Women Who Changed History
Elizabeth Blackwell She was the first woman to earn a medical degree, inspiring other women to follow in her footsteps Blackwell was the third of nine children born on February 3, 1821, in Bristol, England. Blackwell and her family came to the United States in 1832 and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her ordeal began when her father died in 1838, leaving his family penniless in the middle of a national financial meltdown. Elizabeth, her mother, and two older sisters all worked in the largely female-dominated field of education. A dying friend urged to seek medicine who said that having a female doctor would have made her pain so much easier. Although a few women received training and became unlicensed physicians, the majority of male physicians received their education as trainees of certified physicians. There were just a handful medical schools in the area, and none of them accepted women. . Blackwell lived with the families of two southern doctors ...
