Women of England

by Bartlett Burleigh James

The modern temperance movement, which enlisted largely the interest of the women of England and America, and which led, in the latter country, to the organization of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, found its best representative in England in the person of Lady Henry Somerset. Lady Somerset's efforts in behalf of temperance and social reforms in England are too much matters of present-day knowledge to need more than a notice of them in these pages; they have enrolled her name in the list of great women of the century, where it had already been long placed by the affections of a nation. Another expression of the interest of women in society is found in the Young Women's Christian Association, Girls' Friendly Society, the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants, and other organizations which care for the interests of young women exposed to imposition or temptation. It is impossible to enumerate even the more important of the organizations which owe their institution to women and are conducted by the sex for the benefit of society. Wide as has been the field in the past, new phases of modern life are constantly coming under the purview of women's societies, which, although to a large extent voluntary, are none the less splendidly organized and disciplined forces, occupying, for the most part, independent fields.

Woman as a nurse is not a new aspect of her nature, but not until the last quarter of the century was nursing elevated to the dignity of a profession. There were not wanting women who bore the title of professional nurse, but these did not have the training to justify the name. Before the Crimean War there were upward of two thousand five hundred such nurses in England. Florence Nightingale, whose name will ever be identified with the founding of schools for nurses, said: "Sickness is everywhere. Death is everywhere. But hardly anywhere is the training necessary to relieve sickness, to delay death. We consider a long education and discipline necessary to train our medical man; we consider hardly any training at all necessary for our nurse, although how often does our medical man himself tell us, 'I can do nothing for you unless your nurse will carry out what I say.'" The revelation of suffering on the part of uncared-for soldiers which Miss Nightingale brought back from the Crimea profoundly moved English society; and a large sum of money was presented to her, with which she founded the Nurses' Training Institution at St. Thomas's Hospital. At about the same time, the Anglican sisterhood founded training schools of a similar kind. From these sources arose the sentiment for trained service for the sick which has led to the wide respect with which modern society regards the nurse who has been thoroughly trained for her profession. This feeling toward nurses is in striking contrast to the one which prevailed before the days of special training: that which was once considered a degrading occupation has come to be thought of as an ennobling ministry. In 1870, the date of the founding of the Metropolitan and National Nursing Association by the Duke of Westminster, James Hinton, in a paper in the Cornhill Magazine on "Nursing as a Profession," called attention to this new activity as a trained service for women: "It is considered, though an excellent and most respectable vocation, not one for a lady to follow as a means of livelihood, unless she is content to sink a little in the social scale.... Can any one think it is, in its own nature, more menial than surgery? Could any occupation whatever call more emphatically for the qualities characteristically termed professional, or better known as those of the gentleman and the lady?... Here is a profession, truly a profession, equal to the highest in dignity, open to woman in which she does not compete with man."

Nursing no longer has to be defended as a suitable occupation for the sex, for in its ranks can be found women of all grades of society; it is one of the levelling influences of modern times, as well as one of the most elevating of callings. No other sphere of public activity has opened up to woman in which she has not met the opposition of men. Nursing is a striking instance of the modern trend toward specialization, which is but another term for professionalism. Consonant with the whole spirit of the times, the amateur nurse was relegated to the background by the modern trained nurse.

Society, however, has not taken so kindly to women's departure in another direction: women as physicians are still regarded as a novelty and a doubtful expedient. Nursing created a profession, and so conservative sentiment did not have to be met; but the old faculties of law, medicine, and theology had been so long intrenched in their privileged places in relation to society that any attempt to widen their confines or to enlist their hospitality toward innovations is met with the resistance which custom and precedent always present to novelty. Although their progress into the medical profession has been slow, yet the nineteenth century records the opening of this calling to women. During the last quarter of the century women were admitted to the ranks of accredited practitioners. Yet, the vocation is not a novel one for the sex, for in the remote past they have been looked upon as possessing knowledge and skill in the treatment of diseases; but, as we have seen, the woman who followed the art of healing as a profession was often regarded as in league with the powers of evil. Down to the nineteenth century, women never held any recognized place as practitioners, excepting in the capacity of midwives.

In the eighteenth century there were, outside of the recognized profession, a number of women who practised medicine with considerable success; but, although skilful, they would be regarded to-day as mere quacks. Mrs. Joanna Stephens, who proclaimed that she had found a remarkable cure for a painful disease, appears to have been so successful in her treatment of cases as to enlist genuine respect for her attainments. Parliament voted her a grant of five thousand pounds sterling. Mrs. Mapp, commonly termed "Crazy Sally," who had repute as a bonesetter, received from the town of Epsom the offer of an annuity of one hundred pounds sterling if she would remain in that neighborhood. She was such a popular character that the managers of Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre sent her a special request to attend a performance at which they desired to have a large audience. She complied, and the attendance was satisfactory.

