20. The Door Swings Open

Nowadays, with women playing an ever-increasing role in all kinds of careers and professions, it is difficult to understand that there was a time when no medical school would accept a woman. They all said that only a man could be a doctor. An American, Elizabeth Blackwell, was determined to become the first woman doctor in the world. After a great deal of delay and opposition, she received, to her great surprise, a letter from the Dean of Geneva College informing her that she had been accepted.

Much later, Elizabeth discovered what had actually happened when her application had been received by the College authorities. None of them wanted to have a woman student, but they did not wish to offend the influential Philadelphia doctor who had recommended her, so they hit on the expedient of turning the decision over to the students' general meeting. They were quite certain that this would result in this alarming idea being turned down. But when the student body met, many of them thought it would be amusing to be the only medical college in the country which could boast that it was training some sort of Amazon as a woman doctor. Some genuinely believed that women should be treated equally, while others thought of the whole thing as a joke. So the vote in favour was carried unanimously, and the College authorities found, with dismay, that they would now have to admit Elizabeth.

A few days after receiving the notification of her acceptance, Elizabeth was on the train for the two-day journey to Geneva College.

Her entry into the medical school there could hardly have been more nerve-racking. The Dean asked her to follow him on to the platform and formally introduced her to the assembled students. Fifty years later an elderly doctor, who was a student at the College at the time, recalled the scene. "The class, numbering about 150 students, was composed largely of young men from the neighbouring towns. They were rude, boisterous, and riotous beyond comparison. On several occasions the residents of the neighbourhood sent written protests to the College threatening to have the College indicated as a nuisance if the disturbances did not cease. During lectures it was often almost impossible to hear the professors owing to the confusion." He goes on to describe the dramatic moment when Elizabeth was introduced. The students had heard no more about her after they had sent their decision to the College two or three weeks previously, so her introduction was a complete surprise.

"One morning, all unexpectedly, a lady entered the lecture-room with the professor, she was quite small of stature, plainly dressed, appeared diffident and retiring but had a firm and determined expression on her face. Her entry into the Bedlam of confusion acted like magic on every student. Each hurriedly sought his seat, and the utmost silence prevailed. For the first time a lecture was given without the slightest interruption, and every word could be heard as distinctly as it would be if there had been but a single person in the room. The sudden transformation of this class from a band of lawless desperadoes to gentlemen by the mere presence of a lady, proved to be permanent in its effects."