Science Stories - Sophia Jex-Blake

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Naomi Alderman tells the science story of Sophia Jex-Blake, who led a group known as the Edinburgh Seven in their bid to become the first women to graduate as doctors from a British university. Her campaign was long and ultimately personally unsuccessful as she had to go to Switzerland to gain her qualification. Although Edinburgh University allowed the Seven to attend some lectures, they had to be taught apart from the male students. There was great antipathy to the women which culminated in 1870 with a riot as they tried to take an exam. Naomi discusses Sophia Jex-Blake's life and times with Dr Kristin Hussey who curated an exhibition at the Royal College of Physicians about women in medicine. And Dr Fizzah Ali from the Medical Women's Federation talks about women's careers in medicine today. Image: Sophia Jex-Blake, aged 25. Credit: From a portrait by Samuel Laurence. (Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan
0:05.2	I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy
0:10.1	podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really. Comedy is a bit of a dream job really.
0:13.0	Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh,
0:18.0	making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things.
0:22.0	But you know, I also know that comedy is really
0:24.3	subjective and everyone has different tastes. So we've got a huge range of comedy on offer from
0:29.8	satire to silly, shocking to soothing, profound to just general pratting about.
0:35.3	So if you fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds.
0:40.1	How much would you go through to sit an exam?
0:44.0	How about this?
0:46.0	You've studied for months, nervous, you walk to the exam hall with your friends,
0:51.0	and there's a riot, Not a random outbreak of public disorder, a riot
0:56.8	specifically against you and people like you being allowed to study this
1:01.5	subject at all.
1:03.0	It's a huge shouting, jeering, hooting mob.
1:12.8	Hundreds of people.
1:14.8	They throw rubbish at you, handfuls of mud.
1:17.2	You have to push through the crowd
1:18.7	to get to the exam hall gates,
1:20.4	but the rioters slam it in your face. The crowd presses closer.
1:25.0	They're yelling abuse at you. It's terrifying.
	...

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