How Did Elizabeth Blackwell Impact Society

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,

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.

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