88-Janice Owes Me Fiddy (The Blackwell Sisters Story)

The Blackwell sisters, Elizabeth and Emily, forced open the doors of American medicine for women in the 1800s, transforming the profession despite facing systematic rejection from medical establishments.

• Elizabeth Blackwell, born 1821 to abolitionist parents, became the first female doctor in America despite initially finding medicine "disgusting"
• Rejected by 29 medical schools before Geneva Medical College accepted her—only because male students thought it was a joke
• Graduated top of her class in 1849, later losing an eye to infection while training in Paris
• Emily Blackwell followed her sister into medicine, becoming the third female physician in America despite facing even greater resistance
• Together they founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1857 and later a women's medical college
• Elizabeth held surprisingly conservative views—opposing women's voting rights and contraception
• Neither sister married, but both adopted daughters
• By their deaths in 1910, women made up 6% of physicians; today they represent over half of medical students

Sources:

https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/review-doctors-blackwell

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/way-americans-remember-blackwell-sisters-shortchanges-their-incredible-legacy-180976672/

http://bedside-rounds.org/episode-62-the-sisters-blackwell/

https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_36.html

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/elizabeth-blackwell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LbBGRCMXGA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7MRGYRx3DQ

Transcript

Sisters as Mirrors and Partners

Speaker 1 1:11

Quote Sister, she is your mirror, shining back at you with a world of possibilities. She is your witness who sees you at your worst and best and loves you anyway. She is your partner in crime, your midnight companion, someone who knows when you are smiling, even in the dark. Barbara Alpert, as Jessica's sitting in the dark, dark, smiling at me like a creep. That's a sweet quote, it is and it kind of has to do. It's the most like closest to my topic that I had I got fun.

Speaker 2 1:51

I saw another quote that was your sister knows all your buttons and will happily push them.

Speaker 1 1:57

Oh, absolutely Stomp on those things. Well, welcome back. Hi, we did it we did it, two weeks, we did it.

Speaker 2 2:08

Let's see what happens after this, no promises.

Speaker 1 2:15

Well, not solid promises. Yes, we're going to promise we can do it.

Speaker 2 2:21

We will do a Swiss cheese promise. What does that mean? I don't know. It might go through the hole or it might stick on the hard part of the cheese. Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 2:31

I made it up. I don't know. Are you serious? No wonder, that's terrible. Oh my God, why are you making stuff up? Don't do that, I don't know it's my turn now. Oh, I'm Jessica. Oh my gosh, we didn't do that last week. Yeah, I'm Ingrid.

Speaker 2 2:51

Yeah, we did, didn't we?

Speaker 1 2:53

No, we said welcome. I don't know if we said our names, okay. Well, okay, that's in case you didn't know last week. Now you know, one of us is Ingrid and one of us is Jessica.

Speaker 2 3:06

Jessica told the story last week. Ingrid is telling the story this week.

Speaker 1 3:10

That is truth. And welcome to another situation which is the name of this podcast. Yes, and jessica has crazy children in the background, in case you don't know what that sound is. Sort of sounds like a pack of wild monkeys yeah, I'm.

Speaker 2 3:26

So. We got a new puppy and he's awesome, so they're preoccupied with the puppy and not in my office.

Speaker 1 3:33

So I get what I get, although it does sound like they're not in my office. So I get what I get, although it does sound like they're actually in your office.

Speaker 2 3:38

but they are not and the door is closed.

Speaker 1 3:43

It's a really great microphone. You have picking up all the sounds, okay. Well, how about then you quiet yourself? And I will get into this story of sisters.

Speaker 2 3:55

Sounds good. Can I ask a million questions like you did in mine?

Speaker 1 3:58

You can, I probably won't know any of the answers, though I got a book. I got a book for this, which has, of course, you did, yeah, but I have like 10,000 books, so it has remained unread until.

Speaker 2 4:11

Oh, great yeah.

Speaker 1 4:12

I didn't even get to open it. Oh my great, yeah, I didn't even get to open it. Oh my goodness, I just found it today to get the title of it at least. Okay, so here we go. There's something powerful about sisterhood, yeah, yeah, yeah, especially when those sisters change the course of history.

Speaker 2 4:41

This is the story of Ingrid and Jessica and how another situation made humanity better.

Introduction to the Blackwell Sisters

Speaker 1 4:44

Yes, okay, in all seriousness, this is a story. We are talking about Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, two sisters I don't know them, emily Blackwell, two sisters who quite literally forced open the doors of American medicine for women. Let's start with Elizabeth. She was born in 1821 in Bristol, england, to abolitionist parents. Her father believed in educating. Oh, jessica already has a question. I cannot.

Speaker 2 5:16

I can never remember what an abolitionist is you don't know either.

