Timeline: Elizabeth Blackwell, 1821–1910

"Medicine is so broad a field … dealing as it does with all ages, sexes and classes … [that] the cooperation of men and women is needed to fulfill all its requirements."

–Elizabeth Blackwell

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Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to obtain a medical degree in the United States, and enabled many more women to follow in her footsteps.

Blackwell was born in England in 1821, and immigrated to the United States in 1832. Blackwell became interested in medicine, wanting to meet the needs of female patients who would prefer to consult with a woman. Blackwell began applying to medical schools after studying privately with several physicians, and was always rejected on the basis of gender. However, when the Geneva Medical College in Geneva, New York, received Blackwell's application, they asked the students to vote on the issue. The students endorsed Blackwell's application – but only because they believed it was a joke! During her training, Blackwell endured taunts and discrimination from both faculty and fellow students, but in 1849, she graduated at the top of her class and became the first woman MD.

Blackwell went to Europe to further her studies, and enrolled in a midwives' course at La Maternité in Paris. While there, she suffered an infection which blinded her in one eye, and forced her to abandon her goal of becoming a surgeon. Blackwell then worked at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London, and befriended Florence Nightingale.

In 1851, Blackwell returned to New York. However, she found it extremely difficult to establish a practice, since hospitals and dispensaries refused to work with her, and landlords refused to lease her space for a private practice. Blackwell overcame these problems by buying a house and seeing women and children in her own home. In 1853, she opened a dispensary in the slums of New York City. Two other women doctors soon joined her: her sister Emily Blackwell and Marie Zakrzewska. In 1857, the dispensary was incorporated as the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children.

In 1858, Blackwell embarked on a year-long lecture tour in Great Britain. In January 1859, Blackwell became the first female physician listed on the British Medical Register.

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the Blackwell sisters played an important role in advancing medical care within the army. On April 29, 1861, Blackwell organized a meeting of 3,000 women to form the Women's Central Association for Relief (WCAR), which coordinated the activities of women who wanted to contribute to the war effort.

In 1868, Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell opened the Women's Medical College, the first American medical institution for women doctors. Blackwell returned to England in 1869, and in 1871, she helped to found the National Health Society, a group that promoted public health education and hygiene.

The London School of Medicine opened in 1874, and was the British counterpart to the Women's Medical College. The Blackwell sisters were two of the school's founders, along with Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Sophia Jex-Blake, and Thomas Henry Huxley. Today the school is part of the Royal Free & University College Medical School in London.

By the time she passed away in 1910, the number of women doctors in the United States had increased from one to 7,000.

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