History Books History 2006 Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women: Autobiographical Sketches by Elizabeth Blackwell Elizabeth Blackwell Amy Bix Iowa State University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/history_books Part of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, and the Women's History Commons Recommended Citation Blackwell, Elizabeth and Bix, Amy, "Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women: Autobiographical Sketches by Elizabeth Blackwell" (2006). History Books. 8. http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/history_books/8 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the History at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Books by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. I f f INTRODUCTION i i I by Amy Sue Bix f I t I The history of women as healers dates back many cen- t turies, long before the life of Elizabeth Blackwell. We have evidence of women as healers and midwives in ancient Greece; for example, some women have funeral inscriptions describing them with the terms "midwife" and "physician." Women's practice of medicine was not universally welcomed; in Athens during the fourth century BCE, female healers were apparently accused of performing illegal abortions and banned from the profession. Stories suggest that one of the era's most famous medical women, Agnodice, had to cut her hair and dress in men's clothing to attend physicians' classes, since her practice of medicine was illegal.