After her resignation from the role as chief midwife at the Royal Charité Hospital in Berlin and studying medicine there, Zakrzewska set off to start a new life in America with her sister, Anna Zakrzewska. Marie yearned to find vast opportunities to practice medicine as a woman in America. In 1853, Marie and her sister reached New York. After connecting with a family friend, a physician, she realized that female physicians faced considerable disadvantages in the United States. It was extremely difficult for Marie to find a job assisting a male physician, let alone establish her own practice. The Zakrzewska sisters' funds were dwindling and to survive, they settled for sewing embroidered worsted materials. They sold these materials in the marketplace and earned as much as a dollar per day.