-
Elizabeth
Blackwell,
1821-1910:
The
First Western
Woman
in Modern
Times
to Become a Doctor
STEVE
EMBER:
Every
week
we
tell
about
someone
important
in
the
history
of
the
United
States. Today,
Shirley
Griffith
and
Ray
Freeman
tell
about
the
first
western
woman
in
modern times to become a doctor. Now, the story of
Elizabeth Blackwell on
the
VOA
Special English program
PEOPLE IN AMERICA.
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Elizabeth Blackwell
was born in Bristol, England in eighteen
twenty-one. Her parents, Hannah and
Samuel Blackwell, believed strongly that all
human beings are equal. Elizabeth's
father owned a successful sugar company. He
worked hard at his job. He also worked
to support reforms in England. He opposed
the slave trade. He tried to help
improve low pay and poor living conditions of
workers. And he wanted women to have
the same chance for education as men.
He
carried
this
out
in
his
own
home.
Elizabeth
had
three
brothers
and
four
sisters.
All
followed
the
same
plan
of
education.
They
all
studied
history,
mathematics,
Latin
and Greek. These
subjects were normally taught only to boys.
Friends asked Samuel
Blackwell what he
expected the girls to do with all that education.
He answered:
RAY
FREEMAN:
In
eighteen
thirty-two,
Samuel
Blackwell's
sugar
factory
was
destroyed
by
fire.
He
and
his
wife
decided
to
move
the
family
to
the
United
States.
Elizabeth
was eleven years
old.
The
Blackwells
settled
in
New
York
City.
But
Mister
Blackwell's
business
there
failed.
The family moved
west, to the city of Cincinnati, on the Ohio
River.
Samuel
Blackwell
was
sick
for
much
of
the
trip.
He
died
soon
after
arriving
in
Ohio.
To help support the family, Elizabeth
and her two older sisters started a school
for girls in their home. Two younger
brothers found jobs.
In
the
next
few
years,
Elizabeth's
brothers
became
successful
in
business.
The
girls
continued operating
their school. But Elizabeth was not happy. She did
not like
teaching.
Elizabeth
began to visit a family friend who was suffering
from cancer. The woman
knew she was
dying. She said women should be permitted to
become doctors because
they
are
good
at
helping
sick
people.
The
dying
friend
said
that
perhaps
her
sickness
would have been
better understood if she had been treated by a
woman. And she
suggested that Elizabeth
study
medicine.
Elizabeth Blackwell started America's
first training school for nurses.
SHIRLEY
GRIFFITH:
Elizabeth
knew
that
no
woman
had
ever
been
permitted
to
study
in
a
medical school. But she began to think about the
idea seriously after the woman
who had
suggested it died.
Elizabeth discussed
it with the family doctor. He was opposed. But her
family
supported
the
idea.
So
Elizabeth
took
a
teaching
job
in
the
southern
state
of
North
Carolina to earn money for medical
school.
Another
teacher
there
agreed
to
help
her
study
the
sciences
she
would
need.
The
next
year, she studied
medicine privately with a doctor. He was also a
medical school
professor. He told
Elizabeth that the best medical schools were in
Philadelphia.
RAY
FREEMAN:
No
medical
school
in
Philadelphia
would
accept
her.
College
officials
told
her
she
must
go
to
Paris
and
pretend
to
be
a
man
if
she
wanted
to
become
a
doctor.
Elizabeth
refused.
She
wrote
to
other
medical
colleges
--
Harvard,
Yale,
and
other,
less
well-known
ones.
All
rejected
her,
except
Geneva
Medical
College
in
the
state
of New York.
She went there
immediately, but did not feel welcome. It was not
until much later
that
she
learned
the
reason:
her
acceptance
was
a
joke.
The
teachers
at
the
college
decided not to admit
a woman. But they did not want to insult the
doctor who had
written to support
Elizabeth's desire to
study
medicine. So they let the medical
students decide.
The male
students thought it funny that a woman wanted to
attend medical school.
So, as a joke,
they voted to accept her. They regretted their
decision by the time
Elizabeth
arrived,
but
there
was
nothing
they
could
do.
She
was
there.
She
paid
her
money. She wanted to
study
.
SHIRLEY
GRIFFITH:
Elizabeth
Blackwell
faced
many
problems
in
medical
school.
Some
professors
refused
to
teach
her.
Some
students
threatened
her.
But
finally
they
accepted
her.
Elizabeth
graduated with high honors from Geneva
Medical School in eighteen forty-nine. She
was the
only
woman in the western world to have
completed medical school training.
Three
months
later,
Doctor
Elizabeth
Blackwell
went
to
Paris
to
learn
to
be
a
surgeon.
She wanted to work in a hospital there
to learn how to operate on patients. But no
hospital wanted her. No one would
recognize that she was a doctor.
A
hospital for women and babies agreed to let her
study
there. But she had to
do
the
tasks
of
a
nursing
student.
At
the
hospital,
Doctor
Blackwell
accidentally
got
a chemical liquid in her
eye. It became infected. She became blind in that
eye. So
she was forced to give up her
dreams of becoming a surgeon.
Instead,
she went to London to
study
at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital. There, she
met the famous nurse Florence
Nightingale.
Elizabeth
returned
to
the
United
States
in
eighteen
fifty-one.
She
opened
a
medical
office
in
New
York
City.
But
no
patients
came.
So
doctor
Blackwell
opened
an
office
in
a
poor
part
of
the
city
to
help
people
who
lived
under
difficult
conditions.
And
she decided to raise a
young girl who had lost her parents.
Elizabeth Blackwell and her daughter
Katharine
RAY FREEMAN:
Elizabeth Blackwell had many dreams. One was to
start a hospital for
women and
children. Another was to build a medical school to
train women doctors.
She was helped in
these efforts by her younger sister Emily. Emily
also had become
a doctor, after a long
struggle to be accepted in a medical school.
With the help of many people, the
Blackwell sisters raised the money to open a
hospital
in
a
re-built
house.
The
work
of
the
two
women
doctors
was
accepted
slowly
in New York. They treated only three
hundred people in their hospital in its first
year. Ten times as many people were
treated the second year.
SHIRLEY
GRIFFITH:
Elizabeth
Blackwell's
work
with
the
poor
led
her
to
believe
that
doctors
could
help
people more effectively
by preventing sickness. She started a program in
which
doctors visited patients in their
homes. The doctors taught patients how to clean
the houses and how to prepare food so
sickness could be prevented.
News
of
Elizabeth's
theories
spread.
Soon,
she
was
asked
to
start
a
hospital
in
London.
She
spoke
to
groups
in
London
about
disease
prevention.
And
she
worked
with
her
friend
Florence Nightingale.