Posted
on June 9, 2014
First
off, let me tell you about Elizabeth Garrett Anderson's “firsts”:
- She was the first English woman to qualify as a physician in Britain.
- She was the first English woman to qualify as a surgeon in Britain.
- She helped found the first hospital staffed by women.
- She was the first female dean of a British medical school.
- She was the first female physician in France.
- She was the first woman in Britain elected to a school board.
- She was the first female mayor and magistrate in Britain.
Ummm...WOW!
A
bit of an overachiever, don't you think?
How'd
all that happen?
When
I hear about someone having to struggle hard to be the first to do
something – such as the first woman to become a doctor – I jump
the conclusion that that person just cared sooo much about that
particular goal that she didn't let anything stand in her way. I
guess I assumed that Elizabeth Garrett just wanted to be a doctor
really badly, because she loved medicine.
It
turns out, that assumption was a bit off. Instead, Garrett and her
friend cared more about living worthwhile lives, lives that would
satisfy their active minds, and about promoting educational and
professional opportunities for women, than she cared about medicine
itself.
After
learning at home from her mother and a governess, and then going to a
sort of high-school-level boarding school, Garrett was looking for a
way to make her life count for something. In 1959, she and her friend
Emily Davies went to hear a lecture by Elizabeth Blackwell, who had
become the first female doctor in the U.S. a decade before. Inspired
by that lecture, Garrett and Davies hatched a plan of how to increase
women's rights and opportunities: Garrett would put her efforts into
opening up the medical profession to women, Davies would work on
getting universities to allow women students, and Garret's little
sister Millicent would work to get voting rights for women.
Garrett
got to work on her goal with vigor. She won her dad over to her cause
of becoming a physician (eventually), but Garrett met with no success
in convincing the leading doctors in London that women could and
should be allowed to train as doctors. So she worked as a surgery
nurse in a hospital in London and proved herself to be a good nurse.
She worked her way into tending patients at an outpatients' clinic.
She was not allowed to enroll in the hospital's Medical School, but
she was allowed to study privately with the hospital's apothecary
(pharmacist) and she hired a tutor to study anatomy and physiology,
while continuing to work as a nurse.
She persevered and kept asking to be allowed into the dissecting room and the chemistry lectures, and eventually she was allowed in. She had won over the support of the hospital university's administration – but the male students didn't want her and made a fuss.
She persevered and kept asking to be allowed into the dissecting room and the chemistry lectures, and eventually she was allowed in. She had won over the support of the hospital university's administration – but the male students didn't want her and made a fuss.
She
ended up having to leave the hospital. But she did have some honors
certificates in chemistry, anatomy, and other medical science topics.
She applied to many medical schools, but they all turned her down;
finally she was admitted for private study by the Society of
Apothecaries, and she continued to study with university professors
privately.
In
1865, Garrett took her exam along with six others. Garrett earned the
highest score of the seven; only she and two others passed and and
obtained their license to practice medicine from the Society of
Apothecaries.
Get
this: although Garrett can thank the Society for becoming the first
woman in Britain to obtain her medical license, the Society
immediately changed its policies to prevent other women from doing
so!!
You
can see that Garrett had to have a lot of grit and determination. She
had to work hard and score crazy-well, and still she found obstacles
in her way. Once she had her license, hospitals still wouldn't hire
her, so she set up a private practice. You could probably guess that
many people didn't want to go to a female doctor, but she kept on and
ended up eventually treating thousands of patients. She had to wait
and wait before she was admitted into British Medical Association—and
then she had to wait another 19 years for another woman to be
admitted.
I
imagine that all those other accomplishments – including becoming
Britain's first woman school board member and the first woman mayor –
were also born out of hard work, patience, and perseverance.
Garrett
didn't spend every moment of her life surmounting obstacles and
practicing medicine. She married a man named James Skelton Anderson,
and she had three kids; she had a happy marriage and enjoyed
gardening, traveling, and her family. Her daughter as well as her
younger sister became feminist activists.
Hooray,
hooray, hooray for Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, M.D.!
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