As Chancellor of Edinburgh University, the Princess Royal had a very special role September 11 as she celebrated the legacy of seven incredible women who fought against prejudice when they were prevented from graduating as doctors 150 years ago.
Known as the ‘Edinburgh Seven,’ Sophia Jex-Blake, Isabel Thorne, Edith Pechey, Matilda Chaplin, Helen Evans, Mary Anderson Marshall and Emily Bovell campaigned for women’s education but sadly, never saw the Edinburgh degrees they worked so hard to receive.
In July, the members of the Seven were awarded honorary posthumous degrees from the university, and Princess Anne met with the seven female Edinburgh Medical School students who collected the degrees on their behalf this summer. She also heard about the initiatives currently in place at the university to “encourage people from all backgrounds to consider studying medicine at Edinburgh.”
The story of the Edinburgh Seven started when Sophia Jex-Blake applied to study at the University of Edinburgh, which at the time, was closed to women. Her application was denied on the grounds that they could not make accommodations in the interest of one woman, so she put an advertisement in The Scotsman and other newspapers asking women to join her. The resulting group became the Edinburgh Seven and their second application was granted.
Because of Jex-Blake, the Seven became the first women to be admitted to a UK university when they enrolled to study medicine at Edinburgh in 1869. Allowing the Seven to study there divided the faculty and caused the women to be taunted, followed, and threatened by male students. According to the university, an angry mob of more than 200 people gathered at the Surgeons’ Hall with the aim of preventing the Edinburgh Seven from sitting their anatomy exam in 1870.
The resulting publicity from the riot won the Seven a good deal of public support, even attracting the attention of Charles Darwin. Sadly, many at Edinburgh wanted to block them from graduating, and the university took the decision to the court. Eventually, it was ruled that the Seven should never have been allowed to enter the course, and their bid to graduate was thwarted.
Because of their fight, the right for a woman to receive a university education was put on the national political agenda. This led to the UK Medical Act 1876, which allowed British medical authorities to license all qualified applicants, no matter their gender.
Many of the Seven moved on to European universities that allowed women to graduate, and Jex-Blake became one of the first female doctors in the UK. She went on to become a leading campaigner for women’s rights in medical education and founded the first medical school for women in London, along with the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women and a women’s hospital in Edinburgh.
