Pioneers
in the classroom
When the presence of women in the university was still a minority, some did not hesitate to pursue their vocation and, not without difficulties, bet on continuing their training and starting a university degree program . In the file and in the records of Academic management , we find the story of women who had to make their way, joining their steps to those of a nascent University of Navarra.
The Estudio General de Navarra, the seed of the University, was born in 1952. Its pioneer School , the then School of Law, was launched with 8 professors and 47 students. Or rather, with 46 students and one student. María Luisa García Goyena had enrolled three days before classes began, becoming the first student at the University of Navarra. She took the last two courses of the degree program in Murcia for family reasons, but María Luisa paved the way for others to arrive later, such as María Marcellán Alluevaa student of the second law graduating class, or María Esther Zaratieguiwho in the 1960s, working closely with Álvaro d'Ors, helped to start up the University Library, of which she later became director.
As in the rest of Spanish universities in the early 1950s, the presence of women in the classrooms was still very small.
In 1954, the School of Medicine began its activity. María Luisa Subirá (I Promotion), Chus de Meer (II Promotion) or Inés Dorronsoro (V Promotion) are the names of some of the first women in this discipline. Carmen Gómez Lavín is another of the names that are known as a pioneer. Together with Eduardo Ortiz de Landázuri and Juan Jiménez Vargas, Carmen opened wide the doors of the research in the old Pavilion F of the Hospital de Navarra, which the School used for its classes and internships. Her thesis was the second to be read on the Pamplona campus , only sixteen days after that of Bernardo Pinto Mateos, also a medical student. Entitled "Experimental investigations on physiology and pharmacology of airway reflexes", the defense took place on November 4, 1963 in classroom 5 of the present Research Building, and the work obtained an A cum laude.
María Luisa García Goyena was the first student of the University of Navarra. She belonged to the first graduating class of the School of Law, the pioneer class, made up of 46 students and one alumna.
María Casal became, at the age of twenty-five, the first director of the then School of Nursing, a position she held until 1959.
Carmen knew well what it was to be a pioneer because she had studied the degree program at the University of Granada, where in 1955 there were only ten girls; four in her class. A similar scenario to the one experienced by Ángela Mouriz Ángela Mouriz. She had studied medicine at the Central University of Madrid, being one of eight women in a class of more than 200 men. In Pamplona, in 1955, Ángela Mouriz became the first professor of the School of Medicine, first teaching Physiology practices and already in the 1957/58 academic year, as professor of Pharmacology of the School, to which she dedicated most of her degree program professor until her retirement.
Dr. Mouriz's curriculum highlights the award of the Humboldt scholarship , which she won in 1965 and with which she spent a year doing research in Munich (Germany). There, in the experimental department of Neurophysiology of the Max Plank Institute of Psychiatry, under the orders of Otto Detlev Creutzfeldt, she developed a pharmacology based on physiology to explain the reaction of drugs in the organism.
Ángela Mouriz shared teaching with another of the women who paved the way at the University: María Casal. Also a physician, she had begun her programs of study at the University of Seville, being the only woman in her class; she then moved, in the early 1950s, to the University of Barcelona, where she continued with her degree program There she collaborated in the Physiology laboratory with Professor Juan Jiménez Vargas, appointed in 1954 as the first Dean of the School of Medicine, who proposed her to start up the Nursing programs of study in Pamplona. María Casal thus became, at the age of twenty-five, the first director of the then School of Nursing of the University of Navarra, a position she held until 1959. Together with María Victoria Tabernero, Sagrario Aguinaga y María Jesús Domingo, the School's first management team, took on the challenge of directly training the School' s first graduating classes. Twenty-four students enrolled in the first class.
First graduating class of the School of Nursing of the University of Navarra, with 24 students enrolled.
In 1955, Ángela Mouriz became the first professor at the School of Medicine, first teaching Physiology and in the 1957/58 academic year, as professor of Pharmacology.
Carmen Gómez Lavin defended her thesis " thesis experimentales sobre fisiología y farmacología de reflejos de las vías respiratorias" on November 4, 1963 in classroom 5 of the present Research Building, and obtained a grade A cum laude . It was the second thesis to be read on the Pamplona campus .
Just like women's access to the university, their entrance and ascent in the academic degree program was slow, but steady.
