Elizabeth Garrett Anderson—A Pioneer’s Lasting Legacy
How a woman of many ‘firsts’ broke down barriers for women in medicine
To qualify as the first female doctor in Britain, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, LSA, had to take a rather unusual route with no shortage of obstacles. At the time, no medical school in Britain would admit women. Still, with a friend’s encouragement, Anderson decided to pursue her calling.
Initially, Anderson’s parents were not happy with her newfound passion, and her father claimed that the idea of a woman physician was “disgusting.” Undeterred, Anderson convinced a member of the board of Middlesex Hospital to let her work as a nurse. During that time, she participated in operations, met staff members, received some medical training and, ultimately, became an unofficial medical student. After leaving the hospital, she attended the University of London where she earned her Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries (LSA).
Anderson then served as a doctor’s apprentice for five years and had enough instruction and experience to qualify as a physician. When she tried to take the medical school qualification exam, though, the Society of Apothecaries refused to administer it. When Anderson was finally allowed to sit for the exam, she passed and her name was added to the Medical Register one year later.
Soon thereafter, the Society of Apothecaries changed their charter qualifications to require graduation from a medical school. Another woman's name wouldn’t be added for 12 more years.
Not only was Anderson Britain’s first woman doctor, she was also the first woman member of the British Medical Association, the first woman medical school dean, and the first woman doctor in France. She was a woman of many ‘firsts.’
After her death in 1917, her daughter wrote this remarkable tribute:
“In her girlhood, Elizabeth heard the call to live and work, and before the evening star lit her to rest she had helped to tear down one after another the barriers which, since the beginning of history, hindered women from work and progress and light and service."
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