About the passage
A. Read to understand
Answer the following questions.
1. How did Elizabeth Blackwell’s fellow students at the Geneva Medical College treat her?
2. What further challenges lay in front of Elizabeth after becoming a doctor? How did she counter this?
3. How did Elizabeth help during the American Civil War?
4. What were Emmeline Pankhurst’s observations about women during her times?
5. Write a short note about WSPU, its objective, and its methods.
6. Why was the year 1918 of significance to the WSPU in particular?
7. What prompted Amelia Earhart to become an aviater?
8. Why were the years 1928 and 1932 of significance to Amelia?
B. Read to infer
1. Why was Elizabeth’s decision to become a doctor unusual?
2. Why was being the best student in her class of special importance for Elizabeth?
3. Do you think Emmeline was right in calling off the suffrage movement during the war years? Give a reason for your answer.
4. Elizabeth Blackwell’s and Amelia Earhart’s personal achievements were important not only for them but also for women in general. Explain.
C. Discuss
1. Do you think that forty years after Elizabeth’s struggle to get a medical degree, a young Indian girl, Kadambini Ganguly, braved opposition, harassment, and hardships to get a medical degree in 1887. Look up the Internet to find more information about her and share it with the others in class. Compare her struggles with those of Blackwell.
2. Today, as opposed to the times described in the passage, women are not only working in different fields but also picking up unusual professions. Look up the Internet to find out about any one such unique profession and share the information in class.