Women doctors in the 19th century

In the 18th century, the place of women in medicine was mostly limited to nursing. However, as the 19th century progressed, women began to play a greater part in medicine, and some of their names are familiar to historians to this day.

1. Elizabeth Blackwell: gained a medical degree in America (1849) and set up the New York Infirmary for Poor Women before returning to England, where she was accepted onto the Medical Register in 1858.
2. Elizabeth Garrett: acquired a licence from the Society of Apothecaries (1865) then set up the Dispensary for Women.
3. Sophia Jex-Blake: studied medicine at Edinburgh University (1869), but had to take her degree in Switzerland and get her licence to practise medicine in Ireland. In 1874 she founded the London School of Medicine for Women.

19th-century engraving of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson before the Faculty of Medicine, Paris

These women were, however, the exceptions. Most male doctors were opposed to women doctors, and each time a woman found a loophole that allowed her to progress in her career, the medical profession changed the rules to stop it happening again. In 1911 there were only 495 women on the Medical Register in Britain.