Sophia Jex-Blake: biography and contributions of this physician, professor and activist.

A summary of the life of Sophia Jex-Blake, physician and fighter for women's rights

Sophia Jex-Blake was a physician, a teacher of medicine for women, and an active advocate for women's rights and was an active fighter and advocate for women's rights.

Above all, she focused on ensuring that women could have access to study in all universities, thus having the possibility of receiving the same training as men. This path was not easy and she had different opponents, including colleagues who opposed her way of thinking.

Given her continuous struggle, she finally became the first female physician in Scotland and one of the first in the United Kingdom, and managed to found two medical schools for women, which was also revolutionary and innovative at the time.

In this biography of Sophia Jex-Blake you will find the most important aspects in the life of this reference of Medicine and in her activism.

Short biography of Sophia Jex-Blake

Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake was born on January 21, 1840 in Croft Place, in the town of Hastings, England. She was the youngest of six children, although the three eldest did not reach the age of majority, and grew up in the bosom of a family of the high bourgeoisie with conservative and religious beliefs, followers of the Evangelical movement and belonging to the Anglican Church.

His father was Thomas Jex-Blake, who was a jurist, and his mother, Mary Cubitt. The two surviving siblings were Thoma Jex-Blake, eight years older than Sophia and who would be the dean of Wells Cathedral, and Katherine Jex-Blake who would devote herself to teaching at Girton College in Cambridge.

Until she was eight years old, Jex-Blake was educated at home by her parents; it was not until 1848 when she was enrolled in the first private boarding school. It was not until 1848 that she was enrolled in the first private boarding school, although she did not stay there for long, spending most of her childhood moving from one school to another.

From an early age she showed interest in writing, highlighting her imaginative abilities and her rebellious spirit.

Years of youth

In 1857 Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake traveled to Wales, England, where she collaborated in the Betws and Coed school for children. This experience gave her the desire to study and become a teacher.

So in 1858 she decided to move to London to enroll as a student at Queen's College. Shortly after beginning her university education, she was offered the possibility of teaching Mathematics review classes, a task she would perform until 1861, although she had to work the first term without remuneration, since her father was proud of the offer his daughter had made him but did not feel good about being paid for it.

It was in 1860 that she met Octavia Hill, who was a year older than Sophia and was teaching at Working Women's College. Between the two women would form an intense friendship, which would be cut short by the demands and pressures of Sophie's parents, who was very affected by such estrangement.

Stage of jobs as a teacher

With the purpose of continuing her studies to become a teacher, she moved in 1862 to Edinburgh, where she studied mathematics and German, being a student of the University Classes for Women. It was during this period of time that she was visited by Elizabeth Garrett she was visited by Elizabeth Garrett, who was to become the first British woman to graduate as a medical doctor.

So, with the desire to train and work in different schools for women, she suggested to her parents the possibility of traveling to France, although they did not accept and she would end up going to Germany, where she would teach for 8 months at the Grand Ducal Institute in Mannheim. After finishing her teaching post in Germany, she decided to return to England.

After working as a teacher in Manchester, she decided to get to know the female teaching institutions in North America. Thus, on May 27, 1865, she left with her friend Isabella Bain for Boston, where she worked as a medical associate at the New England Hospital for Women and Children and met another important woman in her life, Dr. Lucy Sewall.

To learn more about education in the United States, she decided to visit different states and was amazed at the educational evolution and the greater tolerance of gender differences. Tolerance with respect to differences of sex, race or religion, and the fact that the education system in the U.S. is more tolerant of differences of sex, race or religion.

Thus, after visiting different places in North America, she returned to Boston, where she continued working at the New England Hospital performing administrative tasks and visiting women who lived alone. This is when, while working in the hospital environment, she wondered about her future and what her true vocation was, whether it was teaching or medicine.

