Admission of Women to the Pharmaceutical

Though entry to the profession had been easy, admission to the professional body, the Pharmaceutical Society, proved challenging. The Pharmaceutical Society had been founded in 1841.6 Pharmacy students and graduates were encouraged to join the Society — those who had passed the Preliminary as students, the Minor as associates, and the Major as members. Even though by law the Society was forced to admit women to its examinations, the Society acted on the premise that pharmacy was a male profession and that the Society itself was a male preserve. In fact, the assumption had been that the practice of 

The first woman to apply for membership of the Pharmaceutical Society was Elizabeth Leech in 1869.10 Leech had learned her pharmacy skills from her father, having worked in his shop for 7 years. Following his death, she shared the running of the shop with her brother for 6 years and then on her own for another 9 years. The Lancashire cotton famine had forced her out of business, and she had then become compounder and dispenser of prescriptions at the Munster House Lunatic Asylum, Fulham. Her application noted that she believed that membership in the Pharmaceutical Society would help her resume her business. Fearful that the Council might think she was a troublemaker, she wrote I have no wish upon any occasion to interfere with the Council or its meetings. All I want is the Membership. 11 The Council rejected her request a total of three times, the last being in 1872. 

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In several respects, the fight for the admission of women to the Pharmaceutical Society resembled the later battle for admission to the Chemical Society. The two Societies were not only professional bodies, but also served as a men s club necessitating all possible measures to exclude the alien species known as females. As the Chemical Society had its excluder in Armstrong, so the Pharmaceutical Society had Sandford, with his quote that "... the Pharmaceutical Society was intended to be a Society of men, ... 17 Likewise, the Chemical Society supporters, particularly Ramsey and Tilden, had their equivalent in the Pharmaceutical Society s Hampson. And, of course, there were a series of young women willing to take on the establishment of the Pharmaceutical Society, just as the 1904 petitioners had taken on the Chemical Society. 

Jordan, E. (1998). The great principle of English fair-play Male champions, the English women s movement and the admission of women to the Pharmaceutical Society in 1879. Women s History Review 7(3) 381-409. 

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