Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
- Born
- 9 June 1839
- Died
- 17 December 1917 (age 78)
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first woman to qualify as a surgeon and doctor in Britain, and she paved the way for women’s medical education. Among her many achievements, she co-founded the first hospital staffed by women and was the first female doctor of medicine in France. She was also a prominent suffragette and political campaigner.
Garrett Anderson was born in Whitechapel in London, one of 12 children, to a pawnbroker. During her childhood, her father became a successful businessman and could afford to send his children to school. After her education had finished, however, she was expected to marry well and live the life of a lady.
However, Garrett Anderson had other ideas, and was determined to become a doctor, after meeting the first female American doctor, Dr Elizabeth Blackwell, and the feminist Emily Davies. Female doctors were unheard of in Britain at the time and she was unsuccessful in her attempts to enrol at medical school. Instead, she enrolled as a nursing student at Middlesex hospital and went to classes for the male doctors, until complaints led to her being barred.
Although she was barred from classes, the Society of Apothecaries did not specifically forbid women from taking exams, and Garrett Anderson qualified in 1865. The Society then changed its rules to prevent other women doing the same. The following year, she was appointed as a medical attendant at St Mary’s Dispensary in London. Undeterred in her quest to get a medical degree, she taught herself French and gained her qualification at the University of Paris, although the British Medical Register refused to recognise it.
In 1872, Garrett Anderson set up the New Hospital for Women on the site as the dispensary, where she appointed her mentor, Dr Elizabeth Blackwell, as Professor of Gynaecology. It was the first purpose-built hospital for the treatment of female patients by women doctors. It later became the London School of Medicine for Women.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was one of those select few Victorians who, by their campaigning and example, utterly transformed the lives of British women.
Due to her efforts, and those of other women such as Sophia Jex Blake, the law was changed in 1876, to allow women to enter the medical professions.
Garrett Anderson was appointed dean of the London School of Medicine for Women in1883, and oversaw its expansion. The hospital was later renamed the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital and it is now part of the University of London.
Even on her retirement, Garrett Anderson remained active. In 1908 She became the first female mayor in England, (in Aldeburgh, Suffolk) and she was a suffragette, as was her daughter, Louisa.