London School of Medicine for Women

The London School of Medicine for Women was established in 1874 and was the first medical school in Britain to train women.

History

The school was formed by an association of pioneering women physicians Sophia Jex-Blake, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Emily Blackwell and Elizabeth Blackwell with Thomas Henry Huxley. The founding was motivated at least in part by Jex-Blake's frustrated attempts at getting a medical degree at a time when women were not admitted to British medical schools. Other women who had studied with Jex-Blake in Edinburgh joined her at the London school, including Isabel Thorne who became honorary secretary when Jex-Blake withdrew in 1877 and went to start medical practice in Edinburgh where she would found the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women in 1886.

The UK Medical Act of 1876 (39 and 40 Vict, Ch. 41) was an act which repealed the previous Medical Act in the United Kingdom and allowed all British medical authorities to license all qualified applicants whatever their gender. In 1877, an agreement was reached with the Royal Free Hospital that allowed students at the London School of Medicine for Women to complete their clinical studies there. The Royal Free Hospital was the first teaching hospital in London to admit women for training.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was Dean (1883-1903) while the school was rebuilt, became part of the University of London and consolidated the association with the Royal Free Hospital. In 1896, the School was renamed the London Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine for Women.

In 1894, a well known Indian feminist Dr. Rukhmabai qualified in medicine after attending the London School of Medicine for Women. The number of Indian women students increased and by 1920 the school in cooperation with the India Office opened a hostel for Indian women medical students.

In 1998, it merged with the University College Hospital's medical school to form the UCL Medical School.

Notable graduates

• Florence Barrett
• Margery Blackie, homeopath to Queen Elizabeth II
• Fanny Jane Butler, in first graduating class, 1880; known as first English, fully trained medical missionary in India
• Jane Elizabeth Waterston, in first graduating class, 1880; known as first woman doctor in South Africa.
• Julia Bell, human geneticist and member of the Royal College of Physicians, graduated 1920
• Dame Hilda Bynoe, Governor of Grenada
• Eleanor Davies-Colley, surgeon, first female FRCS, co-founder of the South London Hospital for Women and Children, graduated 1907
• Louisa Garrett Anderson, co-founder of Women's Hospital for Children, co-founder and Chief Surgeon of Women's Hospital Corps, graduated circa 1897
• Mary Esther Harding, Jungian psycholanalyst, graduated 1910
• Dr. Jensha Jhirad, the first Indian woman with a degree in obstetrics and gynaecology, graduated 1919
• Una Ledingham, expert on the problems of diabetic women
• Margaret Lowenfeld, child psychologist, psychotherapist and paediatrician, graduated 1918
• Isabella Macdonald Macdonald, graduated in 1888, one of the first few women in the UK to do so
• Flora Murray, co-founder of Women's Hospital for Children and the Women's Hospital Corps, graduated circa 1895
• Alice Stewart, epidemiologist who revolutionized the understanding of radiation risk, graduated 1899
• Alice Vickery, the first British woman to qualify as chemist and druggist
• Helena Rosa Wright, surgeon, birth control pioneer both in the UK and internationally, graduated 1914

See also

• New Hospital for Women, also founded by Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
• Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women
• Women in medicine
• Henrietta Stanley, Baroness Stanley of Alderley, one of the campaigners for the London School of Medicine for Women

References

• Gayle Greene, The Woman Who Knew Too Much, University of Michigan Press (Jul 31, 2001), ISBN 0-472-08783-5
• Genesis: Developing Access to Women's History Sources in the British Isles [1]
• Shompa Lahiri, Indians in Britain, Routledge (Nov 1, 1999, UK), ISBN 0-7146-8049-4
• John Richardson, The Annals of London'', University of California Press (Sep 1, 2000), ISBN 0-520-22795-6
• Anne Witz, Professions and Patriarchy, Routledge (Jan 1, 1992, UK), ISBN 0-415-07044-9

External links

• Archives of the Royal Free Hospital
• Lists of London School of Medicine for Women students
• The Global Library of Women's Medicine
• How British Women Became Doctors: The Story of the Royal Free Hospital and its Medical School - Neil McIntyre/Wenrowave Press 2014