Jex-Blake, Sophia, 1840–1912, English physician, active in opening the medical profession to women in England. A graduate of Queen's College, London, she began (1866) her medical studies in the United States and continued them in Edinburgh, but she met much opposition there and was unable to obtain a degree. She carried the battle to Parliament, which finally passed a law enabling the medical schools to give degrees to women. Jex-Blake was influential in founding medical schools for women in London and Edinburgh.
See her Medical Women (1886, repr. 1970); biography by M. Todd (1918).
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