Medical Women and the Periodical Press: Sophia Jex-Blake, the Scotsman, and the Politics of Anonymity

Abstract

This dissertation focuses upon the role of the periodical press on the medical women’s campaign of the 1870s and uses the published and unpublished letters of Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake as its exemplar and its organizing principle. Specifically, it explores ways in which female medical students’ contributions to the daily newspaper the Scotsman between 1869-1873 enhanced the cultural status and public image of professional medical women. Drawing upon data collected from newspapers, unpublished archival texts, and published reports, this project offers an important look at the challenges faced by medical women as they attempted to gain authority not only as writers, but also as medical professionals and helps us understand the relationship between the two.