When the Civil War broke out, Elizabeth and Emily, as well as many other ladies at the Infirmary, were anxious to do whatever they could to help the Union war effort. Elizabeth writes, "we threw ourselves energetically into the cause of freedom." They formed the Women's Central Association of Relief for the purpose of being able to send skilled nurses to the battlefields, and were actively involved with the Ladies' Sanitary Aid Association, providing aid to the Union soldiers.
Following the Civil War, Elizabeth focused her efforts on organizing what became the Woman's Medical College at the infirmary in New York. The work continued to grow and improve, and by 1869, she claimed that the "early pioneer work" was finished in America. In the years following her own graduation, society had gradually grown more and more accepting of and positive towards women's right to pursue a medical profession.
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| Drawing of a lecture room at the Woman's Medical School of the New York Infirmary |
So, Elizabeth left New York and returned to England -- both for rejuvenation and to assist the work over there. For the 17 years she was involved in what she called the "tremendous campaign against the unequal standard of sexual morality known as the repeal of the 'Contagious Diseases Acts.'" The presence of such double standards and corruption in society had long weighed on her, so she did not pass up the opportunity to aid the reform movement. She also briefly became the Chair of Gynaecology at the newly-established London School of Medicine for Women in 1879. However, she struggled with poor health, so she took to traveling, and spent the rest of her life giving lectures and writing about the subjects dearest to her heart -- health and reform.
