First published 2021
Elizabeth Blackwell knew early that ordinary womanhood would never contain her ambitions. In 1849, her fierce intelligence overcame medical school resistance to make her America's first female doctor. Her sister Emily followed, proving herself the more gifted physician despite facing the same institutional barriers. Nimura traces their partnership from Bristol through Paris and Edinburgh to antebellum American cities, where the sisters built the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children with an all-female staff. Both women possessed vision and determination, yet their beliefs often clashed with emerging women's rights movements and with each other. The author examines their supporters and detractors while chronicling how two stubborn pioneers expanded what seemed possible for women in medicine. This biography reveals the complexity behind their historic achievements.
Genres: biography, historical-fiction, 20th-century, gender-studies, american, feminism, 19th-century, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: pioneers, strong-female-lead
Setting: America, Bristol, Edinburgh, New York, Paris
Period: 19th-Century, Antebellum
336 pages · Hardcover · W. W. Norton & Company