Women Medical Pioneers: Elizabeth Blackwell

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, 1821-1910, paved the way for women to practice medicine in the United States.

Blackwell, the first woman to attend medical school and become a physician in the United States, also helped create the New York Infirmary for Women and Children.

Dr. Helen Turner, UMC associate vice chancellor for academic affairs, said she was inspired by Blackwell after reading her biography.

"She had to overcome so many obstacles on her path to becoming a physician and so many obstacles even after graduating first in her class from medical school,” Turner said. “Despite all of this, she refused to give up and persevered to pave the way for all women physicians who came after her.

“Now, across the country and here at UMC, women comprise approximately 50 percent of recent (medical school) classes.” 

Born in England, Blackwell came to New York in 1832. When her father died of bilious fever in 1838, she began to teach to make ends meet. But after a dying friend told her she would make a good physician, Blackwell became interested in medicine.

In 1847, she applied to 28 colleges and was finally accepted by Geneva College in New York because the administration there asked the male students to decide whether or not to admit her. They said yes, believing it was a joke. She graduated first in her class in January 1849.

Blackwell moved to Paris and trained at the midwives course at La Maternite. While there, she suffered a serious eye infection, which left her blind in one eye.

She later returned to England and worked at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. In 1851, Blackwell moved back to New York, where she was refused lodging and office space, so she began to see women and children in her home.

In 1853, Blackwell opened a dispensary in the slums of New York. She later was joined by her sister, Emily, who also graduated with a medical degree. Six years later, the dispensary was incorporated as the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. In 1868, Blackwell helped open the Women’s Medical College at the infirmary.  

During the Civil War, the Blackwell sisters helped organize the Women’s Central Association of Relief, selecting and training nurses for service in the war. This inspired the creation of the United States Sanitary Commission.

Blackwell also helped organize the National Health Society and founded the London School of Medicine for Women. She was appointed professor of gynecology at the London School of Medicine for Children in 1875, when she retired after a serious fall down a stairwell. She died in Sussex in 1910.

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell and many other female physicians will be highlighted when the Rowland Medical Library hosts the traveling exhibition “Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians,” Feb. 28-April 11, 2008, at the Jackson Medical Mall Thad Cochran Center.

(9-24-07)

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