Elizabeth Blackwell was the first women to recieve an M.D. Degreee in an American medical school. She was born in England in 1821. Her father was a strong supporter of woman rights he also supported the anit slavery movement. Her family was not financially stable and ended up moving to America when Elizabeth was only 11 years old and her father died shortly after moving there(Changing the Face of Medicine). Elizabeth was not your normal type of doctor that we have today who have known that they wanted to grow up and become a dcotor even before they graduated high school. Originally she wanted absolutley nothing to do with medicine or the human body, she said she could not even look at books that involved learning about the human body and all of its elements. She absolutley hated the idea of becoming a doctor. So instead she started as a teacher which was a much more women intended career back then.
It was not until one of her close friends was dying and said to her that if her doctor would have been a woman then she would not have been through all of the suffereing that she has been that Elizabeth considered being a doctor. The only problem was that she had not even the slightest clue on how to become a physician. Back then women and going to school to study medicine was an unheard of idea it was just all men who went to medical school and became the physicians, never a women. Despite knowing this fact it did not stop Elizabeth from acepting this challenge and wanting to acheive becoming a physician even more(Changing the Face of Medicine).
To help her gain some knowledge on becomming a physician she went to some of the physicians her family knows to help her out. When she told them that she herself wanted to become a physician they all told her that it was a good idea but it was near impossible for a women because it was just too expensive to go to medical school and medical schooling was not yet available to women(Changing the Face of Medicine). Despite them saying this to her it did not stop her. She convinced two of them to let her read medicine with them for one whole year. During this year she applied to all of the medical sschools in New York and in Philadelphia and she also decided to apply to tweleve more schools in the northeast states(Changing the Face of Medicine).
After waiting for a long time to hear back from all the schools she finally recieved an acceptance letter from Geneva Medical College in western New York. Although the staff members at the school did not know if the all male student body would be open to letting a women attend the school with them. So the school decided to hold a vote and let the male student body vote on the matter. Most of the students thought that she would never get in and most of the faculty felt the same way. To there surprise after the votes had been counted and read almost the entire body voted yes a joke thinking that it would never happen(Changing the Face of Medicine).
Almost two years later Elizabeth Blackwell became the first women to recieve an M.D. degree from an American medical school. After graduating from Geneva medical college Blackwell decided to go back over seas and work in clinics across London and Paris. While she was over seas she though about becomming a midwife. As usual she accept this new challenge and started studying to become a midwife. While she was studying she contracted a disease from one of her young pacients. As the disease got worse Elizabeth slowly lost her vision in one of her eyes. This is when Blackwell though it would be best if she returned home to New York. Getting this disease was sad because she not only lost her vision but she also had to give up her new dream of eventually becomming a surgeon(Changing the Face of Medicine).
When Elizabeth got back to New York City she started her own practice but had very few pacients and no real contact with any other physicians so she could not continue to learn about things in the medical field. She then applied to work at a large women dispensary but she was turned down. She eventually rented a small one room space where she opened her own dispensary with the help of her friends of course. Elizabeth then thought the space was too small to stay in so she moved it to a small house where her sister Emily Blackwell and Marie Zakrzewska. Together they opened a clinic for women and children. It not only helped the poor get medical help but it let other women who were looking at becomming doctors get experience and it helped them learn(Changing the Face of Medicine).
It was not until one of her close friends was dying and said to her that if her doctor would have been a woman then she would not have been through all of the suffereing that she has been that Elizabeth considered being a doctor. The only problem was that she had not even the slightest clue on how to become a physician. Back then women and going to school to study medicine was an unheard of idea it was just all men who went to medical school and became the physicians, never a women. Despite knowing this fact it did not stop Elizabeth from acepting this challenge and wanting to acheive becoming a physician even more(Changing the Face of Medicine).
To help her gain some knowledge on becomming a physician she went to some of the physicians her family knows to help her out. When she told them that she herself wanted to become a physician they all told her that it was a good idea but it was near impossible for a women because it was just too expensive to go to medical school and medical schooling was not yet available to women(Changing the Face of Medicine). Despite them saying this to her it did not stop her. She convinced two of them to let her read medicine with them for one whole year. During this year she applied to all of the medical sschools in New York and in Philadelphia and she also decided to apply to tweleve more schools in the northeast states(Changing the Face of Medicine).
After waiting for a long time to hear back from all the schools she finally recieved an acceptance letter from Geneva Medical College in western New York. Although the staff members at the school did not know if the all male student body would be open to letting a women attend the school with them. So the school decided to hold a vote and let the male student body vote on the matter. Most of the students thought that she would never get in and most of the faculty felt the same way. To there surprise after the votes had been counted and read almost the entire body voted yes a joke thinking that it would never happen(Changing the Face of Medicine).
Almost two years later Elizabeth Blackwell became the first women to recieve an M.D. degree from an American medical school. After graduating from Geneva medical college Blackwell decided to go back over seas and work in clinics across London and Paris. While she was over seas she though about becomming a midwife. As usual she accept this new challenge and started studying to become a midwife. While she was studying she contracted a disease from one of her young pacients. As the disease got worse Elizabeth slowly lost her vision in one of her eyes. This is when Blackwell though it would be best if she returned home to New York. Getting this disease was sad because she not only lost her vision but she also had to give up her new dream of eventually becomming a surgeon(Changing the Face of Medicine).
When Elizabeth got back to New York City she started her own practice but had very few pacients and no real contact with any other physicians so she could not continue to learn about things in the medical field. She then applied to work at a large women dispensary but she was turned down. She eventually rented a small one room space where she opened her own dispensary with the help of her friends of course. Elizabeth then thought the space was too small to stay in so she moved it to a small house where her sister Emily Blackwell and Marie Zakrzewska. Together they opened a clinic for women and children. It not only helped the poor get medical help but it let other women who were looking at becomming doctors get experience and it helped them learn(Changing the Face of Medicine).