Sept. 28, 1865: England Gets Its First Woman Physician, the Hard Way

1865: Elizabeth Garrett becomes the first woman in England to receive a medical license.

It didn't come easily.

Bound by the restrictions on sex and class that prevailed in Victorian England, Garrett, the daughter of a London pawnbroker, was inspired to medicine after meeting Elizabeth Blackwell, who had become the first practicing woman physician in the United States. First, though, Garrett had to overcome the opposition of her parents. Compared to what lay ahead, that was easy.

At first she tried applying to medical school. Several -- actually all -- turned her down. With the conventional path blocked, Garrett enrolled as a nursing student at Middlesex Hospital. While there, she sat in on some medical classes but was booted after the male students complained.

Nevertheless, she hung in there and continued studying independently. Since the Society of Apothecaries had no rule specifically barring women from taking its medical examination, Garrett took it on this day in 1865 and, lo, was one of three candidates (from a field of seven) to pass. It enabled her to obtain a certificate to begin practicing medicine.

(It should be noted that the Society of Apothecaries immediately changed its rules to prevent other women from pulling the same stunt. Not cricket, you know.)

Garrett opened a dispensary for women, and later became a visiting physician to the East London Hospital. Still lacking a formal medical degree, Garrett learned French and slipped across the Channel to the University of Paris, where more enlightened attitudes prevailed. She earned her degree, which the British Medical Register refused to recognize.

Undaunted, Garrett (now Garrett Anderson by marriage) opened the New Hospital for Women in London, which was staffed entirely by women. Elizabeth Blackwell came on staff as a professor of gynecology.

Garrett's persistence, and subsequent success, shook the British medical establishment to its foundations. In 1876, the old-boy network cracked and from then on, women were admitted to British medical schools.

(Source: BBC)