TALK “The Girls are taking an Ambulance Class!”: Gender and First Aid

An evening lecture in partnership with the St John Historical Society.

The introduction of ambulance classes in Britain in the late nineteenth century saw their enthusiastic reception from women across the country. However, female participation in the classes also brought to the surface societal anxieties about women’s place within medical spaces. This talk delves deeper into women’s’ experiences with first aid in its earliest days and what it tells us about the relationship between gender and healthcare in the period.

Dr Sally Frampton is a Research Associate at the Faculty of History, University of Oxford. She undertook her doctoral training at University College London and has published extensively in the field of medical history. Sally has written for The Guardian and The Lancet and contributed to educational initiatives such as TED-Ed.

Image: Detail from 'Lady First Aiders' in Funny Folk September 29 1883.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Museum of the Order of St John, St John's Gate, London, United Kingdom