Beginnings in Medicine

In 1867 Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake published her book "A visit to some American schools and colleges". That was also the year was also the year in which she finally decided to study medicine.. So she enrolled in the New England Female College in an anatomy course, but although she liked the subject taught, she thought that the level received by women was very low compared to that of the male Universities. For this reason, she decided to send a letter to Harvard Medical School to ask to be admitted, but she was soon denied, claiming that Harvard did not admit female students.

After the rejection by the male Universities, Sophie tried repeatedly to be admitted to Harvard, in 1868 she chose to go to New York to continue with her teaching since she knew a medical school, the New York Infirmary for Women, directed by Elizabeth Blackwell. Although her training at this school was short-lived, in the winter of that year she decided to return to England and stay with her mothers after the death of her father.

Between 1869 and 1874, Sophie wanted to begin her medical training in England, so she decided to go to the University of Edinburgh to apply for acceptance to ask to be accepted. At first she was denied a place because she was the only woman interested, but after obtaining the participation of other women, a group known as "The Edinburgh Seven", she was able to enter as a student.

Thus, she completed all the subjects and hospital internships to be able to graduate from the Faculty of Medicine, but she had to combine her studies with the continuous struggle to get the same treatment as men, having to resort to the legal field with the help of lawyers, a fact that took up much of her time and contributed to her failing two of the exams required for graduation.

As a result of her failures, Jex-Blake confronted the examining board saying that they had been unfair with the grade they gave her; the examiners disagreed and Sophie did not have the support of any of her fellow trainees either. So in 1874 she founded the London School of in 1874 she founded the London School of Medicine for Women. She was also active in the struggle to gain access to universities.

In 1876 she took the midwifery examination at the College of Surgeons in order to gain access to the practice of medicine, but the Obstetrical Society objected, writing a petition and thus preventing the examination from being taken. Thus, Sophie decided to travel abroad decided to travel abroad to take the exams and present her doctoral thesis on puerperal fever in order to obtain the title of Doctor of Medicine in January 1877 in January 1877.

When she returned to England to join the Register of Physicians of England, she had to appear before the only Examining Tribunal that admitted women at the time, thus becoming the fifth woman to gain access to the Register.

Consolidation of her professional career

In 1878 Sophia Jex-Blake moved back to Edinburgh to start practicing as a doctor, opening her own clinic and attending poor women. In that period she was no longer director of the London School of Medicine for Women, but she kept in touch with her, being also an activist in the fight for women's right to vote.

In 1881, after the death of her mother, Sophie fell into a state of depression that caused her to withdraw from the practice of medicine for two years. Similarly, in 1882 the Council of the London School of Medicine for Women, of which Sophie was a member, voted on who would be the dean, a position that was finally filled by Elisabeth Garrett, who had initially opposed medical schools for women. Given her disagreement with this choice, she finally decided in 1897 to leave the school of which she had been the founder.

In mid 1883 she reopened another practice, which in 1885 would become the Edinburgh Hospital And Dispensary for Women, with the help of the Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women with the help of a midwife and another doctor, Catherine Urquhart.

In the same year she opened a new medical school for women in Edinburgh. Although with this school she would not be lucky either, since a series of events happened that created rivalries, thus forming two groups; the opposition was led by Elise Inglis who finally decided to open another medical school for women in Edinburgh, thus causing the closure in 1898 of the school created by Sophia.

Last years of life

A year later, in 1899, Sophia Jex-Blake decided to retire and return to the county of Sussex, where she had lived as a child. She sold her practice in Bruntsfield sold her practice at Bruntsfield Lodge, which was to be renamed Bruntsfield Hospital. She was a consultant to women until 1989.

Thus, she took up residence in Windydene, in Rotherfield, together with the also doctor Margaret Todd, who was rumored to be her sentimental partner. It was common for them to receive visits from medical professionals as well as from other disciplines such as literature and art.

Finally, Sophie Jex-Blake died on June 7, 1912 in Wyndydene and was buried in Rotherfield, in the county of Sussex, England.