Speaker 1 5:26

Isn't it? Isn't it an abolitionist against um slavery? Slavery, yeah, do a quick google search I'm also doing a quick google search no, I'm telling you to do it. I'm not saying, I'm doing it, you do it.

Speaker 2 5:43

Abolitionist is a person who favors the abolition or practice of a practice or institution, especially capital punishment or slavery. Okay, all All right. So we were right. Yeah, okay, all right.

Speaker 1 5:58

Proceed. Her father believed in educating all of his children, boys and girls, equally. And there were four boys, five girls, total of nine. That's no small feat, obviously, to educate all of them, especially in the 1800s. The family moved to the United States in 1832. Now here's the funny part. Kind of, I guess Elizabeth found the whole idea of studying the human body kind of gross. She once said, quote the very well, I don't know if it's actually her direct quote, it was quoted, so I guess it's a quote. The very thought oh Lord, this is going to be a long episode, okay, the very thought of dwelling on the physical structure of the body and its various ailments filled me with disgust. So how did she end up? A doctor? It wasn't really about passion, it was more about proving a point Love this stubborn woman. Yeah, no kidding. She wanted to show that women could be just as intellectually capable as men. Anything you can do, I can do better.

Speaker 2 7:21

I can do anything better than you.

Elizabeth's Medical Journey and Challenges

Speaker 1 7:24

Here's a quick fun fact Men's school back in the 1840s was not what it is today, obviously, but it's like seriously not even close to what it is today. It was basically two 16-week terms of like back-to-back, consecutive 16-week terms that just repeated the information. There was no real patient interaction and almost no hands-on experience. Real patient interaction and almost no hands-on experience.

Speaker 2 8:02

Imagine cramming a whole career into eight months of lecture and then being a doctor. Wow, you could be a doctor in less than a year.

Speaker 1 8:10

Well, yeah, so anyway, at the age of 26, elizabeth applied to 29 medical schools and got rejected by all of them until finally, geneva Medical College in New York said yes, but not for the reason you think you.

Speaker 2 8:28

Okay, I heard Reggie, but I can't see him Because he's black, I know.

Speaker 1 8:34

But the door's open.

Speaker 2 8:37

Oh God, he's right behind me. Oh my God, he's like right here.

Speaker 1 8:45

Faculty couldn't decide what to do with her, so they left it up to the students expecting it to be a big fat no yeah, all men. Right and the faculty were just a bunch of chickens. Because they didn't. I don't know why they cared about saying no. I'm not really sure what their deal is.

Speaker 2 9:06

Public opinion maybe.

Speaker 1 9:08

I mean, she was denied by 29 other schools, so it's not like they would have been the first, True? So I don't know what the deal was, but the students thinking it was some sort of a prank from another medical school voted yes just to see what would happen.

Speaker 2 9:25

Oh my goodness, Really.

Speaker 1 9:27

Yeah, and they didn't know it was real until when she actually walked into the classroom. That's awesome, that is awesome, and the joke is even more on them because Elizabeth graduated at the top of her class in 1849. Hell yeah, yes, ma'am, and her thesis on ship fever became the lead article in the Buffalo Medical Journal, and ship fever is typhus.

Speaker 2 10:04

Like what you get like typhoid shots for Like typhoid fever. That's what I was thinking of Like. Okay.

Speaker 1 10:11

That is what you're thinking of, but it's, I think it has to do with like lice and stuff. Anyway, after graduation she headed to Paris to get more hands on training, because back then European education was and hospitals were more advanced. She worked in a maternity ward serving mostly poor women, where venereal disease was unfortunately common. Wealthy women gave birth at home, which is, I guess, contradictory to your story, because they were not wealthy yeah, but that was in the US and then 19 and 100 years later after I and the great depression, yeah oh, that's true, too great depression.

Speaker 1 11:00

They probably obviously okay, yeah, uh, okay. So obviously. They probably obviously Okay, okay. So obviously the hospital wasn't top tier, and this is kind of when caring for a baby with gonococcal conjunctivitis, she got infected herself because dirty water splashed up into her eye, something that you would think obviously today, not such a big deal, just go take your medication, but this is the 1800s. So she lost the eye. Oh my God, prosthetic and um, and it meant surgery was off the table, or should I say it was off the operating table.

Speaker 1 11:54

No, oh, groan that was a good one, okay, but that incident lit a fire in her for public health. Following Paris, she went to London and in 1851, she met a young nurse in training named Florence Nightingale. And yeah, you are not even paying attention.

Speaker 2 12:19

She met Florence Nightingale. What are you doing? I was deleting my emails. I'm not even reading them, I'm just pushing buttons. I'm not even reading them, I'm just pushing buttons. Okay, I'm listening. I mean, she met Florence Nightingale. I know that's amazing. Why are you yelling at?

