During the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale had taken some nurses out to the Crimea and helped care for the wounded British soldiers. As a result, nursing was accepted as a worthwhile profession. Women were not scorned for wanting to become nurses. Now women wanted the same to happen for doctors. They had a long way to go, though. Most people in any position of power were men, so it would be very difficult for the women to have their case even considered. Men did not like the idea that women were starting to become more equal to the men than ever before.
Elizabeth Blackwell was born in the UK in 1821, but later moved to America. She was the first woman to qualify in medicine in the US (1849) and the first woman to be recognised as a physician in the UK in 1869. She began as a teacher but taught herself enough basic science and saved enough money to pay for her course at Geneva Medical School in New York State, where she received her MD degree in 1849. In 1853, along with her sister, she co-founded a private clinic in New York City. This clinic was the first to have an entirely female staff. She became the first woman to appear on the Medical Register. She was one of the founders of the National Health Society of London and the London School of Medicine for Women, where she was a professor of gynaecology between 1875 and 1907.
The first English woman to qualify in medicine and become a member of the British Medical Association was Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. She first resolved to study medicine when in 1859, at the age of 24, she attended some lectures given by Elizabeth Blackwell. With the help of a personal tutor and the support of her father, Elizabeth studied mathematics and science. She then became a surgical nurse at Middlesex Hospital in London, where she trained informally by following doctors on their hospital rounds. However, she was unable to attend lectures and had to study privately.
In 1858 law regulated medical qualifications in Britain. Every new doctor had to be accepted as a member of the College of Physicians, the College of Surgeons or the Society of Apothecaries. The first two colleges had strict rules against women members. Although the Society of Apothecaries had no rules against women members, they were still very reluctant to accept her. Elizabeth continued her studies privately, and in 1865 she and her father brought a legal case against the Society and forced it to accept her. Afterwards, the Society changed its rules so as not to allow other women following her example. She received a degree.
The degree allowed Garrett to dispense medicine, and she established a clinic for women and children, the Marylebone Dispensary for Women and Children. It was renamed the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in 1918. The hospital is currently staffed by women and serves only female patients.
No British University would accept Elizabeth, so she studied French and in 1870, two years after France allowed women to become doctors, the University of Paris awarded Elizabeth a medical degree. That same year, she took a job as a visiting medical officer at a hospital for children and was elected the first woman member of the London School Board.
After retiring in 1902, Elizabeth became the first woman mayor in England. Naturally, she supported the suffragette movement for women to have equal rights. She died in 1917, aged 81.
Girl’s education started improving from the 1870s. Several universities were beginning to admit women. In 1874, six women, led by Sophia Jex-Blake, completed a full medical course at Edinburgh. Afterwards, the University immediately announced that it was only permitted to grant medical degrees to men.
Sophia and her friends completed their degrees at either Dublin or Zurich, and in 1874 they founded the London School of Medicine for Women.
In 1876 Parliament passed an Act that opened all medical qualifications to women.
Nowadays, women are regarded as equals to men. They are given the same academic choices as men and it has actually been proven that females perform better academically than males. Equality among the sexes could not have been achieved if it were not for the women mentioned in this essay, and many others. In the early twentieth century, the suffragettes went to great lengths to achieve equality for women. All of these women received setbacks, but they persisted; they never gave up. Thanks to these women, the saying, “it’s a man’s world”, is no longer true.
Louise Jones