Avenger of the Week | Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell paved the way for women doctors when she became the first woman to graduate from medical school in the United States. Despite rampant discrimination in school and criticism for her violation of gender norms, Blackwell graduated first in her class from Geneva College in rural New York in 1849. Her inspiration? A dying friend who felt that she would have suffered less if her doctor had been a woman.

Realizing that discrimination would follow her into practice, Blackwell and her sister, who was also a doctor, founded a clinic staffed entirely by women doctors and nurses in New York City to treat poor women. The New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children has endured since 1857 and is now known as the NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital. They also eventually added a four-year medical college for women that became part of Weill-Cornell Medicine.

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell changed both the face of the medical profession and helped usher in better medical care for women in the United States.

This week, we remember the first woman to graduate from medical school in the US and pave the way for women doctors, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. #AvengerOfTheWeek #GenderAvenger https://www.genderavenger.com/blog/avenger-of-the-week-dr-elizabeth-blackwell