Your Projects
Rosemary Collins meets a group of women who stayed busy during lockdown by researching the first British women to work as doctors
Researching the first British women to work as doctors
When the coronavirus lockdown started in March, many of us were left scrambling for ways to keep busy and meet people as our usual ways of socialising were upended. The University of the Third Age – a charity that brings people in their ‘Third Age’ together to develop their interests and continue their learning – stepped into the breach, setting up Trust U3A, a community where U3A members can form online groups to pursue their shared interests.
Verne Hardingham is a retired civil servant and adult-education tutor with an MA in local studies. She came up with a very appropriate project for a time when we’re all fighting a pandemic – discovering the lives of the pioneering women who were the first to enter the medical profession. Three other retired women have joined the group. They work on their research through Zoom meetings and websites such as Findmypast ( findmypast.co.uk).
After Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became the first British woman to qualify as a doctor in 1865, the 1876 Medical Act allowed the licensing of women doctors, and the British Medical Association admitted female members from 1892. However, the Early Women Doctors Research Group has found women who qualified as early as the 1850s, usually by studying in more progressive countries such as Germany. Its investigations reach as far forward as the early 20th century, and the contribution that female doctors made during the First World War.
“In many ways these women were as good as – if not better than – modern women, because of what they were bursting against,” says Verne, the group’s coordinator. “They showed guts.”
The first challenge that the women faced was to get qualified in the first place: “They were trying to be taught on equal terms and they had a battle to convince institutions, particularly Edinburgh University, that they should be taught in that way. Their marks were as good as and, in many respects, better than some of their male contemporaries.”
The group has researched between 150 and 200 women, whose dedication to the medical profession took them all over the world. Some became dispensaries or missionaries, some campaigned for better medical care for women and children, and some experimented with early mental healthcare. Other women whose stories the group has uncovered contributed to the wider movement for women’s rights. They joined the Women’s Tax Resistance League (1909–1918), who refused to pay their taxes until women were granted the right to vote, or signed letters stating the medical dangers of force-feeding imprisoned suffragettes.
The project is ongoing, and the group’s members ultimately aim to publish their findings so that other researchers can learn from them. Verne says that the project has been an excellent way of staying active: “I wouldn’t have made as much progress as I have without the use of Zoom. My local library was shut during lockdown, and this is something you can do online that is serving a useful purpose.”
as – if ‘These women were as good not better than – modern women’