Women Scientists

Elizabeth Blackwell 1821-1910

At a glance:

first woman to graduate from medical school

Elizabeth Blackwell was born into a religiously and socially radical family. British by birth, she moved to the US when she was 12 where her mother opened a school. She became obsessed with the idea of becoming a woman doctor to meet the needs of women but no medical school would admit her. Finally Geneva Medical College New York agreed but she was kept from medical demonstrations and was an outcast in the town. Nevertheless, she graduated top of her class in 1849, the first woman doctor of medicine. She returned to England, working at St Bartholomew's Hospital London and becoming friends with Florence Nightingale. In 1851, she went back to New York. Hospitals wanted nothing to do with her, so she set up a surgery for women in her own home. During a year long lecture tour of England in 1885, she became the first woman to have her name on the British medical register. Her lectures inspired other women to take up medicine and her later work during the American Civil War, selecting and training nurses, inspired the creation of the US Sanitary Commission. In 1875 she was appointed Professor of Gynaecology at the hospital founded by Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and died in Sussex in 1910.
Elizabeth Blackwell

Vote Now We would like you to vote for your all-time favourite to discover our most celebrated female scientist of all time

Please note that generic images have been used for some of the scientists where the costs of the image rights have been prohibitive.

Comments

Here is what people are saying about Elizabeth Blackwell:

from Kylie (4:32 06/01/2009)
I think that elizabeth Blackwell was very brave to become the first women doctor/ graduate medical school in the United States. But there should be more detalied information about her. :)

1-1 of 1 comments



Add your own comment