First Responder - Elizabeth Blackwell
1821–1910
Elizabeth Blackwell was the definition of a pioneer. She was the first to brave new territory—the previously all-male realm of medical school.
Before her acceptance to New York’s Geneva Medical College, Elizabeth applied to twenty-eight medical colleges. None of them had ever admitted a female student. The story goes that Geneva accepted her application because they allowed the male students to vote on it, and the students voted yes as a joke.
Through hard work, Elizabeth earned the respect of her fellow students and teachers, graduating with honors in 1849 and becoming the first woman in the United States to earn a medical degree. And she was apparently a role model. Shortly afterward, her sister Emily earned the same degree.
How does a woman like Elizabeth find the courage to buck an established system like the male-dominated medical profession in the mid-1800s? Certainly she had an inner strength. She also had a family who believed in her and encouraged her. When others outside her family thought her goal was impossible, Elizabeth’s family encouraged her to keep trying.
Her father, Samuel, raised his family with progressive ideals. One of her brothers married an abolitionist who kept her maiden name. Another brother married a woman who became the first woman ordained in the United States. Elizabeth was surrounded by people who encouraged women to take professional and spiritual leadership roles. In her efforts to bring genuinely Christian principles into her medical work, she found support from an impressive group of friends.
You may have a family that’s as supportive as Elizabeth’s was; you may not. We don’t get to choose our families. We do get to choose our friends.
Consider the friends that you choose to be close to you. Do they support you and encourage you to excel at home, at work, and in your spiritual life? The Bible says, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend” (Proverbs 27:17). The friends you select can sharpen and encourage, even if your family does not. And don’t forget that you have the ability to sharpen others too.
Do you have a friend or family member who can use some encouragement to reach a goal? What can you do to help that person today?
Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.
