ABSTRACT
In 1854, when she was eighteen, Elizabeth Garrett and Louie went on a long visit to their school friends, Jane and Annie Crow. Elizabeth Garrett was drawn, once and for all, into the service of the women’s cause. She joined the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women and on 2 March 1859 attended a lecture by Dr Elizabeth Blackwell. A regular feature of The Englishwoman’s Journal was a series of articles on the careers of eminent women such as Florence Nightingale, Rosa Bonheur and the great Rachel. The subject of women physicians was one on which Emily Davies had very decided views. She was so convinced of the need for women doctors to attend women and children that she had even considered studying medicine herself, although the subject was distasteful to her. In Elizabeth Garrett, with her apparently rich father, her untapped reserves of intelligence and ambition, her unaffected manner and her magnificent health, was the ideal medical pioneer.
