10/13/2026
One of my favorite subjects to learn about are stories of people who have done great things despite having enormous obstacles in their path. I find it gives me the inspiration I need to achieve my own goals in life…and to help my clients achieve theirs. For example, take the story of. You may not have heard of her, but she holds a prominent place in history…because she was the first woman to ever earn a medical degree in the United States.
The year was 1847. Blackwell had just moved from Charleston to Philadelphia to apply to one of the medical schools there. This was the response she received:
“… [no] female could become acceptable to us, either as a teacher or practitioner of medicine … In the responsible duties of relieving ills which flesh is heir to, it is appropriate that man may be the physician and woman the nurse.”
Despite this, Blackwell refused to get discouraged. She saved up the $3,000 she needed for medical school saying:
“My mind is fully made up. I have not the slightest hesitation on the subject; the thorough study of medicine, I am quite resolved to go through with. The horrors and disgusts I have no doubt of vanquishing. I have overcome stronger distastes than any that now remain, and feel fully equal to the contest. As to the opinion of people, I don’t care one straw personally.”
Despite feeling that women were not intellectually capable of becoming doctors, the faculty at one medical school in New York allowed their male students to vote on whether to admit her. It would only take one “NO” vote to reject her.
Fortunately, every student voted “YES”. After several years of study, Blackwell became a practicing physician! Unfortunately, her dreams of becoming a surgeon ended when she was forced to have her left eye removed due to an infection. Still, she would not give up her dreams. She opened her own practice, established a medical school for women, published a book on women’s health, and fought for women’s rights.
Hopefully most of us won’t ever have to overcome the same kind of barriers Blackwell did. But no matter who we are or what we want, we, too, can achieve our goals if we follow her example. Photo Credit: By U.S. Printing Office - Smithsonian national Postage Museum, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133066096
