The First Woman Doctor Essay, Research Paper

I have recently read the story ?The First Women Doctor.? It is about Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female to earn a medical degree. It took her many years and determination, but finally all of her hard work paid off and she got that degree. I will try to explain to you what the story is about.

The main character in this story is Elizabeth Blackwell. Her family played a great role in her life. She was born in Britain but moved to the United States, then back to Britain. She was twenty-eight when she became an official M.D. Elizabeth faced many troubles in her life, and she almost gave up. But her father taught her to be strong and that if she tried her best, she could receive everything in life that she wanted.

The story starts off in Britain, where the Blackwell family lives. Mr. Blackwell owns a sugar factory, which is doing very well. The family is in the upper class of their town, but they are also one of the nicest. Back when Elizabeth was growing up, it was thought to be useless to educate a female, but Mr. Blackwell felt different. He had all of his seven children very well educated. So as you can see, Elizabeth grew up in a very healthy environment.

Although her life seems perfect, disaster is just around the corner. Riots are starting to burn governmental buildings in her town. Mr. Blackwell doesn?t agree with these people, and he tries to stop them. After a while, the people got mad at him she they burned his factory. Only half of the factory survived, but there wasn?t enough left for it to begin work again. After great thought, they decided to move to America, where they hope to start a new life.

All throughout the world, America was thought to be the best place, even though it wasn?t. And the Blackwell?s soon found that out in New York City. They tried starting up the sugar business again, but it just didn?t bring in enough money for the family to survive. Most of the children were now old enough to get some kind of job, and that is what they did. But there was still another problem in America, because of all of the different people who moved to America, there were all kinds of diseases. Mr. Blackwell soon caught one, and it was fatal. He died and left the family with almost no money. It was time to move again. So as you can see, the Blackwell?s life only became worse once they moved to the US.

Mrs. Blackwell decided that the best place to move to would be Kentucky. They had to travel many miles in a carriage and on riverboats, but after this was all done, the Blackwell?s were settled in a nice house. They soon became friends with the people in their town, especially an old lady named Mildred. Elizabeth took a liking to her, and they soon became good friends. Elizabeth learned many things, and they would become very useful later on in her life. The two eldest boys of the family are now old enough to get real jobs. They decide to make a business where they travel to farms to sell farming equipment. So they pack up, & leave home to go out and make money for their family. So as you can see, the Blackwell?s are starting to get their lives back together.

After about a month, the first check comes in the mail from Elizabeth?s brothers. They now have enough money to get some of the things that they desperately needed. Elizabeth has grown into a young woman, and is trying to decide what to do with her life. But before she can, Mildred gets very sick. One day, Elizabeth goes to visit Mildred, and sees the thing that inspires her to become a doctor. It was a woman tending to Mildred. The real doctor had just left, but Elizabeth saw that the woman was doing much more to help Mildred than the doctor had done. Elizabeth wondered why all of the doctors in the world were men, when women are the ones who really sit by the sick and the elderly and try to help them. That is when Elizabeth sets off to earn her medical degree.

Over the next few years, Elizabeth goes to many different schools and learns many things that have to do with medicine. Some of these things include science, math, and other medical information. Elizabeth went to many schools, most of which rejected her because of her sex. But Elizabeth traveled and talked to people, and she was able to find people who would expect her and teach her what she needed to know. Finally, she was excepted to Geneva Medical School (now Hobart & William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York) and she earned her degree in 1849.

Blackwell completed her medical education in Europe, but faced additional difficulties in setting up her practice when she returned to New York. Barred from city hospitals, she founded her own infirmary. Eventually she founded a Women’s Medical College to train other women physicians. Blackwell’s educational standards were higher then the all-male medical schools. Her courses emphasized the importance of proper sanitation and hygiene to prevent diseases. She later returned to Britain and spent the rest of her life there, working to expand medical opportunities for women as she had in America.

So as you can see, Elizabeth Blackwell went through many hardships, but she succeeded. I hope that you now know what the book ?The First Woman Doctor? is about. And I think that it goes to show that if a child is brought up in a family where they say that anything can be done, we will have more people in our world that will make a difference.