Sophia Jex-Blake - Scotland's First Woman Doctor

I spotted this plaque in the west end of Edinburgh and was disappointed that I had never heard of such an important woman. As you can see, from the plaque, Sophia Jex-Blake was Scotland's first woman Doctor. She was born to a wealthy family in Hastings, Sussex, England in 1840. She originally wanted to be a teacher but her, deeply religious,  father refused to allow her to study. He later relented and in 1858 let her attend classes at Queen's College. She became a maths tutor but, as her parents thought it was wrong for women of their social class to work, she was not allowed to accept a salary.

Sophia taught in Germany, and in the United States of America, where she met two leading American female doctors, Lucy Sewell and Elizabeth Blackwell. Sophia decided that she too wanted to be a doctor. Although it would have been possible for Sophia to become a doctor in the USA, her father died and she returned to England in 1868 to look after her mother.

No medical school would accept women students in Britain and she embarked on a battle with the authorities of the University of Edinburgh for the right of women to take examinations for medical degrees.

It took Sophia eight years of struggle to qualify as a doctor, because of opposition, not just from the universities but also from male students and the British Medical Association. She had to fight her cause through the law courts and in parliament. She won increasing public support and legislation allowing women access to medical training was passed. She and five other female students were allowed to study medicine but they had to fund their own segregated lectures and were not allowed to take a degree.

Sophia Jex-Blake

In 1877, aged 37, Sophia obtained the M.D. of the University of Bern and, later, through the King’s and Queen’s College of Physicians in Dublin, a license to practice in Britain.
She became Scotland's first woman doctor, establishing her own successful medical practice in 1878, she also opened a cottage hospital, the Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children and in 1886, she helped found the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women and negotiated with a hospital to provide clinical training, making it possible for Scottish women to obtain a complete medical education for the first time.

Jex-Blake continued her private practice until 1899 when she retired to live with her female partner in Sussex. Sophia played an active role in the Women's Suffrage movement until her death at Windydene on 7th January 1912.

More than a century later, Scotland is a much better place because Sophia Jex-Blake was determined to be a Physician.