Despite all they held in common, Florence Nightingale’s acceptance of the patriarchal status quo that women should be content to be nurses and not force their way into medical schools to become doctors drove a wedge between her and Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in America to receive a medical degree.
Author: Olivia Campbell
Olivia Campbell's work has appeared in The Guardian, The Cut, Washington Post, and Smithsonian Magazine, among others. Her first book, Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine , will be published March 2, 2021.