My Goodreads and Amazon reviews of The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura (Rating 4) – A Remarkable Sibling Duo. The Doctors Blackwell by Janice P. Nimura, is the history of the first female physicians in the United States. Elizabeth, the determined older sister, was first. She encouraged — in some ways pressured — her younger sister Emily to follow in her footsteps. Elizabeth’s admission to Geneva Medical College actually began as a student prank. Its absurdity (no spoilers) emphasizes how outlandish the idea of a woman doctor was in 1847. To the surprise of her peers and the faculty, Elizabeth turned out to be a stellar pupil. For men entrenched in the belief that women had no place in the profession, her achievement was the exception that proved the rule. In the words of the Dean, she was that rare woman who “possessed the proper moral, physical, and intellectual qualifications to be admitted to the medical brotherhood.” Actually, that attitude was fine with Elizabeth, who also saw herself as superior. Nimura highlights the differences in personality between the sisters, the elder self-confident and judgmental, the younger self-doubting but compassionate. To her credit, their respective flaws are not sugar-coated. Instead Nimura shows how well they complemented each other. To echo the subtitle, Elizabeth focused on education, bringing women to medicine; Emily applied herself to practice, bringing medicine to women. My one criticism is that the book is too detailed. Nimura’s laudable desire to thoroughly document the untold lives of these remarkable women is sometimes overshadowed by forgettable lists of addresses, people, and occasions. As a writer of historical fiction (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I know the importance of being selective about how much research one shares with readers. That caveat aside, The Doctors Blackwell reminds us that advanced in women’s professional acceptance and health care owe much to the determined efforts of these two trailblazers.
The untold history of two pioneering women
Why writers read: “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” – Groucho Marx