Until 1970 there were only eleven women professors in Spain. One of them was María Pilar Fernández Otero who that same year had won the Chair of "Animal Physiology" of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Santiago. Her name and that of the University of Navarra were joined fifteen years later, in 1985, when María Pilar joined the faculty of the School of Pharmacy, of which she was dean for nine years. She then served for twelve more years as Vice President of research. A service that the University recognized by awarding her the Gold Medal in 2008.
Another pioneer in the academic degree program was Carmen Castillowho came to the University in 1962 as a teaching assistant professor in the School of Philosophy and Letters. In 1972 she became the second woman in Spain to obtain a Chair in Latin Philology .
A similar case is that of Concepción García Gainzaa graduate of the third class of the School of Philosophy and Letters. In 1962 she began her degree program professor and in 1975 she reached the highest rank in university teaching , becoming, in addition, the first professor of Art History in Spain.
A few years later, in 1983, another former student of the University, this time from the School of Sciences, made history once again by becoming the youngest professor in Spain in her area: Cell Biology. She was Pilar Sesmawho also received the Gold Medal of the University in 2016.
María Pilar Fernández Otero was one of eleven women professors in Spain until 1970.
Carmen Castillo, the second woman in Spain to obtain a Chair in Latin Philology
Pilar Sesma became the youngest professor in Spain in her area: Cell Biology.
All these pioneering women are only the example of many more, whose bequest goes beyond classrooms and laboratories, and whose footsteps have marked the path for many others. Their decision to pursue university programs of study , to dedicate themselves to research or to start an academic degree program laid the instructions so that today the presence of women in the University is an unquestionable reality. Her life and her work reminds us that Education is a tool for transformation. Thanks to her efforts, today's generations can have access to the knowledge and research on equal terms, building a future full of talent.
Concepción García Gainza, a graduate of the third class of the School of Philosophy and Letters, began her degree program professor in 1962 and in 1975 reached the highest rank in university teaching , becoming, in addition, the first professor of Art History in Spain.
Women in Spanish universities
In 1872, Maria Elena Maseras enrolled to study medicine at the University of Barcelona. She was the first woman university student in Spain. However, women were not required to attend a class, and there were delays in the issuance of their university degrees, which did not even qualify them for professional practice. Of the 36 women university students who enrolled in Spain before 1910, only 8 managed to publish their doctoral thesis .
Those pioneering women at the end of the 19th century began to go to university taking advantage of the legal vacuum that existed. At the beginning, they were not forbidden, because, simply, no one had contemplated the possibility of a woman wanting to study. Then, shortly after the first women went to university, they were forbidden to entrance. And it was like that until 115 years ago.
On March 8, 1910, a royal decree was signed in Spain authorizing equal enrollment of male and female students, allowing both sexes equal access to higher teaching . The presence of women in the University continued to be, however, a minority.
"The entrance of a woman in a Spanish university, following the official channels, does not take place until the end of the XIX century. From that moment on, women were gradually incorporated into university programs of study , although it is true that under unequal conditions and with many more obstacles and difficulties than those imposed on their peers. During most of the 20th century, the presence of women in university life was a minority (...) and was limited to certain programs of study that were considered by society to be much more appropriate to the role that women played in the family environment".
The presence of women in the Spanish University, a study by Laura López de la Cruz, Pablo de Olavide University of Seville.
"(Women) had to overcome, first, multiple social barriers and weighed family agreements before enrolling, and then ministerial authorization. In addition, they had to be accompanied to the classrooms and sit in a special place next to the teacher. And at the end of the programs of study, they were not exempt from vetoes when it came to issuing them with licentiate degree, registering with the Professional Associations of Medicine or Pharmacy and beginning to practice the degree program studied.
University Women in Spain: from the beginnings to the present, Ana Guil Bozal. University of Seville
In 1940, women represented 12.6% of the student body in higher Education centers; in 1970 they represented 31%. According to the data collected in the publication of Professor Lopez de la Cruz, women were mainly studying Philosophy and Letters and Sciences (especially Chemistry and Pharmacy). As of 1950, 69.9% of Philosophy and Letters students are women. In Pharmacy, they are the majority from 1960 onwards.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the role of most women in Spain was reduced to the family sphere, i.e. caring for their husbands and Education their children. Among other things, women could not dispose of their own property, open a bank account without permission, buy a house and had difficulty obtaining a passport to travel outside the country if they were unaccompanied.