Sophia Jex-Blake

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In a society that valued modesty, where women refrained from seeking treatment from male doctors for some medical problems, SJB saw a need for women doctors. Through extensive conflict, she became the third woman to have her name on the British Medical Registry. However, unlike Elizabeth Blackwell , who sought education in America, and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson , who received her degree through regulatory loopholes that soon closed, SJB directly pressured the universities and parliament, through her writings and through direct action, to admit women to both medical education and the practice of medicine. Her published works include essays on medical history and medical practice, on infection and childcare, and powerful arguments for ending the male monopoly. Her success paved the way for women to become doctors in England and Scotland on the same formal terms as men.
Black and white, head-and-shoulders photo of Sophia Jex-Blake aged twenty-five, a dozen years before she won her struggle for medical qualifications. Backed by dark drapery, she wears a simple, dark, loose-fitting dress with a white collar; her dark hair is pulled back.
"Sophia Jex-Blake" Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sophia_Jex-Blake_Aged_25.jpg. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license. This work is in the public domain.

Milestones

21 January 1840
SJB was born in Sussex, at her family's home, 3 Croft Place, in Hastings. She was the youngest child of three, having elder siblings Thomas William and Caroline.
Todd, Margaret. The Life of Sophia Jex-Blake. Macmillan, 1918.
1
Mid-1867
Concurrent with her service to women's hospitals in the United States, SJB published her earliest writing, an account of A Visit to Some American Schools and Colleges.
Roberts, Shirley. Sophia Jex-Blake. Routledge, 1993.
67
1872
While still a student at Edinburgh , SJB published, and dedicated to her American mentor Dr Lucy SewallMedical Women: Two Essays: i.e. Medicine as a Profession for Women (a revised version of her essay for Josephine Butler 's collection in March 1869) and Medical Education for Women.
Jex-Blake, Sophia. Medical Women: Two Essays. Oliphant, 1872.
OCLC WorldCat.
Spring 1886
Following the official admittance of women to the medical exams at Edinburgh , SJB published her most significant work, the revised second edition of Medical Women: Two Essays, now retitled Medical Women: A Thesis and A History.
OCLC WorldCat.
Jex-Blake, Sophia. Medical Women: A Thesis and A History. Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier: Hamilton, Adams & Co, 1886.
viii
By May 1893
SJB wrote a paper titled Medical Education of Women in Great Britain and Ireland, to be read by Constance Elder at the World's Congress of Representative Women at Chicago on 15-22 May 1893.
Jex-Blake, Sophia. “Medical Education of Women in Great Britain and Ireland”. The World’s Congress of Representative Women, edited by May Wright Sewall, Rand McNally, 1894, pp. 214 - 20.
214
7 January 1912
SJB died peacefully, with Margaret Todd at her side. Todd spent the last few years of her own life writing her last book, The Life of Sophia Jex-Blake, and not long after it was finished, in 1918 (the year of its publication), she committed suicide.
Roberts, Shirley. Sophia Jex-Blake. Routledge, 1993.
5, 190
British Library Catalogue.

Biography

Birth and Background

21 January 1840
SJB was born in Sussex, at her family's home, 3 Croft Place, in Hastings. She was the youngest child of three, having elder siblings Thomas William and Caroline.
Todd, Margaret. The Life of Sophia Jex-Blake. Macmillan, 1918.
1