Early in the century there was a renewal of attempts which had formerly been made to require women who practised obstetrics to come under some form of registration; but when the matter came before Parliament, in the form of an enactment prepared by the Society of Apothecaries, a committee of the House of Commons reported that "It would not allow any mention of female midwives." Although women were not received into the regular profession as qualified practitioners until after the middle of the century, they were under no legal prohibition to practise medicine; but in 1858 the passage of the Medical Act, which required a doctor to qualify by passing the examination of one of the existing medical boards, set up a barrier to women, as it placed them subject to the discretion of the boards, which unanimously refused to admit them. The only exceptions to this rule were made in favor of those persons who had received a medical degree abroad and had been practising before the passage of the act. It was in this way that Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell became registered. Miss Elizabeth Garret, whose studies did not begin till two years after the compulsory registration law, was also enrolled under exceptional conditions.

At last matters came to an issue, and a notable struggle occurred which marked an era in the medical profession of England in its attitude toward female practitioners. The case of Miss Sophia Jex-Blake brought on the contest. She applied to the London University for admission, and was informed that the charter of that institution had been purposely framed to exclude women who sought medical degrees. Returning to Edinburgh, she exhausted every legal resource in a combat with the authorities, and was signally worsted. The plucky fight she made won the admiration of Sir James Simpson, the dean of the medical faculty, and others, but Professor Laycock observed to her that he "could not imagine any decent woman wishing to study medicine; as for any lady, that was out of the question." Success finally crowned persistent endeavor, and, the University Court having passed a resolution that "Women shall be admitted to the study of medicine in the university," Miss Jex-Blake and four other ladies passed the preliminary examinations for entrance. Other women soon entered the open door; but the contest was not yet ended, for, after these ladies had pursued their studies for three years and paid the fees, they were informed by the University Court that no arrangement could be effected by which they could continue their studies with a view to a degree, instead of which they were offered certificates of proficiency; the latter, however, would not be recognized by the Medical Act. They then took legal measures to secure redress, and followed the matter up by a bill in Parliament, which was lost. In 1876 another bill was introduced to enable all British examining bodies to extend their examinations and qualifications to women, and this became a law. A number of colleges availed themselves of the privilege and opened their doors to women, until at the present time there are medical schools for women in a number of the principal cities in England, Scotland, and Ireland.

The advance of women in the professions was in line with the general widening of the educational horizon of the sex. Partly as the result of her broader education, and partly as a cause of it, there was a juster appreciation of the relative position of the sexes, and into this there entered as well the new economic measure of value. Society was no longer regarded as a congeries of individuals, but as an organism, and an organism whose function was chiefly the creation of wealth. This broader economic estimate of society could but be favorable to women, whose valuation as a part of the commonwealth was largely regulated by their utility. The ideal of political economy is that everyone shall be employed, and employed at that for which he is best adapted, under the condition of freedom of self-development. The prevalence of such truer theories of society aided in dispelling the mists of error which had surrounded the popular notions as to women. Buckle observes, in his Influence of Women on the Progress of Knowledge, that women are quicker in thought than men, and he says: "Nothing could prevent its being universally admitted except the fact that the remarkable rapidity with which women think is obscured by that miserable, that contemptible, that preposterous system called their education, in which valuable things are carefully kept from them, and trifling things carefully taught to them, until their fine and nimble minds are too often irretrievably injured."

The close of the nineteenth century witnessed a complete revolution in the constituents of girls' education. French, dancing, flower painting, and music no longer comprised a young lady's accomplishments. The fear of singularity, which was a social bugbear to the young women of other generations, no longer served to prevent them from studying classics and mathematics and science. To-day, they are expected to add their quota to the contribution of the times, in thought as well as in the graces of deportment. The latter can no longer atone for the absence of the former. It is no more the case among the middle classes that only the girl who intends fitting herself to take the position of governess needs an education above the rudiments and the embellishments. Not the least of the departures in the educational scheme for women is the notable change of attitude which has taken place with regard to the development of their bodies. It is but recently that physical training has entered into the curriculum of colleges, but it is even more recently that an opinion has prevailed favorable to the physical culture of women.