Elizabeth Garrett Anderson: the first UK doctor
Author: Professor Joyce Harper
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first Englishwoman to qualify as a physician and surgeon in Britain. The department I work in is called The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Institute for Women’s Health in her honour. University College London Hospital houses the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Birth Centre.
Elizabeth wanted a career in medicine but at this time no women in the UK had achieved this. In 1859 Garrett met Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in the United States to qualify as a doctor. In 1860, Elizabeth started working as a nurse. She applied for various medical schools but was refused admittance. She started attending lectures for male students at the Middlesex Hospital but after complaints from male students Elizabeth was forbidden entry to the lecture hall.
Garrett discovered that the Society of Apothecaries did not specify that females were banned for taking their examinations. Over time she had enough credits to be awarded a medical degree. In 1865 she took her final exam and obtained the highest mark. The Society of Apothecaries immediately amended its regulations to prevent other women obtaining a licence – the new rules stating that privately educated women could not sit exams. This was the case until 1876 when the new medical act stated that any gender could obtain a medical licence.
Even though she had her medical degree, she could not get a job in any hospital so she opened her own in London in 1865.
Elizabeth was a pioneer of women’s rights in medicine and society. She was also Britain’s first woman mayor and a suffragette. She fought tirelessly for women to have access to high-quality health care and for the right of women to practise medicine. In 1872, at the age of 36, she founded the first British hospital for women in London – which became the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital after her death. In 2008, the hospital’s maternity and neonatal services moved to the new UCLH Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Wing.
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