The First Woman Doctor in America — Elizabeth Blackwell

... The year 1845.

It was a strange and astonishing surprise for the dean of the medical school when there entered his office a young woman in the third decade of her life, asking him to enroll her in the school of medicine.

.. The school did not yet know the face of a woman... And this was the first girl to think such a thought and break with the traditions.. Doubtless she was a girl afflicted in her mind... And with a smile full of pity and mockery, the dean refused her request..

The girl went out and made her way to another college, seeking admission there, but that dean too turned her away, saying:

"It would be easier for you, my daughter, to lead a revolution than to become a doctor."

But she wanted to become a doctor, at whatever price; she did not despair, but grew all the more defiant and determined to achieve her wish.

Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England in 1821, and she was inclined toward learning. In early childhood she moved with her parents to America.. There she studied history; she was fluent in French and German, and she worked as a teacher — but her mind was on other work.

One day a poor neighbor of hers fell ill, and she volunteered to attend her in her free hours, and felt a pleasure in nursing. When her neighbor recovered, she came to her and said: "I owe my recovery to the touch of your hand and your merciful glances. Why should you not be a doctor?"

True — why should she not be a doctor? The thought took hold of her, and it stayed with her night and day.

Elizabeth spoke of her wish to the family doctor, but the doctor answered her.. "The study of medicine is fit for none but men...."

That answer did not convince her.

Why should none but men be fit to study medicine? And although she returned to teaching, she went on reading in the books of medicine, telling herself that a day would come when she would study medicine. That day was bound to come.. She began making the rounds of the medical colleges of America, and they refused her one after another, until one small college accepted her...

How harsh her life was in those first days... The people of the whole suburb condemned such conduct coming from a girl... The keepers of the pensions shut their doors in the face of this mannish girl. The boys in the streets would run after her, jeering. Even the professors, in the course of their lectures, paid her no attention. And the students laughed at her and winked at one another..

After some months she learned that her acceptance at the college had been a mere accident, and no conviction on the part of the deanship: the members of the college council had decided to poll the male students on her presence, certain that the students would never agree to it unanimously. But the students agreed unanimously to accept her — so as to make her a subject of laughter and mockery.. And so it was.

It happened that the professor of surgery announced that he would perform a delicate operation before the students, and signified to her that she was not to come to the operating theater. But she answered with resolve: "I have paid the college fees as any student pays them.. and I have the right to witness everything that takes place in the college before the students." The professor consulted the students on the matter, and they agreed that she should attend the operation with them, laughing at the agitation and panic that must surely overcome her. But she was steadier of heart than all of them..

During one of the school holidays she asked to join a hospital for the poor, but the director of the hospital refused, saying:
"You may forget that you are a woman, but we cannot forget it."

After much insistence he accepted her against his will. The hospital's doctors did not welcome her presence among them, and would leave their places when they saw her approaching. The patients themselves refused to let her attend them.

One of them once said to her:

"I am poor indeed, but I will never accept that a woman should care for me in my illness."

At last Elizabeth won through with distinction — yet medical circles did not meet her distinction with the appreciation it deserved. One medical journal commented on the news of her success:

"It is a cause for regret to see an aberrant girl stray beyond the bounds of her natural sphere, and seek to descend into fields fit only for men."

She became a physician, bearing the title of Doctor; and for all that, the medical institutes of Paris went on refusing her application for specialized study. It was rumored among the people that she was mad. And her despair was great when she failed in her first medical attempt: she had been called to give an injection to a sick child, when her foot slipped and she fell to the floor; the medicine flew out of the syringe, and some of it entered her eye; her eye was ruined, and no treatment availed her.. She went about seeking a clinic, but the owners of the houses refused her request; and when she managed to find a clinic, the landlord made it a condition that she hang out no sign bearing her name.

Not a single patient came to her.. So she took to writing the story of her life and publishing it in the magazines, and women began calling on her in secret...

She had a sister who followed in her footsteps in the study of medicine and joined her in her clinic; and it occurred to her that the two of them should found a hospital whose entire staff would be of the fair sex...

In 1866 Elizabeth and her sister founded a college of medicine for women; and after her, the men of education began opening medical colleges for women on the pattern of Elizabeth's college.

In 1910 America's first woman doctor died, having paved the way for the eight thousand young women who work today as doctors in America.

(From "Coronet" magazine)