Heroes you should know: Elizabeth Blackwell

“It is not easy to be a pioneer --- but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world.” -Elizabeth Blackwell

Elizabeth Blackwell (3 February 1821 – 31 May 1910), social and moral reformer, was the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.

Born in England, she immigrated to the United States in 1832 with her parents and siblings. There her family became deeply connected to the Abolitionist movement and her character formation deepened. She would routinely attend anti-slavery conventions and lectures on civil rights.

After her father’s death, Elizabeth and her sisters founded a school for girls. During this time, Elizabeth also began expressing her thoughts on women’s rights and the importance of economic independence. When a friend died a painful death from what was described as a gynecological disorder Blackwell believed could have been better understood and treated by a woman, she began to consider medical school. The fact that abortionists were known as "female physicians" is also said to have influenced her decision, as she found the phrase both degrading and misrepresentative of what an actual female physician could achieve. She was denied acceptance to several medical schools because of her gender, but was finally admitted to Geneva Medical College after the all-male student body voted to allow her to attend.

Once there she continued to face resistance, being treated as a pariah and even needing to face down a professor who attempted to ban her from lectures on reproduction. She graduated in 1849, and for two years worked in England and France. She decided to return to the United States in 1851 where she believed the bias against women doctors was less strong.

Inspired by her struggles against prejudice from fellow physicians, hospital staffs, and patients, Blackwell started an infirmary in New York for indigent women and children, along with a training program for nurses. She also began mentoring other young women attempting to become physicians. During this period she also became close friends with Florence Nightingale (who argued with her about the legitimacy of training women as physicians).

During the Civil War Blackwell helped train nurses for the Union, undeterred by the male physicians who threatened to not help with the program if Blackwell was involved.

After the war, she returned to London where she co-founded the London School of Medicine for Women.

In 1877 she retired from medical practice and spent the rest of her professional life writing and lecturing on a wide variety of issues, including the role of morality in medical education and practice, women’s rights, physical education for girls, the evil of eugenics, natural family planning, and preventative medicine.

Elizabeth Blackwell was a physician of the body, but her moral courage and willingness to fight for equal rights made her a healer of the human soul as well.

She is a hero you should know.



To learn more about this hero, you might consider:

Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D., (1821-1910): a biography, by Nancy Ann Sahli

Elizabeth Blackwell, Encyclopedia Americana.

1,000 years, 1,000 People, by Agnes and Henry Gottlieb and Barbara and Brent Bowers