Speaker 1 12:35

me Because you're not listening to me when I'm talking to you in a normal voice.

Speaker 2 12:43

I'm listening to you.

Speaker 1 12:45

I'm going to you, okay. So the two of them shared a lot of similar beliefs, like they both wanted to be strong women. Uh, neither one of them oh, I didn't mention this, Out of the five Blackwell sisters, zero got married. And yeah, Florence was. She came from a wealthy family and she did not want to get married. She thought there were other things to do in life and thank God, she did. But their differences was that Florence thought women should be nurses, which she's like the queen of nurses, mother of nursing and queen mother whatever. And Elizabeth thought women should prove themselves to be equal to men and become doctors. So, yes, so let's move on. Now enter Emily, Elizabeth's younger sister by five years. Elizabeth basically recruited her into medicine. Emily was incredibly smart, deeply curious about science and totally on board, but it was even harder for her. After Elizabeth's success, many male-dominated which was like almost all of the schools at that point just straight up closed their doors to women because they were embarrassed.

Emily Joins Medicine, Facing New Barriers

Speaker 1 14:20

Threatened.

Speaker 2 14:25

Yeah, wow.

Speaker 1 14:26

There were a few women's colleges that existed, but I'll go into this later. Emily and Elizabeth thought that the women's colleges were significantly inferior and Emily wanted to have the real deal, the same thing, the same training, same degree as her sister. So she finally was accepted at Rush Medical College in Chicago and finished her first year. But she was invited back because, I think, they were uncomfortable, probably because she was kicking ass. But she was able to finish at Cleveland Medical College, which is known today as Case Western, and she became the third woman in the United States to earn a medical degree.

Speaker 2 15:19

Awesome.

Speaker 1 15:20

I know, and like her sister, she went to Europe afterward for more training.

Speaker 2 15:30

This time she went to Edinburgh.

Speaker 1 15:31

Edinburgh, edinburgh, edinburgh. Do you like saying that?

Speaker 2 15:40

Yes, edinburgh, edinburgh, okay, okay, but getting that degree obviously didn't borrow, okay, but getting that degree obviously didn't magically open doors.

Speaker 1 15:50

Society just wasn't ready. Patients didn't trust women doctors and hospitals didn't hire them. Actually, the entire time that Emily was in London, elizabeth was sitting waiting for patients and trying to drum up some sort of work and wasn't getting anything. So since no one else wanted them, they decided to build their own in 1850.

Building Their Own Medical Institutions

Speaker 2 16:28

Where did that come from Edinburgh?

Speaker 1 16:31

Edinburgh 50. Fitty See, you can't even do it. Oh my gosh. In 1857, the Blackwell sisters opened the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children. It treated underserved women and trained female nurses, and they turned to really focus on training female nurses for the Union Army during the Civil War. And in 1868, elizabeth decided to go a step further and, despite thinking women's medical schools were inferior, she opened a medical college for women in New York City. Her goal was a program that was more rigorous and hands-on than anything else out there. It lasted longer than the men's colleges and it had a more difficult, I think, didactic Just a year. I used that word twice today. I guess I like it. Just a year later she handed the reins over to Emily and she moved back to London and she became a professor of gynecology at the London School of Medicine for Women, and the two of them remained separated, oh gosh. And I can't remember if this is accurate or not, but I think it was four decades from.

Speaker 2 18:07

There.

Complex Legacy and Lasting Impact

Speaker 1 18:09

So, given all of this, you might assume that Elizabeth was a full-on feminist hero. I mean, she broke barriers right, but she was complicated. She did not support the idea of women voting. What complicated. She did not support the idea of women voting. She thought most women were not educated enough and would just vote however their husbands told them to, so more or less the men just got more votes because of these I can't even think of the word but just poorly educated women who can't think for themselves. She was strangely anti-vaccine. She was definitely anti-contraception and very much anti-abortion and she called it a gross perversion and destruction of motherhood.

Speaker 2 19:10

Wow.

Speaker 1 19:11

Which is, you know, it's fine to have those beliefs, obviously, but like when you see a woman who's breaking down barriers and just standing up to the man, you kind of think that all goes together. So I think it's kind of cool to show that just because you have, you know, one way of thinking, a forward way of thinking, doesn't mean that you automatically have everyone else's ideas. I know I mentioned this before, but none of the five Blackwell sisters ever married. But each of the doctor sisters adopted a daughter. Isn't that cute that is.

Speaker 1 19:56

And there is an author Janice. Janice, my good Lord Janice.

Speaker 2 20:05

Janice owes me pity Good.

Speaker 1 20:13

Shut up. Okay, now I can't. How do you say it, janice? It's J-A-N-I-C, janice.

