth was around the age twelve her father was unable to pay for his taxes because of that, they moved to New York where her father owned a sugar refinery business. Soon her father’s business crashed again so her family moved to
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Cincinnati, where her father died, leaving them with no financial resources. Her older sisters started teaching to get financial resources. In 1839 she moved to Kentucky and taught a school there. She saved the money she earned for medical school. A few years later in 1845, Elizabeth couldn’t get into a medical school because they wouldn’t accept a woman. So, she went North Carolina and went to study medicine at Dr. John Dickson’s house. Elizabeth still continued to apply from medical colleges and managed to get into one two years later. She attended Geneva College in New York, and in reality, it was really an accident. She was voted in because they all thought it was a joke but Elizabeth came, serious about her studies in medicine. She was treated rudely by everyone because society then thought that medicine was ‘a man’s job’, but of course, Elizabeth proved everyone that a woman can study medicine. Elizabeth graduated at the top of her class on January 11, 1849 and was the first woman to earn a medical degree in the US. Elizabeth was banned from practicing at most hospitals, so she went to France and trained at La MaternitÃ. As she was soon doing midwife practices she got an eye disease from a child while helping give birth. Elizabeth had to have her eye replaced with a glass eye and she then gave up on trying to become a surgeon.
Elizabeth went back to New York, but was still banned from being in the medical profession so she made her own infirmary for poor women and children with the help of her sister, Emily Blackwell, and Dr.
Marie Zakrzewska. The three of them named their infirmary ‘The New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children’. There at the infirmary Elizabeth taught other women medicine and as the Civil War started, Abraham Lincoln ask Elizabeth and her team of women doctors to help the injured soldiers. While she was there, she learned how hygiene was important to prevent diseases. The war ended later on and due to Elizabeth’s now good reputation, she went to England and started an official collage for women in 1869 with the help of Florence Nightingale. According to the UK Medical Register, she was the first woman physician and doctor. Six years later she was a professor at the London School of Medicine for Women, teaching gynecology there for 32 years. Three years after she stopped teaching, Elizabeth unfortunately died at her house from an unknown cause at age
82. Elizabeth was very famous in the year 1849, when she graduated and when she made an infirmary and collage. At this time no woman had ever dreamed of trying to get into a medical college or anything Elizabeth did and it was widely unaccepted by society, but because of how Elizabeth was raised, she thought everyone should be treated equally and because of her, women are now doctors, nurses, whatever they want to be. Elizabeth opened a huge path for us and us women should all know her, remember her, and thank her for everything she has done because without her making an infirmary, helping in the war, making a collage, there would be no woman doctors, at least I don’t think so.
Cincinnati, where her father died, leaving them with no financial resources. Her older sisters started teaching to get financial resources. In 1839 she moved to Kentucky and taught a school there. She saved the money she earned for medical school. A few years later in 1845, Elizabeth couldn’t get into a medical school because they wouldn’t accept a woman. So, she went North Carolina and went to study medicine at Dr. John Dickson’s house. Elizabeth still continued to apply from medical colleges and managed to get into one two years later. She attended Geneva College in New York, and in reality, it was really an accident. She was voted in because they all thought it was a joke but Elizabeth came, serious about her studies in medicine. She was treated rudely by everyone because society then thought that medicine was ‘a man’s job’, but of course, Elizabeth proved everyone that a woman can study medicine. Elizabeth graduated at the top of her class on January 11, 1849 and was the first woman to earn a medical degree in the US. Elizabeth was banned from practicing at most hospitals, so she went to France and trained at La MaternitÃ. As she was soon doing midwife practices she got an eye disease from a child while helping give birth. Elizabeth had to have her eye replaced with a glass eye and she then gave up on trying to become a surgeon.
Elizabeth went back to New York, but was still banned from being in the medical profession so she made her own infirmary for poor women and children with the help of her sister, Emily Blackwell, and Dr.
Marie Zakrzewska. The three of them named their infirmary ‘The New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children’. There at the infirmary Elizabeth taught other women medicine and as the Civil War started, Abraham Lincoln ask Elizabeth and her team of women doctors to help the injured soldiers. While she was there, she learned how hygiene was important to prevent diseases. The war ended later on and due to Elizabeth’s now good reputation, she went to England and started an official collage for women in 1869 with the help of Florence Nightingale. According to the UK Medical Register, she was the first woman physician and doctor. Six years later she was a professor at the London School of Medicine for Women, teaching gynecology there for 32 years. Three years after she stopped teaching, Elizabeth unfortunately died at her house from an unknown cause at age
82. Elizabeth was very famous in the year 1849, when she graduated and when she made an infirmary and collage. At this time no woman had ever dreamed of trying to get into a medical college or anything Elizabeth did and it was widely unaccepted by society, but because of how Elizabeth was raised, she thought everyone should be treated equally and because of her, women are now doctors, nurses, whatever they want to be. Elizabeth opened a huge path for us and us women should all know her, remember her, and thank her for everything she has done because without her making an infirmary, helping in the war, making a collage, there would be no woman doctors, at least I don’t think so.