Did you know that women accounted for 38% of all active physicians in the United States in 2022? While there’s still much work to be done in building gender equality among doctors in America, more women are taking on this crucial and selfless profession—in fact, only 26% of all active physicians in the U.S. were women in 2004. Elizabeth Blackwell, our company’s namesake, blazed a trail forward as the first woman in America to earn a medical degree. This Women’s History Month, we’re answering the question “Who was Elizabeth Blackwell?”, examining her accomplishments and legacy in depth.
Who was Elizabeth Blackwell?
Elizabeth Blackwell was an English-American physician who is best known for becoming the first woman to earn a medical degree in America, according to the National Women’s History Museum. Blackwell was a vocal proponent of women participation in the medical field, and even opened her own medical college for women in New York during the 1850s.
Blackwell was born in England on February 3, 1821, and her family moved to the United States in 1832. When Blackwell’s father passed away, leaving the family penniless, Blackwell and her sisters became teachers in the South.
While working as a teacher, Blackwell was taken under the tutelage of some physicians, and she studied medicine privately until around 1847 when she began to seek admission to a medical school.
What did Elizabeth Blackwell do?
In 1847, Elizabeth Blackwell was accepted into Geneva College in New York to study medicine—although by all accounts, her admission was something of a cruel joke. As the story goes, faculty at the school gave the students final say in whether to admit Blackwell, and they decided to accept her to prank their teachers.
Nobody thought that Elizabeth Blackwell would start, let alone finish, her medical studies, and she was discriminated against throughout her time at medical school. Nevertheless, Elizabeth Blackwell graduated at the top of her class in 1849, becoming the first woman in America to receive a medical degree.
After graduation, Elizabeth Blackwell traveled to London and Paris to continue her studies, but supervising physicians made her focus on midwifery or nursing. She eventually went back to New York, where she opened a clinic to treat poverty-stricken women with the help of Quaker locals. Soon after that, in 1857, Blackwell opened the New York Infirmary for Women and Children with her sister, Dr. Emily Blackwell.
Elizabeth Blackwell opened a medical college in New York City in 1868, but after a year, she placed her sister in charge of the school and she returned to England. There, she became a professor of gynecology, helped found the National Health Society, and published many books.
When did Elizabeth Blackwell die?
Elizabeth Blackwell passed away on May 31, 1910 and was buried in Scotland, according to Upstate Medical University’s Health Sciences Library.