Elizabeth Blackwell - part II

June 14, 2010

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In 1844 Elizabeth visited a close friend of hers, who was extremely ill, agonizing because of cancer. She told Elizabeth how humiliating it was for her to be treated by male doctors, and, knowing how much Elizabeth loved studying, suggested her to become a woman physician. Although at first the idea was rejected by Elizabeth's sensibility, apparently this meeting was the one which gave her a "sense of mission" in pursuing a career in medicine.

To take such an important decision, which was against all the dominant habits of society those days, surely she must have considered other reasons. No doubt her family religious and social radicalism may have influenced her, and Elizabeth, herself, said once that she was trying to find a way to avoid getting married.

She wrote discreet letters to six different physician friends who were living in different parts of the country, asking for advice, concerning the possibility of acquiring a &#&medical degree&#&. She received no positive answer, all of them tried to discourage her. Perhaps this was another reason to affirm her decision.

Elizabeth Blackwell began to work as a teacher in Henderson, Kentucky, and then she went to North Carolina, while reading medicine privately. At first under the direction of Dr. John Dickson of Ashville, N. C., in whose family she was residing as governess. She moved the following year to Charleston, South Carolina, where while she earned some money giving music lessons, she continued to study, under Dickson's brother, Dr. Samuel Dickson's guidance (later he was going to teach as a professor in the medical department of the New York University). Elizabeth found the study of medicine deeply interesting and she continued studying under Drs. Allen and Warrington, of Philadelphia.

By 1847, she was ready to begin her formal medical career, but she was rejected, not only by all the leading schools to which she applied, but by all the other schools as well. Sixteen schools denied her admission.

After so many rejections, finally her application arrived at Geneva &#&Medical College&#& at Geneva, New York, (now Hobart and William Smith Colleges). The college's administration, assuming that the all-male student body would never accept the possibility of a woman entering the faculty, allowed them to vote on her admission. As a joke, they voted "yes," and she gained admittance, despite the reluctance of most students and faculty.