‘Edinburgh Seven’ graduate at last... 150 years on
● UK’S first female students to be honoured at last
The groundbreaking group of female students known as the “Edinburgh Seven” will finally get their degrees from Edinburgh University 150 years after were the first women to matriculate in Britain but were infamously thwarted from finishing their courses in the Scottish capital.
Sophia Jex-blake, Isabel Thorne, Edith Pechey, Matilda Chaplin, and Helen Evans. Mary Anderson and Emily Bovell – who will be honoured this summer at an official graduation ceremony – blazed a trail for the rights of women to study at university and practise medicine.
However Britain’s first female medical students were confronted by sexism, bureaucracy and even a rioting mob during their studies in Edinburgh.
The university did not allow women to graduate until 1894 – 25 years after the seven medical students began their studies. But now it has revealed that they will get posthumous degrees to coincide with the 150th anniversary of their groundbreaking campaign.
The university is also searching for surviving relatives of the Edinburgh Seven ahead of the ceremony in July.
Professor Peter Mathieson, principal and vice-chancellor of the university, said: “We are pleased to commemorate the historic achievements of the Edinburgh Seven in this 150th anniversary year of them joining the university.
“These honorary degrees recognise not just their academic achievements, but the
significant contribution these women made to widening access to a university education for generations to follow.”
The Edinburgh Seven campaign was launched when Sophia Jex-blake was accepted to study medicine at the university but had the decision overturned because it would be too difficult and expensive to accommodate a single female student.
Jex-blaxe persuaded the then editor of The Scotsman, Alexander Russel, to help encourage more women to
apply and another six came forward.
But they had to organise their own tuition, charged higher fees, had doors slammed in their faces and even had mud thrown at them by their fellow students as they encountered increasing discrimination.
Edinburgh University’s own website now states: “Their classes, which were taken separately, were graded differently to the men even though the lectures were identical, resulting in diminished scholarship opportunities.
“The everyday jealousy the male students exhibited was vile. The men made life as difficult as possible for the Edinburgh Seven, shutting doors in their faces, howling at them and behaving aggressively.
“Events came to a head at their anatomy exam, when several hundred male students pelted the women with mud and other objects as they arrived. The women struggled through the crowd until a supporter unbolted a door to hurry them inside. During the exam the rioters shoved a
live sheep into the hall, causing further chaos.”
Although the edinburgh seven were all prevented from finishing their courses and graduating, their campaign went to London and led to the introduction of a new law allowing women to study at UK universities.
However the first female doctors did not graduate from Edinburgh University until 1896 – when they still had to organise their own tuition.
“The men made life as difficult as possible for the Edinburgh Seven, shutting doors in their faces, howling at them and behaving aggressively” EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY’S WEBSITE
Justice delayed is justice denied. The decision finally to award degrees to the “Edinburgh Seven” – the first women to matriculate at a British university in the 1870s – will do them no good, but it does send a message to modern-day sexists who still need to hear it.
There should be no debate whatsoever about whether women are capable of doing great things in the “Stem” subjects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. But, for a sometimesvocal minority of men, there is.
When Sophia Jex-blake, Isabel Thorne, Edith Pechey, Matilda Chaplin, Helen Evans. Mary Anderson and Emily Bovell enrolled at Edinburgh University to study medicine, they blazed a trail for women across the UK.
They faced down appalling prejudice from powerful male academics who believed women were not intelligent enough to study medicine and outright violence from some male students, with a crowd of several hundred throwing mud and other objects at the seven women when they arrived for an exam. And, during the exam, a live sheep was pushed into the hall.
However, not all men of the time were so blinkered. The Edinburgh
Seven’s actions helped turn the tide of public opinion and the number of applications from women to take university courses rose sharply.
The Scotsman is happy to report that it was an early supporter of the Seven and women’s right to an education. The historians of the future will judge whether this paper is right about the issues of current times, but 150 years ago, on this issue, we chose the side of justice, fairness and truth.
Despite being prevented from graduating, all seven women went on to work in medicine, with Jex-blake running the London School of Medicine for Women and later opening a similar school in Edinburgh. And their determination has not only improved the lives of women in the UK. In the years since the Edinburgh Seven smashed down this barrier of prejudice, countless lives have been saved by women working in medicine. Our economy, our society and our lives have been enriched by the influx of women into the workplace that took place over the past century.
And yet still problems like the gender pay gap exist. Justice for women in the workplace is a cause that should not be delayed any longer.