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NAME: Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D.
LIFETIME: February 3, 1821 – 31 May 1910
WHAT SHE IS KNOWN FOR: Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to graduate from medical school in the United States and the first woman to appear on the medical register in the United Kingdom.
WHY WE LOVE HER: Blackwell decided early on that she would study health and medicine, so she took odd jobs to help raise the $3,000 she needed to pay for school. That was a hefty amount in those days, but Blackwell did not give up. She raised the money she needed and moved to Philadelphia to apply to some of the top schools in the country. Throughout her life, Blackwell’s hopes were blocked every step of the way. She was told that she was denied because she was a woman, which made her “intellectually inferior.” The school told her that if she proved to be smart, then she would be considered as competition for the men. The admissions office told her that she either needed to go to Paris or disguise herself as a man if she was serious about medical school. She proved them wrong. Blackwell was accepted into medical school, graduated two years later and went to work in the premier hospitals in Europe.
FUN FACT: The Dean of Admissions at Geneva Medical College put Blackwell’s admission to a vote by the all-male student body. If even one person voted against Blackwell, she would be denied entrance. The student body voted unanimously to accept Elizabeth Blackwell as the first female medical student in the country.
