Elizabeth Blackwell Essay

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Have you ever been inspired to change the world? Well, one special woman was inspired to do what no other women had done before, and that was to be the first women to receive an M.D degree from an American medical school. Her name was Elizabeth Blackwell.
Elizabeth was born in Bristol, England in 1821 to Hannah and Samuel Blackwell. Her family moved to America when she was 11 years old, both for financial reasons and because her father wanted to abolish slavery. Sadly, soon after, her father passed away in 1838. However, this made her stronger as a woman. As an adult she campaigned for women’s rights and supported the anti-slavery movement. Afterward, she wrote a book called, Pioneer Work In Opening The Medical Profession To Women, She stated …show more content…

Elizabeth had no idea how to become a physician, so she consulted with several physicians known by her family. She was told it was impossible. That it was too expensive. No such education was available to women. Strangely though, she was attracted by the challenge. So, she created a plan. Blackwell asked two of her physician friends if she could study with them for a year and applied to all of the medical schools in New York and Philadelphia. She also applied to twelve more schools in the northeast state. Elizabeth was accepted by Geneva Medical College in western New York State in 1847. The facility (assuming all males would never accept a woman into their ranks) allowed them to vote on her admission. As a joke, they voted “yes”. Meaning she gained admittance.
Two years later she was the first women to receive the M.D degree from an American Medical School. In 1853, with the help of friends, she opened her own dispensary in a single rented room, and over time she moved to a larger building on Bleecker Street in 1857. She had worked in clinics for two years in London and Paris. And even though she had to give up her dream of becoming a surgeon she lived her life how she wanted it.
I chose Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell because you can learn many things from her story and she was a grand visionary

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