Speaker 2 20:26

Janice, it's definitely.

Speaker 1 20:28

Janice, janice.

Speaker 2 20:32

If she's Southern, maybe it's Janice.

Speaker 1 20:35

Namura, author of the Doctor's Blackwell. Where is the rest of that book title Hold on. So the book is actually. The full title is the Doctor's Blackwell how Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine. So she it's the book that I didn't read that I do own, anyway. She wraps up their legacy by saying when the sisters died within months of each other in 1910. I know there were more than a thousand women doctors in the United States, making up about 6% of all physicians. Today, slightly over a third of all doctors and over half of medical students are female. Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, reluctant feminists, are the matriarchs of them all.

Speaker 2 21:33

Dang, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 21:37

Yeah, don't mess with sisters.

Speaker 2 21:41

No, and all because the guys thought it was a joke.

Speaker 1 21:44

That's right.

Speaker 2 21:46

Joke's on you, that's right.

Final Thoughts and Podcast Wrap-up

Speaker 1 21:48

See what happens, guys, when you think we're jokes. Mm-hmm, we break that ceiling. Oh my God, there are so many words. I almost said that we're trying not to say on this podcast PG-13.j-13, all right, okay.

Speaker 2 22:10

So uh, we're gonna be a doctor be a revolutionary person, revolution, revolutionist Is that a real word? Yeah, be a revolutionary, be revolutionary there you go.

Speaker 1 22:30

Okay, oh my God, and don't be dumb. How about that, oh my goodness? Don't be a woman who can't think for herself, ingrid uh, don't be.

Speaker 2 22:49

Oh, don't be taking women as a joke I don't know.

Speaker 1 22:55

Yeah, don't be closed-minded, don't be uh patronizing.

Speaker 2 23:07

Don't give unsolicited advice to your sister.

Speaker 1 23:12

Wait, how does that have to do with anything that we just talked about?

Speaker 2 23:16

Oh my gosh, I so thought it did. That's crazy. That must have been another situation earlier today.

Speaker 1 23:22

Oh my God, See typical younger sister taking the older sister's like success and riding the coattails into the sunset.

Speaker 2 23:33

What are you talking about? You gave me unsolicited advice that I did not want it or care for. It was about a dog.

Speaker 1 23:50

Chill the. F out, man. It was about a dog that I happen to have, that you just acquired, fitty, that's all Well.

Speaker 2 24:05

I guess that's the name of this episode. I think it should be.

Speaker 1 24:09

Janice owes you pity, okay. Well, congratulations to us, for I mean, look at what these Blackwell sisters accomplished, and we are so proud we have two episodes out in a total of a month.

Speaker 2 24:27

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Breaking doors yeah, breaking down doors, probably also breaking doors. Thanks for sticking around with us.

Speaker 1 24:41

Yeah, I hope you actually did, and I guess, if you didn't, we're talking to no one anyway.

Speaker 2 24:49

It's just playing in the background while they drive and zone out. Wake up.

Speaker 1 24:55

Oh my gosh, no, oh no, your face. This is why we need to do video. Hey, let us. Oh my gosh, no, oh no, your face. This is why we need to do video. No, hey, let us know. Should we do video podcast? Do you want to see Jessica's mug on your screen?

Speaker 2 25:10

No, no one wants to see that. It's a cute face.

Speaker 1 25:14

Thanks. You look so perplexed. Okay, but seriously, let us know. Do you want us to do video and we would not drop the audio. The audio would always remain. Do you want us to add video for your viewing pleasure?

Speaker 2 25:31

just be a video and you can't hear the words at all no audio, maybe more entertaining.

Speaker 1 25:40

You probably would learn a lot more, much more educational, if you could not hear us speaking. Fair, fair statement. Okay, well, we're gonna be back again in two weeks with I'm not gonna say what because, who knows, we might change our minds by then.

Speaker 2 25:58

That's true but a lot of time, a lot of time we might change our minds about giving you another episode too.

Speaker 1 26:07

So you know, you know how you can save yourself is subscribe, and you won't miss any of them no one a year every other year. All right, okay, we're rambling.

Speaker 2 26:21

We love you love you and au revoir, au revoir what is wrong with you today? I don't know.

Speaker 1 26:47

Okay, Look how swollen my eyes are too.

Speaker 2 26:50

Or just say bye in a language you know well.

Speaker 1 26:54

Adios, or could have been bye.

Speaker 2 26:57

Okay, bye, bye, bye. If you'd like to reach out to us or submit your situation, please contact us at another situation podcast at gmailcom. Or find us on Instagram at another situation podcast. We're also on Facebook at another situation.

Speaker 1 27:19

Another situation is produced and edited by Point5Pinoy Music is written and performed by Tim Crow.