The most distinctive and courageous woman to be a doctor

 

Elizabeth Blackwell (February 3, 1821 – May 31, 1910)

     In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor in history, achieved her medical degree in the United States. She had been through so many insurmountable obstacles on her path to obtain the recognition in school. Although she overcame them and her efforts paid off eventually, the hardships to practically work as a physician in society overwhelmed her more than the ones did in medical school.

     At first, she wanted to rent a doctor’s suite to open an office, making professional visits to patients. However, there’s no one admitting a woman physician. All she could receive is always the same point, she is a woman and women could not be physicians. No matter what she said, she never got a different response. This plot reminds me of the problems of graduate employment and the difficulties of women’s status in workforce nowadays. As a college student, who’s going to have a job in the society within years, I can particularly understand how despaired and helpless she was to confront such a difficulty. Even if I am majoring in Applied Foreign Language, which is studied by mostly females, when it comes to workplace, the lack of gender equality is still a controversial issue that gets me feeling worried. If I were Elizabeth, who was discouraged and frustrated when just entering the workforce, I could probably be overwhelmed by the tremendous stress and becoming more than ever anxious. However, Elizabeth was never ordinary as she not only overcame it again but also set up her own lectures, entitled The Laws of Life with Special Reference to the Physical Education of Girls, inclusively for ladies, which was the first step for her ambition to build a school to train nurses.

     “What’s the use of half-measures? When a thing has to be done, it has to be done!” The words are said by Elizabeth Blackwell. She said it with much anger and determination when her sister showed a frightened look for her idea of setting up a school for nurses and a woman’s hospital.

     Here I want to take up the statement above made by Elizabeth. The meaning of it is quite similar to my own values. Like Elizabeth does, I hate half-measures. In my perspective, they are all pointless and unhelpful. Some people may possess the idea that there is still some value of half-measures such as the experience acquired through the process. Nevertheless, couldn’t the work which is completely done bring people more useful experience? Apart from that, Elizabeth’s words also remind me of one of my mother’s idea of raising kids. Once she said that she doesn’t want me to have good grades; instead, she wants me to absorb and comprehend the knowledge I have learned. There’s a same connotation of Elizabeth’s statement and my mother’s words. That is the responsibility of doing anything. Once we start getting the ball rolling, we should and we have the duty to have things done no matter how good or bad the consequence is. In other words, the last thing we should do is giving up.

     At last, I still want to point out Elizabeth’s courage again. When she had no patients to treat owing to her different gender, instead of seeking help from others or giving up, she stepped out of her office, finding people in need of medical assistance in ghettos on her own. This independent woman and her action indeed touched my heart. Moreover, what she did shows that her ambition is no longer merely opening her school and hospital, or fighting for women’s rights of medical education. Her will and her aspiration have a strong bond with the welfare of the whole society, which could never be found if she was not Elizabeth Blackwell. As a result, this distinctiveness enabled her to have a life that had never been lived by others before. Even though she could only live against every species of social opposition at that time, the influence she brought to the society is more immense than anyone could expect.