Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to WomenBlackwell, Elizabeth
History
Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women
Blackwell, Elizabeth
Blackwell, Elizabeth, 1821-1910; Women physicians -- United States -- Biography
The fear of successful rivalry which at that time often existed in the
medical mind was expressed by the dean of one of the smaller schools,
who frankly replied to the application, ‘You cannot expect us to
furnish you with a stick to break our heads with;’ so revolutionary
seemed the attempt of a woman to leave a subordinate position and seek
to obtain a complete medical education. A similarly mistaken notion
of the rapid practical success which would attend a lady doctor was
shown later by one of the professors of my medical college, who was
desirous of entering into partnership with me on condition of sharing
profits over 5,000 dollars on my first year’s practice.
During these fruitless efforts my kindly Quaker adviser, whose private
lectures I attended, said to me: ‘Elizabeth, it is of no use trying.
Thee cannot gain admission to these schools. Thee must go to Paris
and don masculine attire to gain the necessary knowledge.’ Curiously
enough, this suggestion of disguise made by good Dr. Warrington was
also given me by Doctor Pankhurst, the Professor of Surgery in the
largest college in Philadelphia. He thoroughly approved of a woman’s
gaining complete medical knowledge; told me that although my public
entrance into the classes was out of the question, yet if I would
assume masculine attire and enter the college he could entirely
rely on two or three of his students to whom he should communicate
my disguise, who would watch the class and give me timely notice to
withdraw should my disguise be suspected.
But neither the advice to go to Paris nor the suggestion of disguise
tempted me for a moment. It was to my mind a moral crusade on which
I had entered, a course of justice and common sense, and it must be
pursued in the light of day, and with public sanction, in order to
accomplish its end.
The following letter to Mrs. Willard of Troy, the well-known
educationalist, describes the difficulties through which the young
student had to walk warily:—
Philadelphia: May 24.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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