During the 1800s, Elizabeth Blackwell blazed a trail for women in medicine. In those days, medical schools were all male. After many rejections, Blackwell was ad-mitted to Geneva Medical College, in New York. She graduated first in her class in 1849.
Becoming the first woman to earn a medical degree in the U.S. was "a great moral struggle," said the former Brit. Blackwell opened a clinic for the poor in New York City. In 1868, she founded the Women's Medical College, which gave many women a chance to study medicine.