Female doctors. My sister in law. Her sister. Our family doctor. Several close friends.
We've all received excellent care from women doctors.
How commonplace. How non-newsworthy, right?
Yes, but only because we're living in current times.
Rewind 150 years.
Dr. Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake (happy 181st birthday!) endured hate-mail, being stalked, and terrorized by fireworks attached to her front door, and mud, garbage and insults hurled at her when arriving at an anatomy exam in November, 1870.
Nothing stopped her, she continued campaigning bravely among "the Edinburgh Seven" until The Medical Act, permitted licensing all qualified applicants, regardless of gender, was passed.
She was the first practicing female doctor in Scotland, one of the first in the UK, a leading campaigner for medical education for women and founder of 2 medical schools for women, including the first in the UK.
On behalf of us all, thanks Dr. Jex-Blake for being revolutionary. Here we are, 150 years later, reaping the sweet fruit of your courage.
Thanks to all our current day doctors, of all genders, for pursuing such intense, life-saving careers.
(Cool blog, Chloë Gardner! Amazing Covid time use!)
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