WOMEN IN THE EARLY DAYS OF PHARMACY IN GREAT BRITAIN

ABSTRACT
This paper deals with the beginnings and historical evolution of Pharmacy studies in Great Britain and on the role played by the first women who practiced the profession there, The circumstances of that time, which made it very difficult for a woman to work in that area, the biography of the first English woman licensed in Pharmacy, Fanny Deacon, and the biographies of the women who followed her as graduates in Pharmacy in Great Britain are commented, detailing not only their personal data but also the impact they had on the evolution and development of Pharmacy studies in their country. These women were Alice Vickery, Isabella Skinner Clarke, Margaret Elizabeth Buchanan, Rose Coombes Minshull, and Agnes Thompson Borrowman. The main objective of the paper is to reveal the figures of these first women in Pharmacy in Great Britain to society, To do this, the methodology used has been usual in researches of this type: search of data on these women in bibliographical and computer sources, as well as in historic archives. As main results, the biographies of these pioneers pharmacist women mentioned above have been elaborated.

KEYWORDS
History of Pharmacy; first steps of Pharmacy in Great Britain; first graduates in Pharmacy in Great Britain; gender difficulties; Fanny Deacon; Alice Vickery; Isabella Skinner Clarke; Agnes Thompson

INTRODUCTION
Answering the question of who Great Britain's first female pharmacist was depended on the exact definition given to the term “pharmacist”. It is very difficult to answer this question if this term is not clearly specified and it is well determined, to know if the "wise women" of the distant past or female apothecaries can be included or not in it.
But if we understand by “pharmacist” a person who has an official degree title in this sense, then several names can be given to that question: the English Fanny Deacon, Alice Vickery, Isabella Skinner Clarke or Rose Coombes Minshull, or the Scotswoman Agnes Thompson Barrowman, for example.
This article, framed in the studies on Pharmacy in Great Britain, sets out the triple objective of recalling the beginnings of that discipline and the historical evolution of its studies in that region, showing the biography of the first English woman who graduated in Pharmacy in the British Isles: Fanny Deacon and also show the biographies of the women who followed her as graduates in Pharmacy in those countries, detailing their personal aspects and the impact they had on the evolution and development of Pharmacy studies in their countries.
The article is structured in the following sections. After this Introduction, Section 1 deals with the origins of Pharmacy in Great Britain. Section 2 shows the biography of Fanny Deacon, the first female pharmacist in Great Britain, who obtained the title of Chemist and Pharmacist in 1869.