After a brief spell in Europe, where Blackwell sought to become a surgeon but unfortunately ended up losing an eye due to infection, she returned to the United States in search of a job. Blackwell was rejected for numerous jobs and this forced her to work privately. Blackwell did however once again turn the problem of gender discrimination into something for other women to rally around and so she wrote a book called, “The laws of life”. The book raised the issue of gender discrimination and equality between men and women. Blackwell’s actions again enforced the idea that women be taken seriously within the medical profession.
Elizabeth Blackwell also opened a medical centre in the slums of New York. Soon afterwards her younger sister, Emily Blackwell, who had also graduated with a medical degree joined the medical centre. Elizabeth Blackwell along with her sister then founded the, “New York Infirmary for Women and Children”. Blackwell gave public lectures on sanitation, created a health centre and campaigned for better preventive medicine. Elizabeth Blackwell also opened her medical college for women. She taught the women students about disease prevention. The group saved the lives of many people and went down as one of the most successful things undertaken by Elizabeth Blackwell.
Another one of Elizabeth Blackwell’s feminist ventures took place during the American Civil War. Blackwell set up the Women's Central Association of Relief. They were a group of women led by Blackwell that helped as nurses during the war. This proved that women could play a crucial part in medicine and again inspired many women to take up medicine as a profession.
Despite has many achievements; Elizabeth Blackwell failed to unite men and women in the world of medicine. When setting up her numerous projects, she only ever employed females. This goes against her ethos of equality in medicine, you could go as far to say that Elizabeth Blackwell was a hypocrite. Although considering the derisive behaviour she endured during college its easy to see why she doesn’t want to work with men, but as a leading female doctor you can’t help but think she could’ve been the bridge to unite the two sexes.
Elizabeth Blackwell was restricted on what she could do for women in medicine because men were so in control. It’s absurd to think that men would reduce themselves from superiority to equality, nobody likes to relinquish power so why would society expect any different from medical associations. Women were also at a disadvantage because society was taught that women had smaller brains; this limited Blackwell's attempts at equality because women were considered inferior. Blackwell also had to compete with tradition, in the case of doctors they were always stereotypically considered to be men. This meant Blackwell was bound to fail because stereotypes are hard to break, even in the 21st Century. So with the people in Blackwell's era not being very freethinking, the task of breaking the stereotype of a doctor was impossible. This is evident when Blackwell went to college and endured discrimination from men. Even though Blackwell successful got a diploma, she failed to break the monopoly of men in medicine.
Lastly, Elizabeth Blackwell still faced a struggle with women other than herself getting admittance into medical colleges. This is shown in the case of her sister Emily, who was rejected from many colleges including Geneva. Elizabeth Blackwell should have been proof enough that women can in fact be brilliant at medicine and surpass the male students. Eventually Elizabeth Blackwell set up her own medical school for women and at least they’d get some kind of medical knowledge. Unfortunately though it wouldn’t match up to the standard of education given at a medical college.
In conclusion, Elizabeth Blackwell was a largely successful feminist who paved the way for generations of future female doctors. Although Elizabeth Blackwell didn’t make as much headway as she would’ve wanted, she did however chisel away at the chauvinistic males blocking women from becoming doctors. Elizabeth Blackwell inspired future doctors and without her we may live in a world where women remain only as nurses. Her impact on history will not be forgotten; therefore I conclude that she was a major success.
