Pioneer Work In Opening The Medical Profession To Women

by Elizabeth Blackwell, Amy Sue Bix

Elizabeth Blackwell(1821 - 1910) was the first woman awarded the MD degree in the United States. This is the story of her dedicated, groundbreaking struggle to practice the medical profession, eloquently told in her own words.Full of insightful reflections on the philosophy of medicine, women's education, the evils of slavery, and the nature of American society in the nineteenth century, this unique autobiography will interest scholars and students of women's studies and the history of science.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Feminism, Medicine, Biography, Science

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Lisa Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman ever educated in an American medical school. This is a story of success by perseverance and personal sacrifice. She has no funding: she goes on. She has no mentors: she goes alone. She has no money for a cab: she walks. She wears out her shoes and avoids places where she can't look shabby. She loses an eye, and gives up her dream of being a surgeon, embracing general medicine instead. She endures insults, humiliation, and profound loneliness. But she believes she is making a future possible for American women doctors, so nothing, nothing stands in her way for long. And I thought medical school was hard! The old farts who harassed us women med students in the 1980's could only dream of tormenting us like 19th century gentlemen tormented her. I would love to be able to thank her, both for making life better for women, and for her beautifully written and amazingly upbeat book about breaking the bonds.

[Dayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

To think that Dr. Blackwell came to the US to start a hospital for down and out women, who had no one to administer to their health needs, and we (US) just barely okayed her work, making her take classes over and over again and still refusing her credentials until her life is half over, one does really feel for her plight.

We should make a shrine to her rather than to those who have killed people.

[Ginger Pedersen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must-read for any woman considering becoming a physician. It was an amazing life treated with such aplomb by the person who lived it. She never took no for an answer. She chronicles her early years in an unusual family as they made their way from England to America. Finding teaching unfulfilling, she decided to study medicine. The harrowing tales of that journey are told in enough detail to make you very thankful we live in the times we do. She can be blunt and acerbic, but she was never one to tell anything but the truth. Told from a first-person perspective, so it reads from her voice. A woman who deserves much more recognition than she ever received.