November 12th 1869 saw Edinburgh University first admit women to the study of medicine.
Sophia Jex-Blake and her friend Edith Pechy were the first to attend the prestigious medical school after much hard campaigning on Sophiaâs part. Jex-Blake describes the scene here as the two friends went to take their examsâŠâŠâ: âOn the afternoon of Friday 18th November 1870, we walked to the Surgeonâs Hall, where the anatomy examination was to be held. As soon as we reached the Surgeonâs Hall we saw a dense mob filling up the road⊠The crowd was sufficient to stop all the traffic for an hour. We walked up to the gates, which remained open until we came within a yard of them, when they were slammed in our faces by a number of young men.â.
A sympathetic student emerged from the hall; he opened the gate and ushered the women inside. They took their examination and passed with flying colours. Although both passed, university regulations only allowed medical degrees to be given to men. The British Medical Association therefore refused to register the women as doctors.
Jex-Blake took herself off to Ireland where she finally obtained her licence to practice from the Dublin College of Physicians. Sophia Jex-Blake then devoted her life to the cause of women in medicine - both improving the treatment of female patients and creating better opportunities for female medical education, eventually founding the revolutionary Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women.
Their strength and decency under pressure went on to inspire many others, right up to the present day. Although Jex-Blake and Petchey were the most famous and seem to get most of the plaudits, There were other women and they are collectively known as The Edinburgh Seven, the others were Mary Anderson, Emily Bovell, Matilda Chaplin, Helen Evans and Isabel Thorne.
Jex-Blake seems to have been the most successful of the seven, in June 1878 she opened a medical practice at 4 Manor Place; three months later she established a dispensary (an out-patient clinic) for impoverished women at 73 Grove Street, just round the corner from where I used to stay at Upper Grove Place. These ventures were highly successful but after the death of one of her assistants, she suffered from depression. She closed her practice and left the dispensary in the care of her medical colleagues.
She remained inactive for a time before opening Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women in 1887, in its second year the school was disrupted by disputes between Jex-Blake and several of the students who resented her imposition of strict rules of conduct. The school also struggled financially and had to be bailed out by Jex-Blakeâs father.
When a rival institution, the Medical College for Women, was opened by Ina Cadell, Grace Cadell, and Elsie Inglis, former students of Jex-Blake, the Edinburgh School of Medicine could no longer compete. The school folded and closed its doors in 1898.
In 1899 Jex-Blake retired but continued to campaign for womenâs suffrage until she passed away on 7th January 1912.
The Edinburgh Seven were recognised with posthumous degrees in July 2019, the degrees were collected on their behalf by a group of current students at Edinburgh Medical School. The sevenâs efforts eventually forced through legislation in 1877 to ensure women could study at university.
The second pic show Jex-Blake on the left and Pechy on the right then a pic of The Edinburgh Seven, the last pic is a Historic Scotland commemorative plaque to the Edinburgh Seven and the Surgeonsâ Hall riot, more of that in a few days.
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