It's Time You Learned About Elizabeth Blackwell–Pioneer For Preventative Medicine
Illustrations by Mary Buzby.
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic health professionals around the world have been preaching about preventive care and personal hygiene with the catch-all phrase, “wash your hands.” The act of washing one's hands to stop the spread of germs seems like such a natural instinct, but it didn’t exist as a way to stay healthy until the 19th century when the first woman entered the medical field. Elizabeth Blackwell has made many great contributions towards medicine as an advocate for women’s education, but she had no easy journey on her way to ultimately being honored as the first woman to earn a medical degree.
Blackwell was inspired to pursue medicine when her friend who was suffering from a terminal illness expressed that she was uncomfortable with her male physicians, and thought she might have suffered less had she had a female physician. With much determination, she applied and was rejected by many schools, finally to be accepted by Geneva Medical College who thought her application was a practical joke.
Blackwell exprienced discrimination from her professors, and in her reproductive anatomy class her professor, James Webster, asked her to leave the room claiming that the topics were too “unrefined” for a woman—but she was determined to learn all the same subject matters as her male peers, as she was going to be a doctor just like them, and convinced Webster to let her stay. Throughout the course of her education, Blackwell rightfully earned the respect of her professors and classmates, graduating first in her class in 1849 and receiving a bow from the dean of students.
Illustrations by Mary Buzby.
She continued her training, and started to notice that the male physicians around her often caused epidemics by failing to wash their hands between visits with different patients—so she developed a strong emphasis on preventative care and personal hygiene. While her peers were trying to find cures for the diseases that presented themselves in the hospital, she was trying to teach people that they could prevent themselves, and others, from even needing these cures from the start.
But the contribution of preventative care was just the beginning for Blackwell as she went on to have many great accomplishments. In 1857 she expanded her dispensary to become the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, and in 1874, she helped establish the London School of Medicine for Women where she became a professor of gynecology. She also helped found the National Health Society and published many books, including her 1895 autobiography, Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women.
Blackwell passed away in 1910 from a paralytic stroke, leaving behind an incredible legacy that is still relevant today, and is celebrated with the Elizabeth Blackwell Medal, a tremendous honor annually awarded to a woman who has made significant contribution to the promotion of women in medicine.
Sources for the article:
https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_35.html
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/elizabeth-blackwell
https://www.biography.com/scientist/elizabeth-blackwell
https://healthmatters.nyp.org/happened-dr-elizabeth-blackwell/
https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/health-nutrition/blackwell-elizabeth-1821-1910/