Doctor Doctor

Dear O'H dear and Lovely Tea Jenny,

I keep passing this plaque at the entrance to a block of flats and finally got round to googling it...

So, back in 1869, Sophia Jex-Blake wanted to study medicine and applied to Edinburgh university. Her application was accepted by the faculty but later rejected by the university court. It was deemed too expensive as she would have had to be taught separately (due to her lady parts), and the university could not make the necessary arrangements "in the interest of one lady.”

Sophia was a well connected young lady and one of her mates happened to be the editor of The Scotsman. He published an article about what had happened and encouraged other women to apply.

This resulted in a second application for seven women (who became know as the Edinburgh Seven) being successfully submitted and in 1869 they became the first group of matriculated undergraduate female students at a British university.

Sadly, there are always haters and as the women quickly proved that they were high achievers, resentment grew from some of the other students and lecturers which came to a head on the day of an anatomy exam at Surgeons’ Hall. As the women approached the building, the gate was bolted shut and they had mud (and other cr@p) thrown at them and were verbally abused by a mob of over 200 people. Eventually, someone (who wasn’t a tosser) unbolted the gate and let them in, although a live sheep was shoved into the room during the exam.

Newspapers covered the incident (know as The Surgeons’ Hall riot) and there was a lot of public support for the women but discrimination in the university grew. In 1873, the Court of Session upheld the University’s appeal against the women’s right to be examined by the medical faculty which meant that there was no way that they could graduate.

Resolute (there was no Netflix and toffeepops back then), Sophia moved to London and opened the London School of Medicine for Women despite the fact that there was still nowhere for women to sit their exams. This all changed in 1876 when the Enabling Bill was passed. This meant that women doctors who had trained abroad could become registered as doctors in Britain, (although it did not allow for them to train there).

So in 1877, Sophia went to Bern to gain her MD and then sat the Irish exams with the College of Physicians in Dublin and became the third woman to register as a doctor with the General Medical Council.

Sophia returned to Edinburgh and became Scotland’s first practising female doctor. She established the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women and the Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children. In 1899, when she retired and left Edinburgh, her home, Bruntsfield Lodge (where I saw the plaque) was converted into a small general hospital for women.

So I thought I would share my googling!

C