at she, too, was going to go against traditional roles and become a surgeon. Elizabeth Blackwell returned to New York in 1853 and opened a small clinic at 44 University Place, where even the poor refused to visit a female physician. It was a very lonely time for her, and she adopted Katherine Barry, nicknamed Kitty, to be her companion. Kitty both helped Elizabeth in her own life and improved her appearance in society, where women were supposed to be mothers. In a journal entry, Elizabeth recorded the importance of Kitty by saying "I have recognized the truth of this part of my nature, and the necessity of satisfying its wants that I may be calm and free for wider work." In 1856, Emily Blackwell graduated from Case Western University, and on May 7, 1857, the two sisters, with the help of Dr. Marie Zackrzewska, founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children.Elizabeth Blackwell continued to buck societal restraints during the Civil War, when she founded the United States Sanitary Commission. Later, she moved to England and wrote Counsel to Parents on the Moral Education of Their Children in Relation to Sex, which was met with widespread disapproval. After its publication, she wrote "Looking now at the very reticent way in which the subject is treated in this little book, it is difficult to believe such an episode could have occurred." Upon her death in Hastings, England on May 31, 1910, there were 7,399 women physicians in the United States alone. Throughout her life, Elizabeth Blackwell fought sexual prejudices in her attempt to improve the condition of women and the world in which she lived....
