Elizabeth Blackwell
Our ancestors and the feminine difference in western medicine.
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell is known as the first woman admitted to an American medical school. In 1847, after applying to many medical schools, she was admitted into a New York college, only to discover that she had been admitted as a joke. She was wanting to make a large difference in the lives of women and their babies. According to historians and Dr. Blackwell’s writings, her quest to be a doctor was a matter of proving equality of the sexes, not a calling. She resisted suggestions to dress as a man to apply. Her inspiration, as she would tell, was the death of a sick friend who longed for a female attending physician. But, she is quoted as saying: “I felt more determined than ever to become a physician, and thus place a strong barrier between me and all ordinary marriage. I must have something to engross my thoughts, some object in life which will fill this vacuum and prevent this sad wearing away of the heart.” (It seems that from the beginning, most of us have emotional baggage walking into medical school.)
I wonder how the women in medicine were treated in the 1800s? What was it like to be the first woman in a formal medical school, entering the domain of white upper-class men? Being admitted as a joke must have been awkward. She certainly had the men feeling awkward, especially when discussing reproduction. She was called Doctrix as a feminized word “doctor”. If a patient died she was accused of killing the patient. Townspeople threw stones at her hospital.
I wonder if Dr. Blackwell was ever called bitch? I wonder how many rude and sexist jokes she suffered. Can you imagine how strong she had to be? I can’t even fathom doing anatomy lab and requisite dissection in the Victorian girdles and corsets. How did women even breath or get oxygen to their brains, one wonders, no less perform at the top of her class.
She is my ancestor; the first woman to become an obstetrician gynecologist, even though the gynecologic ward refused to take her. Her disappointments were many, such as actually losing an eye after contracting infection (probably gonorrhea) treating an infant patient which dashed her hopes of becoming a surgeon. She was barred from being employed or working in a hospital and socially ostracized. Yet, she persisted. My ancestor sister in medicine was one resilient bitch. I am inspired.
Harrison P. Schlesinger newsletter: Elizabeth Blackwell’s struggle to become a doctor. https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/news/schlesinger-newsletter/elizabeth-blackwells-struggle-become-doctor Accessed