Â鶹APP

Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake. By Margaret Todd.

 Top 10 Amazing Facts about Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake

It is well known that not long ago, women were not permitted to outperform men in terms of achievements. Women were barred from obtaining degrees, among other things, by the community. However, some people saw this immoral treatment and launched a campaign to fight against all of these mistreatments. Sophia Jex-Blake is one of the fighters in all of this. Sophia was an English physician, teacher, and feminist who was born in 1840 in England and died in 1912. When she and six other women, known as the Edinburgh Seven, began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869, she led the campaign to ensure women’s access to university education. This article considers her amazing facts, some of which are well-known and others that are not. Discover walks to keep you up to date. Let us look at them;

1.  A leading campaigner for medical education for women

In 1869, she resolved to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh, despite the fact that its doors were still closed to women.

After a bitter struggle that divided the faculty and resulted in Jex-Blake unsuccessfully suing the University in the Court of Session, she relocated to Berne to qualify.

However, in 1889, largely as a result of her efforts, an Act of Parliament authorized degrees for women. She was one of the country’s first female doctors.

She was a leading advocate for women’s medical education and was later involved in the establishment of two medical schools for women: one in London (at a time when no other medical schools were training women) and one in Edinburgh.  

read: Most famous female scientists

2. Scotland’s first female Doctor

She led a long and difficult struggle to allow women to practice medicine in the United Kingdom. After many years of unsuccessfully attempting to gain admission to a Scottish medical school, she was successful in convincing Parliament to guarantee women’s right to medical education and testing.

At the age of 37, she was licensed and opened a private practice in Scotland the following year, becoming the country’s first female doctor. Her tenacious fight for women’s right to become doctors paved the way for women to enter the medical profession.

3. She was born to a wealthy and religious family 

Thomas Jex-Blake, her father, was a retired attorney. Maria Jex-Blake, her mother, was frequently ill. Jex-parents Blake’s were devoted to their children and raised them in a strict religious household where dancing, theater, and other “worldly amusements” were prohibited.

The family’s older children, a son eight years Sophia’s senior and a daughter six years Sophia’s junior, accepted their conservative upbringing. Sophia, on the other hand, was an energetic and outspoken child whose strong will frequently clash with her parents’ expectations for their Victorian daughter.

Throughout their lives, Sophia and her parents maintained a close and loving relationship.

4. Sophia took an interest in teaching

Jex-Blake became interested in teaching, one of the few professions open to women in the mid-nineteenth century, and in 1858 she enrolled at Queens College, one of England’s first colleges for women. 

Sophia felt intellectually challenged for the first time in her life. She was particularly fond of mathematics and tutored other students in it.

She also learned how to keep a book. Jex-Blake formed a close friendship with Octavia Hill, while at Queens College.

read more about Amazing facts about Elizabeth Garret Anderson

5. She dreamed of opening a university

Queens College. By Photochrom Print Collection. Wikimedia Commons

Jex-Blake finished her term at Queen’s College and returned home in 1861. She enrolled in the Edinburgh Ladies’ Educational Association in Scotland the following year, where she struggled to recover from the loss of Hill’s friendship.

Jex-Blake was fascinated by religion in addition to mathematics. She possessed a talent for public speaking and considered becoming a missionary, but she preferred teaching.

She hoped to establish a university and traveled to Germany in 1862 to research the country’s educational system. Sophia accepted a position as a teacher at the Grand Ducal Institute for Women in Mannheim.

She was homesick, and Jex-Blake was struggling in his new role. Despite the fact that the situation eventually improved, Jex-Blake returned home after only a year.

6. Jex-Blake published A Visit to Some American Schools and Colleges

Jex-Blake persuaded her parents to let her travel to the United States to study its educational system in 1865. Dr. Lucy Sewall, a 28-year-old physician at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, met her in Boston. Jex-Blake was introduced to the field of medicine and the concept of feminism through their friendship.

The trip influenced Jex-Blakes’s view on women, education, and careers. In America, feminism was more clearly defined and advanced than in the United Kingdom. After visiting schools and colleges, Jex-Blake published A Visit to Some American Schools and Colleges in 1867.

7. Sophia filed a lawsuit against Edinburgh University

The University of Edinburgh. By LWYang from USA.

She was admitted to Edinburgh University’s medical school in 1869, but the decision was later reversed. Jex-Blake launched a long and tenacious admissions campaign, attracting international attention along the way.

Jex-Blake and four other women were admitted to the school in 1870. They had to attend women’s classes and pay higher tuition than men. The conflict reached a climax in November with the riot at Surgeons’ Hall.

When the ladies, now numbering seven, arrived for a class, 200 protesters barricaded the door. Jex-Blake convinced the students to sue the university for denying them the opportunity to complete their medical education.

They won the lawsuit but were unsuccessful on appeal. The women eventually took their fight to Parliament, where they were successful in persuading supporters to support a bill that allowed women to be admitted to all medical schools in the United Kingdom.

read Most Famous Women Rights Activists in History

8. Jex-Blake and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson founded The London School of Medicine for Women

London School of Medicine for Women. By Ethan Doyle White.

 Sophia completed her medical education in Switzerland, and in 1877, she and four other women passed their medical exams at Dublin’s College of Physicians. Jex-Blake was now a licensed medical practitioner at the age of 37.

Jex-Blake was a strong administrator, but she was also difficult to work with. Her impulsive and autocratic personality caused her to be deeply disappointed with a women’s medical school she co-founded.

In 1874, Jex-Blake and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson established The London School of Medicine for Women. Anderson was a London physician educated in France who, in the 1860s, introduced Jex-Blake to the cause of women’s medical education.

Jex-Blake expected to be named secretary at the London School, but her temperament was deemed unsuitable for the position, and she was passed over in favor of Anderson.

9. National Association for the Medical Education of Women honored Jex-Blake

Edinburgh University finally opened its medical exams to women in 1894, removing yet another barrier to women’s ability to become doctors.

The National Association for the Medical Education of Women honored Jex-Blake that same year for her 25 years of service to women’s medical education. The Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women remained open until 1898 when it was forced to close due to low enrollment.

Jex-Blake practiced privately until 1899 when she retired to Sussex. Edinburgh Hospital bought Jex- Blake’s business and home and ran it as Bruntsfield Hospital until 1989.

10. She died of heart attacks

Photo by gnomonic.

Jex-Blake retired and moved in with Margaret Todd, a former student 20 years her junior. Todd, a novelist, left medicine after only five years to be with Jex-Blake. Jex-Blake suffered from a number of heart attacks and other ailments in her later years.

She died at the age of 71 on January 7, 1912. She left her belongings, including her personal papers, to Todd, who published The Life of Sophia Jex-Blake in 1918.

Todd destroyed the personal papers after the book was published, as Jex-Blake had requested. Todd committed suicide a few months later at the age of 58.