The creator of the first nursing school, one of the first women engineers who was a professor at Cambridge, the woman who opened the profession of architecture to other women in Spain or the one who brought her voice to congress de los Diputados. Today, with the term sorority recently included in the dictionary of the RAE, we look at these women who already in the twentieth century worked to gain rights and make their way in different professional or academic disciplines. They worked for the recognition and respect of women.
The first nursing school
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) is considered a forerunner of modern professional nursing and creator of the first creator of the first conceptual nursing model . instructions She laid the foundation for the professionalization of nursing with the establishment, in 1860, of her school of nursing at St. Thomas's Hospital in London. school of nursing at St. Thomas's Hospital in London, now part of King'snow an integral part of King's College London and the NHS. It was the first secular nursing school in the world. This year marks the 200th anniversary of its birth and for this reason the WHO has declared 2020 as the International Year of Nursing. WHO has declared 2020 as the International Year of Nursing..
Professor Ana Choperena, Vice-Dean of Alumni at School Nursing, speaks about her as follows: "The links between the establishment of the first nursing school, the school of St. Thomas and the development of nursing worldwide is a strategic matter of Nightingale. To understand her success one must take into account her strong personality and her great ability to influence, as she was able to organize military and hospital nursing in England and influence the American nursing that was sprouting at that time. The good reception of the nurses who were trained in her school made it possible to transmit her voice and her bequest to all corners of the world".
Architecture, "in spite of everything and everyone".
Matilde Ucelay Maortúa (Madrid, 1912-2008) was the first Spanish woman to obtain the degree scroll of Architect in 1936. in 1936. After the civil war she had political difficulties and in 1942 she was sentenced to five years of professional inactivity. During that period it was her friends who signed her projects. She practiced her profession until she was 80 years old and Among his more than 120 works, it is worth mentioning the Oswald House in Madrid.. In 2004, four years before her death, she was recognized with the award National Architecture.
Professor Esperanza Marrodán points out that Matilde Ucelay opened the way for other women in an eminently masculine programs of study and profession. "Ucelay stands out for her commitment and dedication in such difficult years as those immediately after the war, in which she had to face, in addition to her condition as a woman in a man's world, the political problems arising from a liberal and open-minded way of thinking. She did not cease in her efforts. She designed and built despite everything and everyone, and her architecture echoes that open mind towards new forms. His figure brings together that pioneering and determined character that, beyond the value of his built work, places him as a milestone core topic in the history of Spanish architecture in the professional field. Sadly, in the academic field we will have to wait until 1995 to have the first female professor in a School of Architecture, Pascuala Campos de Michelena".
In defense of women's suffrage
Clara Campoamor (1988-1972) was a pioneer in the Law programs of study and the third woman to graduate in Spain in 1924 (admitted in 1925). She was also a pioneer parliamentarian in the Constituent Courts of 1931 (together with Margarita Nelken and Victoria Kent). (together with Margarita Nelken and Victoria Kent). Clara Campoamor was a triple pioneer because, in addition to her certificate as a deputy, she was the first to speak in Parliament, on September 1, 1931, becoming the first woman's parliamentary voice in Spain. first woman's parliamentary voice in Spain.. However, this statement must be qualified, since in the National Assembly (1927-1929), during the period of Primo de Rivera's Civil directory , several women acceded to national representation, occupying seats in the hemicycle. In addition, she was the first woman to was the first woman to participate in a Constitution Commission (1931). (1931).
"From the first moment in the Commission -and later, in the parliamentary discussion -, Campoamor was in favor of a series of women's rights. To her we owe the defense of the vote for women and the inclusion of the right to universal suffrage within the articles of the Constitution (article 34)", emphasizes Professor Mari Cruz Díaz de Terán. "She advocated the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of sex (article 25); the access of all Spaniards, without distinction of sex, to public jobs and positions according to their merit and ability (article 40); the principle of civil equality in marriage, divorce by mutual consent agreement or at written request if there was just cause and the equality of sons and daughters born in and out of wedlock, as well as the research of paternity (article 43). A clear thread running through his thinking that can be derived, both from his interventions in the Commission and in the subsequent parliamentary discussion and in his writings, was the idea that sex could not be the basis for any legal privilege".
In love with the works of St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross
Edith Stein (Breslavia, 1891 - Auschwitz, 1942). Philosopher and theologian of Jewish origin, trained in phenomenology with Husserl (1916-1919) and converted to Catholicism in 1922. Stein was the first woman to present a thesis on this discipline in Germany.. Among her most significant works are 'Finite and Eternal Being' and 'The Science of the Cross', in addition to her thesis on empathy, and her course on The Structure of the Human Person. Stein was canonized by John Paul II in 1998, and declared co-patroness of Europe..
"Stein was in love with the works of St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross, an active feminist for women's suffrage, a Carmelite since she could not teach because of the rise of the Nazis to power (1933); and died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz for being Jewish, identified with her people and with Christ," says Professor Juan Luis Lorda.
Only female engineer in Cambridge
Constance Tipper (1894-1995) was an English materials scientist and pioneer in fracture mechanics. After studying natural sciences at Cambridge, she worked in several prestigious laboratories analyzing the microstructure of metals. In 1949 she became a lecturer at School in Cambridge Engineering.and until her retirement in 1960 she was the only woman member of this School.
Naiara Rodríguez Flórez, professor at department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Tecnun-Escuela de Ingenieros highlights the following about this woman: "During the Second World War, Constance investigated the reasons why the Liberty ships, which were of vital importance for bringing supplies from the USA to the Allies, broke in two in the Atlantic. It was she who demonstrated that these fractures were a consequence of the properties of the steel from which they were constructed; Tipper established that under certain conditions steel becomes dangerously brittle. Her discoveries changed the way we understand brittleness, something that has made it possible to build safer ships, planes and cars. Today the standard method for determining the brittleness of steel is called the 'Tipper test'."