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How Did Elizabeth Blackwell Impact Society

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Up until 1849 there were no female doctors in the entire world, but Elizabeth Blackwell was determined to change the ways of the medical field and allow all genders to be able to receive a medical degree. Elizabeth Blackwell’s struggles would leave an everlasting impact on society and would be one of the many sparks to start the women’s rights movement resulting in the perception of women changing, ultimately, leading to women being viewed as equals to men in modern times. As a result of her endless perseverance and leadership of women’s admission into medical schools in the United States and Europe during the mid 1800’s, Elizabeth Blackwell’s legacy allowed women to have more rights in medical careers and produced incredible achievements, …show more content…

This organization contributed to the war effort by providing food, medical supplies and clothes to the soldiers. Elizabeth Blackwell later received an award for her work during the Civil War from President Abraham Lincoln furthering women being recognized for advancing society. After her dream was postponed due to the war efforts, Elizabeth opened the Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary in 1868. This was the first American medical school for women and many colleges followed her example by opening their doors to more women developing women’s beliefs of how they were strong and powerful, ultimately allowing them to go into the workforce. In 1869 she left for England, where Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing, and her opened a Women's Medical College in England because women in Europe were realizing they were able to achieve a medical degree since women in America were allowed to, promoting the exchange of the expansion of women’s career options. Shortly, all of Europe would have female physicians and it would only be a matter of time for other countries to follow already leaving a legacy for Elizabeth Blackwell. Elizabeth Blackwell continued to embrace the academic practice of medicine until she refrained from treating patients in 1894. …show more content…

Blackwell believed that the duty of medical women was not to imitate medical men, but to define ever more what is morally right and wrong in medicine. For her, the entrance of women into medicine made the profession, in general more moral. She left the opportunity for women to help people, their health, and their overall lifestyle displaying how women can change lives due to Blackwell’s leadership. As a result of women entering the medical field, innovative ideas and inventions have been produced that would have never have been possible if Elizabeth did not give females this freedom. Without Elizabeth Blackwell Dr. Marie Curie may never had worked on the invention of radioactivity, Dr. Virginia Apgar who invented the system of evaluating a baby's health, or Dr. Margaret Cleaves who worked on the invention of electrotherapy. Since women were accepted into medicine, they eventually came to the realization that they could become part of society by procuring positions that were male dominated at the time. Elizabeth Blackwell noticed women wanted this liberty, so she assisted them in become a part of the workforce and other occupations that females would have never of thought to undertake. Blackwell opened doors for other women, that subsequently led to the 19th century women’s rights movement due to her sparking a revolution that would

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There is very little written record of their service though a few of the more famous names left accounts. At the beginning of the war, nurses were merely volunteers who showed up at military hospitals. But after Battle of Bull Run, Clara Barton and Dorethea Dix organized a nursing corps to help care for the wounded soldiers. http://www.historynet.com/civil-war-nurses Most of the women valorized for their contributions to the war effort were white. Yet African American women, for whom the outcome was of the greatest importance, found their own way to the battlefields.

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Dr. Blackwell went to study medical meccas in Paris and London in April of the same year. Elizabeth started her post- graduate studies in La Maternite, which is a Parisian maternity hospital. After a few months in this infirmary, Elizabeth was effected with a bacterial infection in the left eye, which was likely gonorrhea from the mother during the birth process. This caused blindness in the eye which prohibited her from becoming a surgeon (Markel, Howard). While Elizabeth was recovering in the hospital, her friend Florence Nightingale was talking about opening up a hospital together with Elizabeth.

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At the start of the Civil War, she reached out to the Surgeon General for the Union Army in hope of obtaining an assistant position for a field surgeon, but she was rejected because of her gender. As a result, Dr. Walker moved to Indiana where she volunteered her medical services at a hospital. She received a second Doctor of Medicine degree in 1862 and volunteered for the Union Army in that same year (Irizarry

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Blackwell pursued her degree, this does not explain how it is she managed to obtain said degree. Ultimately, the fact remains that somewhere along the way Dr. Blackwell made the decision to pursue a medical degree. A shocking fact someone might not know is that at the time though there were no women who had a degree there were some who did practice medicine illegally. Dr. Blackwell however was not aware of these people and in became interested in medicine because of the two of the families she was boarding with while teaching. These two families both had physicians who were mentors to her when she was not teaching.

