300 years of Edinburgh Medical School: How women made amazing advances in surgery despite official sexism
A lecture held today in Old College, which excluded women for the entirety of its time as part of Edinburgh Medical School, will highlight the transformation in attitudes in medicine over the last century
In 1726, the faculty of medicine at the University of Edinburgh was established. As part of the programme of events this year to mark the tercentenary, a series of public lectures by both students and experts, focussed on what the medical school can learn from its history, is being held. The second of these, titled The Women of Edinburgh Medical School, will take place today in Old College.
Last year a call was put out for nominations for ‘300 faces’ that reflect the 300 years of the medical school – seeking participation from both the public and the university community for suggestions, not just of the well-kent faces who have shaped it, but also those whose have traditionally been overlooked.
Today’s talk will place a spotlight on some of the women among those 300 faces, and explain why their stories have enduring and inspirational relevance to modern medical practice.
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Scotland’s first female surgeon
This public lecture will be given by three women closely associated with the medical school, and held in the lecture theatre within Old College – from which women were excluded for the entirety of its time as part of the medical school (before the move to Teviot Place in the 1880s, medicine was taught in the north-west corner of Old College).
Holding the lecture there will have resonance in terms of the transformation of the role and status of women in medicine over the last century.
Lorna Marson is professor of transplant surgery and deputy head of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine; she will focus on two women who contributed to surgery in the early 20th century in very different ways. First, Gertrude Marianne Amalia Herzfeld (1890-1981) who blazed a trail for women surgeons in the UK.
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As the daughter of Jewish Austrian émigrés, she was determined to study medicine despite significant barriers, and was the first female house surgeon at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.
She was the second woman to pass the examination for fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and by 1920 became the first practising female surgeon in Scotland. She was appointed a consultant surgeon to several Edinburgh hospitals, including the Sick Children’s and Bruntsfield Hospital for Women and Children (which was the converted home of another ground-breaking advocate for education and training of women in medicine, Sophia Jex-Blake).
Extraordinary contributions to surgery
Public bias precluded female surgeons from operating on adult men, but by focussing on children Herzfeld made extraordinary contributions to surgery. She was one of the first surgeons to understand that children are not merely small adults, but unique both physiologically and emotionally.
Herzfeld published valuable work on the management of abdominal hernias, on acute abdominal pain, and of helping children with ambiguous genitalia and intersex conditions. She approached these problems with a sensitivity and compassion which was ahead of her time.
Secondly, Professor Marson will talk about the contribution of Helen Meldrum McMillan, only the third woman to obtain fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons. Taking her seat there just a year after Herzfeld in 1921.
After attending classes at Elsie Inglis’ Medical College for Women, McMillan graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1907. From 1908-1933 she was employed by the Foreign Mission Committee largely in Ajmer, India, founding and developing a Women’s Mission Hospital there.
McMillan acquired advanced surgical skills and her letters reveal not only the range of surgical procedures she performed, but a deep compassion for those in her care. She also played a major role in the training of nurses.
Enabling more people to find a medical career
The lecture’s next speaker will be Dr Lesley Dawson, a medical oncologist at the Western General Hospital, who qualified from Edinburgh Medical School in 1991. She will talk about the vital and transformative work of three contemporary women of the medical school.
First, Dr Ashley Simpson whose research into ways of supporting students and doctors from backgrounds not traditionally associated with the medical profession has put a spotlight on the value of widening participation in medical careers. Dawson will also talk about the work of Mhairi Collie – a colorectal surgeon whose work goes beyond the "day job" of specialist surgery to support women in Africa who have suffered complications of childbirth – and Professor Gill Aitken, the dean of education, who champions a commitment to lifelong learning and training.
Dawson will suggest that as a medical school, Edinburgh commits to supporting the dreams and aspirations of the next generation of doctors and colleagues regardless of their background.
Heen Shamaz is a current sixth-year student, due to qualify as a doctor this year, and her presentation will focus around the future of medicine, and on two recent graduates: Dr Maha Arif (qualified 2025), who played a vital role in setting up a widening participation society at Edinburgh, and Dr Aya Riad (qualified 2023), who was the convenor of the Medical Students Council through the Covid pandemic, and a powerful mentor for younger women ambitious to train in surgery.
Shamaz’s presentation will explore the value of equality, diversity and inclusion in medicine, as well as the way both women’s leadership skills are an ongoing inspiration to younger year groups – including herself.
“Both Arif and Riad demonstrate the core of equality and equity in medicine,” Shamaz says, “which can be summed up as 'lift as you climb' – something I also try to incorporate in my practice.”
Today’s talk is fully booked, but a waiting list, and information on other events, can be found at: https://medicine-vet-medicine.ed.ac.uk/300-years-of-medicine/events
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