Elizabeth Blackwell has made a big impact on women’s rights. She was the first woman doctor in America, and helped other women to pursue their dreams of entering the medical field. She was very determined achieve her dreams, but it definitely wasn’t easy to achieve them.
On February 3, 1821, Elizabeth Blackwell was born to Samuel and Hannah Lane Blackwell. She was the third of nine children. Her family was large and prosperous, and they had many political views. One of those views was that both men and women should have the right to an equal education. Elizabeth received an education in Latin, Greek, and mathematics from private tutors. In 1832, Elizabeth, her parents, and eight siblings immigrated to New York City from their home in Bristol, England because her father’s sugarcane factory had been destroyed in a fire. While there, they were very active abolitionists. The Blackwells lived in New York until 1835, when they moved to New Jersey, New Jersey because her father’s business was failing. They then moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1838. Elizabeth’s father died only a few months after the family moved to Cincinnati. After his death, it was imperative that the Blackwell children find work to bring the family out of poverty. Elizabeth and two of her sisters, Anna and Marian, opened a private school. She would go …show more content…
Paris was an important medical center at the time, and Elizabeth hoped to take up studies there. However, Paris would not allow her to study as a doctor. She then had no other choice but to become a student midwife at a maternity hospital, La Maternité. While she was there, she contracted an eye infection, purulent ophthalmia, from a baby she was caring for. The disease resulted in her loss of sight in one eye. She traveled to London after she recovered from the infection, and she was able to continue studying there. However, she could no longer become a surgeon because of her