🚪 Doors that closed
Garrett worked as a nurse at the Middlesex Hospital and attended some classes there. But in 1861 male students objected and she was made to leave. Medical schools she applied to turned her down.
Discovery and Development, 1860-75: Lister and Pasteur » Elizabeth Garrett and Women in Medicine
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section B, Breadth study B2, Key topic 2
- The barriers that kept women out of medicine in the 1860s
- How Elizabeth Garrett qualified in 1865 and opened a hospital for women
- What the 1876 Act changed
- How medicine changed overall in 1860-75, and how to answer a 16-mark essay
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Unlock This CourseWomen and medicine in the 1860s
In the mid-19th century women did a great deal of caring for the sick, at home and as nurses and midwives. But almost no women were doctors. The medical profession was run by men, and many people believed women were too delicate, or too modest, to study the human body.
The barriers were practical as well as social. Medical schools and the universities would not admit women, and the bodies that licensed doctors would not let women sit their exams. In 1859 Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman on the British Medical Register, but she had qualified in the USA. There was still no way for a woman to train as a doctor in Britain.
Key terms:
- Medical Register: the official list of qualified doctors, started by the Medical Act of 1858.
- Licence: official permission to work as a doctor, given by a body such as the Society of Apothecaries after an exam.
- Dispensary: a place where poor patients could get advice and medicine cheaply.
Elizabeth Garrett's fight to qualify
Elizabeth Garrett was born in 1836 and was determined to become a doctor. Her story shows both the barriers and a way round them.
📚 A way round
She paid for private lessons with doctors. The Society of Apothecaries' rules did not say women were banned, so she sat its exam. In 1865 she passed and was given a licence to practise.
She was the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Britain. The Society of Apothecaries then changed its rules so that no other woman could follow her route. In 1870 she also gained a medical degree from the University of Paris.
Hospitals and training for women
In 1866 Garrett opened St Mary's Dispensary for Women in London. It treated poor women who often preferred to see a woman doctor. It grew into the New Hospital for Women, which was open by 1872 and was staffed by women doctors. In 1871 she married James Skelton Anderson and became known as Garrett Anderson. The hospital was later renamed in her honour.
Garrett also helped other women train. The London School of Medicine for Women opened in 1874, so women could study medicine in Britain.
The 1876 Act
The Medical Act of 1876 allowed medical examining bodies to admit women to their exams. It did not force them to, so change was slow. But it removed the legal barrier, and by the end of the 1870s women could qualify through some licensing bodies. Women were still a tiny number of doctors, and most hospitals and medical schools stayed closed to them for years.
Medicine in 1860-75: change and continuity
- Change: Pasteur's germ theory (1861) began to replace miasma. Lister's carbolic acid cut deaths from infection in surgery. Nightingale made nursing a trained profession. The Public Health Act of 1875 made councils improve sewers and water. Women began to qualify as doctors.
- Continuity: many doctors still believed in miasma. Many surgeons ignored Lister, and most hospitals stayed charities. Few diseases could yet be linked to a particular germ, and men still dominated medicine.
Common mistakes
- Saying the 1876 Act forced universities to admit women. It only allowed them to.
- Mixing up Garrett and Nightingale. Nightingale transformed nursing; Garrett became a doctor.
- Writing only about Garrett in an essay on change. Cover several aspects of medicine.
Exam-style question
How significant were individuals in changing medicine in the years c1848 to c1875? [16 marks]
You may use the following in your answer:
- Florence Nightingale (at Scutari the death rate fell from about 42 per cent to about 2 per cent in 1855)
- Joseph Lister (his carbolic acid cut deaths after amputations from 45-50 per cent to about 15 per cent)
You must also use information of your own.
Model answer
Individuals were very significant in changing medicine in these years, but their impact depended on science and government, so they were not the whole story.
Nightingale was significant for hospitals and nursing. At Scutari in 1854-55 she organised kitchens, laundry and supplies, and after the Sanitary Commission arrived in March 1855 the death rate fell from about 42 per cent to about 2 per cent. At home she wrote Notes on Nursing (1859) and opened the Nightingale School at St Thomas' in 1860, making nursing a trained profession. However, she still believed in miasma, and most hospitals stayed charities, so her impact was real but limited.
Lister was significant for surgery. After he used carbolic acid in 1865, deaths after amputations fell from 45-50 per cent to about 15 per cent. Yet many surgeons were slow to accept his methods. His work also depended on Pasteur's germ theory of 1861, which explained why antiseptics worked. Here an individual built on the science of another individual.
Government action mattered just as much. The Public Health Act of 1848, pushed by Chadwick, was voluntary and had little effect, so towns stayed dirty. Only after the Great Stink of 1858 did Parliament pay for Bazalgette's sewers, and the Public Health Act of 1875 finally made councils improve water and sewers. This change came from public pressure and politics, not from one person.
Individuals also met barriers. Elizabeth Garrett qualified as a doctor in 1865, but the Society of Apothecaries soon closed her route, and the law only allowed women to qualify in 1876, the year after this period ends. One person could not change who became a doctor without a change in the rules.
Judged by long-term impact, individuals such as Nightingale, Lister and Pasteur were the most significant, because they began changes that lasted. But each needed the right conditions, such as scientific ideas, public pressure or new laws, so individuals were the spark rather than the whole fire.
What lifts this to the top level: it covers the whole period 1848-75 and several aspects (individuals, science and government), uses facts outside the two bullets, and reaches a judgement against a stated criterion, long-term impact.
Exam tip
For "how significant" essays, give each factor its own paragraph, use at least one fact beyond the two bullets, and end by judging which mattered most and why.