C. V.

Literature 2

This is a picture of Elizabeth Blackwell

Elizabeth Blackwell

             Elisabeth Blackwell was the first women to become a physician to graduate from medical school and a pioneer. She was born in England  on February 3 of 1821. She moved to the United States in 1832 with her father Samuel Blackwell and her family. Her mom and  sisters Anna and Marian  opened a private school.

             Elizabeth wanted to be a physician that attended kids and women. Her family religious and social radicalism took her to her decision in becoming a doctor. At that age she was also looking forward to getting married.

             She was a teacher at Henderson Kentucky and at North and South Carolina.  She secretly and privately read about medicine while teaching.

             In 1847 she started looking for a medical school were they would admit her. She got rejected in many schools 29 times, but when she arrived at Geneva medical college in New York. The school was deciding if they would let her in or not, but the students thought it was a joke. The school did accept her, but when the students and teachers realized she was not joking they all were horrified. When she started going to school she was kept out of the class when they were teaching inappropriate things for women. Most of the students eventually grew amazed of her. She was the first student in her class to graduate. Also making her the first women to become a doctor.

             She worked in Europe for a few years then moved back to the United States. She looked for places were she could  work, but they did not except her. She tried to look for a place to make her own private clinic, but  people did not rent her any place. So she bought a house and had her own private clinic for Kids and women.

             She then preserved her studies and became a citizen of the United States and went back to England. There she went to La Maternity in Paris and suffered an eye infection and became blind from one eye. She had to leave her plan of becoming a sergeant.

             In January 1859 in Great Britain she became the first women to have her name on the British list of doctors. When she went back to the United States during the civil war, she and her sisters organized a Women Central Association of Relief. This association was used to help train women to be nurses in the war.

             After the war she and her sisters opened a Medical College in the infirmary, and Elizabeth took the role of hygiene herself. She then moved to England and opened The London Medical School For Women.

             In 1875 she was called to be a professor of gynecology at the London School of Medicine for Children. She remained there until 1907 when she retired when she fell down the stairs .She died in Sussex in 1910.