Scotland’s Healing History: Women in Medicine

The Edinburgh Seven (Photo credit: General Medical Council)

Despite its history of macabre tales of body snatchers, public dissections and ethically questionable practices, Edinburgh University, Scotland’s oldest medical school, continues to inspire female medics, to whom it owes its most endearing stories.

Sophia Jex Blake (Photo credit: Wiki Commons Wellcome Collection)

“A feeble and cowardly effort was made to obstruct the entrance of women into the classroom, but Sophia Jex-Blake, followed by her companions, simply failed to see the students who half-heartedly stood in her way, and walked through them”

Words from Margaret Todd: Scottish doctor, writer and Sophia Jex-Blake’s lover.

Forbidden from studying elsewhere in Britain, Dr Sophia Jex-Blake was one of seven women to matriculate at Edinburgh University in 1869. The group became known as the Edinburgh Seven, the first women to study medicine in the UK. The Seven were subjected to injustice and discrimination, forced to pay increased tuition fees and excluded from classrooms by male students and lecturers.

Entering exam time in 1870, the Edinburgh Seven were met with mobs of several hundred male students. Discontent with women attending the university, they howled and hurled mud at the women who tried to sit their anatomy exam, in an incident that became known as the Surgeons’ Hall Riot. A live sheep was forced into the hall, causing chaos and drawing adverse publicity towards the Edinburgh Seven, in an incident that became known as the Surgeons’ Hall Riot. Following this, Edinburgh University retrospectively rejected the women, forcing them to gain their degrees in Europe. In doing so, the university unconsciously lit a fire within the Seven, empowering them to blaze a trail in Scottish medicine that women continue to walk.

A plaque outside Surgeons’ Hall, Edinburgh marking the occurence of the Surgeons’ Hall Riot (Photo Credit: Wiki Commons)

Dr Sophia Jex-Blake went on to establish the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women in 1886. Here, she facilitated women’s ability to study medicine in Scotland, while the University of Edinburgh continued to exclude female students until as late as 1894.

Elsie Inglis, distinguished suffragette and medical pioneer, studied at Jex-Blake’s Edinburgh School and obtained the Triple Qualification (TQ) in 1892. A qualification exclusive to Scotland, the TQ granted women a formal medical education not yet available to them through universities and was awarded by the three Glasgow and Edinburgh Colleges of physicians and surgeons. Inglis went on to found the Edinburgh College of Medicine for Women, eventually establishing the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service, which provided the Allies with relief hospitals entirely staffed by women during the First World War. A statue of Elsie Inglis is to be erected on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile - the first ever statue of a woman placed on the historic street.

Elsie Inglis (Photo credit: wiki commons)

Gertrude Herzfeld, the first female surgeon in Scotland, was also an Edinburgh University alumni. From 1920-55, Herzfeld worked as a senior surgeon at the Bruntsfield Hospital for Women and Children, opened by Jex-Blake in 1878. Here, Herzfeld pioneered infant surgery techniques, fulfilling the legacy of trailblazers such as Jex-Blake and Inglis, and further establishing Scotland as a nurturing country capable of inspiring female medics.

Despite its turbulent medical history, Scotland prevails as one of the most enduringly progressive and accommodating nations for female medical professionals. In 2022, the General Medical Council reported that 53% of Scotland’s medical workforce was female. The UK medical workforce overall is growing, and in 2021-22 women accounted for 64% of the medical student intake. However, it’s not only gender balance that defines the progressive landscape of Scottish medicine. In 2021, 50% of doctors who joined the workforce were International Medical Graduates, whose primary medical qualification was gained outwith the UK and Europe. Modern Scotland continues to be a welcoming, progressive nation with the efforts of persistent and ambitious nineteenth and twentieth century women continuing to prevail.

In 2017, Yuxin Cameron moved to Edinburgh after completing her bachelor’s degree in nursing in Tianjin, China.

“I did feel like I had more of a chance to choose and develop my career in Scotland as a female. Back home there are more female nurses than male nurses, but when it comes to work male nurses are preferred.”

“Edinburgh University seemed to be the outstanding one, especially for nursing study. Edinburgh was the perfect size and I love the views.”

“In Tianjin, males are preferred by employers. They have better chances to develop their skills as charge nurses as managers want to have ‘gender equality’ – it was the same when I was at uni”.

Victoria Chang moved from Toronto, Canada in 2018 to study medicine at the University of Glasgow.

“I chose to study medicine in Scotland because of the tradition and honour of the medical schools here.”

“I feel that the community in Scotland supports and empowers female medics. Females comprise the majority of students in my year.”

“I do believe there is a lot of progress to be made, but Glasgow and Scotland are definitely at the forefront when I compare my experience to that of female medics back home”.

Haeley Burnett moved in 2020 from Scranton, Pennsylvania to nurse in the Scottish private sector.

“I wanted to live in the UK. Scotland had the highest nurse pay and I had always enjoyed my experiences in the country. I know that compared to other countries Scotland is a progressive place for female medics to study and work, but I feel that in the States, nurses have a much bigger seat at the table. It’s hierarchical and traditional here.”