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Next is Frederick Douglass. Douglass was born into slavery in the early 1800s, only two years before Susan B. Anthony. After escaping slavery in Maryland, he took a brave step in publicly speaking to people about the abolition of slavery, women’s rights, and equality. It was risky, as he could be caught and forced back into slavery. He continued to speak though, and eventually became the Massachusetts and New York abolition leader.

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I. Research: Which famous American woman is best deserving of a monument? Why? Elizabeth Blackwell is best deserving of a monument because she persevered through gender discrimination, was an exemplary student, and influenced many young women to become physicians. Ways Elizabeth Blackwell persevered through gender discrimination: Elizabeth Blackwell applied to every medical college in Philadelphia and New York City. However, all twenty nine schools rejected her.

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In a time where women were thought to be slaves of men, it was very difficult for women to look for ways to become part of our great nation and to be able to have the right to vote. The journey for women to gain rights was long and hard, which Susan B. Anthony was well aware of when she started her campaign for women’s rights in the mid 1800’s. Susan B. Anthony affected society by making it possible for women to be thought of as real people. She stood up for what she believed in regardless of the consequences. She helped give women a chance to play a role in the development of our nation, and the lives of women all around the world to this very day.

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Nursing made a big impact during the Civil War and Clara Barton helped make that impact. Clara Barton was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts, on December twenty-fifth, eighteen twenty-one. Her full name was Clarissa Harlowe Barton but they shortened Clarissa to Clara. She was raised with four older siblings, they were Dorothy(1804), Stephen(1806), David(1808), and Sally(1811).

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The so-called “American Dream” to be more individualistic rather than a collectivistic community like the British Empire didn’t follow through with women’s rights. Martha Ballard’s profession is then reduced by William Smellie as “he explained the importance of reassuring both the patient and her “friends”,” (65). This shows that males couldn’t conceive the idea of respecting women’s work and treating them as professionals. However, this also shows the apparent disconnect between male physicians and their patients.

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It was in the 1890s that Sara Josephine Baker decided to become a doctor. By the time Baker retired from the New York City Health Department in 1923, she was famous across the nation for saving the lives of 90,000 inner-city children. The public health measures she implemented, many still in use today, have saved the lives of millions more worldwide. She was also a charming, funny storyteller, and her remarkable memoir, Fighting for Life, is an honest, unsentimental, and deeply compassionate account of how one American woman helped launch a public health revolution.3 Born in 1873, Baker grew up in a modestly prosperous Poughkeepsie family and studied medicine at the Women’s Medical College in Manhattan.

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As Americans, we pledge to fulfill our duty as citizens to achieve “liberty and justice for all.” When Elizabeth Cady Stanton took this pledge, she proved to be a true patriot, bringing suffrage to American women. When Martin Luther King Jr. took this pledge, he put his own life at risk in order to protect the lives and rights of his fellow Americans. When Rachel Carson took this pledge, she wrote a book dedicated to exposing the dangers of pesticides to both the environment and the American people. When I took this pledge, I considered all the activists who came before me

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The life of Women in the late 1800s. Life for women in the 1800s began to change as they pushed for more rights and equality. Still, men were seen as better than women, this way of thinking pushed women to break out from the limitations imposed on their sex. In the early 1800s women had virtually no rights and ultimately were not seen as people but they rather seen as items of possession, it wasn’t until the late 1800s that women started to gain more rights. The Civil War actually opened opportunities for women to gain more rights, because with many of the men gone to war women were left with the responsibilities that men usually fulfilled during that time period.

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Yet it mentioned that “Several thousand U.S women, of course, did serve as Army and Navy nurses. They had no rank or benefits” (Gavin, 1997). Women obtaining the right to vote would be one of the most prominent characteristics to come out of the 20th Century. Their lives took a turn for the better, they could acquire jobs outside their homes, the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, which happened on January 22nd 1972 (OBOS Abortion Contributors, 2014) and education was much more accessible for

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Transcendentalists were Americans that believed everyone should be treated equally, so they began six major reform movements. There were many Transcendentalist movements, but the six most important reforms were the prison movement, women’s rights, anti-slavery, temperance, insane and education movement. The prison reform movement was started by the Transcendentalists because they felt that the system was wrong unfair and cruel. All prisoners suffered the same consequences regardless of his or her crime.

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The women of this movement were fighting for something they believed they deserve. Because of the Seneca Falls Convention and the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolution, women were able to express their own opinions. The women’s rights movement led to many different events, impacted other countries, and created a new amendment. The feminist efforts in the mid 1800s were successful enough to allow women to take on occupations and educations they weren’t able to obtain

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