María Teresa Ferrari
María Teresa Ferrari | |
---|---|
Born | María Teresa Ferrari Alvarado 11 October 1887 Buenos Aires, Argentina |
Died | 30 October 1956 Buenos Aires, Argentina | (aged 69)
Nationality | Argentine |
Other names | María Teresa Ferrari de Gaudino |
Occupation(s) | Educator, physician |
Years active | 1904–1952 |
María Teresa Ferrari (1887-1956) was an Argentine educator and medical doctor. She was the first female university professor in Latin America and one of the first females allowed to teach medicine. She was a pioneering researcher in women's health studying use of radiology versus surgery for uterine tumors.
Biography
María Teresa Ferrari Alvarado was born on 11 October 1887 in Buenos Aires, Argentina[1] to David Ferrari White and Catalina Alvarado. She enrolled at the Normal School Nº 1 of Buenos Aires and graduated with her teaching certificate in 1903.[2] Ferrari taught at the Colegio William Morris and the Escuela Nº 3 Bernardino Rivadavia. In 1904, she enrolled in medical school at the National University of Buenos Aires, graduating in 1911.[3] That same year, she married another graduating doctor, married Nicolás M. Gaudino and in 1918 the couple had their only child, Maurio Nicholás Gaudino.[4]
In 1914 she began working in the obstetrics clinic at the Hospital Ramos Mejía[4] and applied to teach obstetrics at the university but was denied. The statement issued by the proceedings of the Honorable Consejo Directivo (HCD) on 23 June 1915, stated, "People of the feminine sex, despite their titles, for physiological and psychological reasons, do not meet the required conditions to be engaged as professors in the Faculty [of Medicine]".[3] The following year, she was allowed to teach at the School of Midwifery[1] which lacked the prestige and credentials of a professorship at the university.[3] In 1919 when an opening for an alternate professorship opened, she applied again to the university and was met with resistance. The members of the HCD delayed calling together the jurors to fill the vacancy until 1925, altering evidence, ignoring recommendations, and evading a decision.[5]
While she was awaiting a decision, Ferrari continued her studies. Between 1921 and 1923 she visited many clinics in Europe including facilities in Austria, Belgium, England, France, Germany and Italy.[6] She assisted in the clinic of Marie Curie in Paris as well as in the Columbia Hospital for Women and Lying-In Asylum in Washington, DC.[4] She was particularly interested in studying alternatives to surgery and her studies on radiology at the Curie Institute became the basis for a 1928 thesis entitled “Tratamiento de los Fibromas Uterinos por el Radio” (Treating Uterine tumors with radiology).[7] In 1925, she was appointed as the Argentine governmental delegate to the First Child Welfare Congress in Geneva. She returned to Argentina and was appointed the head of gynecology and maternity at Hospital Militar in Buenos Aires, a post which she held until 1939.[6] Finally, in 1927, the jurors met and by a vote of thirteen to two approved Ferrari's application for an alternate professorship[8] and the news of the first female professor in Latin America made headlines throughout the region.[9]
In 1930, she served as the Argentine delegate for both the VII Medical Congress of Latin America held in Mexico and 2nd Congress of the Pan-American Medical Association in Panama. Between 1930 and 1932 she returned to the United States for additional studies.[3][10] Then in 1936, she founded the Argentina Federation of University Women with the goal of improving the social and legal standing of women and specifically opening educational doors. In 1938, the Argentine organization joined the International Federation of University Women, which had served as Ferrari's inspiration.[11] Finally in 1939, Ferrari was made a full professor, receiving the title “Profesor Extraordinario” of the Obstetrics Faculty.[12]
Throughout the 1940s she continued her education traveling to Cuba, New York, Pennsylvania, Peru, and Puerto Rico, publishing her research in multiple magazines.[13] In 1946 resigned as president of the Argentina Federation of University Women[14] but she did continue to represent the organization at conferences, like the Primer Congreso Interamericano de Mujeres, which she attended at Guatemala City in 1947.[15] In 1952, rather than join the Peronista supporters and censor her ideals, she took full retirement.[3]
Ferrari died on 30 October 1956 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.[1]
Selected works[13]
- Contribución al estudio de la medicación hipofisiaria en Obstetricia Buenos Aires: Facultad de Ciencias Médicas (1912)
- Infecciones puerperales. Tratadas por vacunas Coli Buenos Aires: Anales de Sociedad de Obstetricia y Ginecología (1914)
- Vagido Uterino Buenos Aires: Revista Argentina Obstetricia y Ginecología (1917)
- Tumores del ovario complicando el embarazo, el parto y el puerperio Buenos Aires: La Semana Médica (1921)
- Siphilis et Mortalité Buenos Aires: La Semana Médica (1922)
- Traitement de la sténose du col de l’uterus par Tige Iribarbe Boletín de la Société de Gynecolegie et d’Obstetrique de París (1923)
- Vaginoscopio Buenos Aires: La Semana Médica (1924)
- Tratamiento de los Fibromas Uterinos por Radio Buenos Aires: Las Ciencias Buenos Aires, AG Bufarrini (1928)
- El Radio en la Fibromatosis Uterina Buenos Aires: La Semana Médica (1932)
- El Radio frente a la cirugía en el Tratamiento de los Fibromas uterinos Buenos Aires: Acción Médica Vol 22 (1939)
- Mme. Curie, la Radioactividad y sus proyecciones en a Física y la Terapéutica Buenos Aires: Vox Médica, Vol 10 (1941)
- 570 casos de Fibromas Uterins traités avec succés par la Curieteherapie Paris: Revue Gynecolegie et Ostetrique
- Fibromas Uterins traits avec success par la Curietherapie Praxis, Journal Suisse de Medicine (1948)
- Tratamiento de la Fibromatosis Uterina por el Radio Madrid: Toco Ginecología Práctica
References
- ^ a b c Cagliani, Martín A. "Mujeres Argentinas". Saber Golwen (in Spanish). Buenos Aires, Argentina: Historical Society. Archived from the original on 18 May 2006. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
- ^ Alvarez, Adriana; Carbonetti, Adrián (2008). Saberes y prácticas médicas en la Argentina : un recorrido por historias de vida (in Spanish) (1 ed.). Mar del Plata: H.I.S.A., Universidade Nacional de Mar del Plata. p. 137. ISBN 978-9-871-37119-8. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
- ^ a b c d e "Mujeres destacadas". Federación Argentina de Mujeres Universitarias (in Spanish). Buenos Aires, Argentina: Federación Argentina de Mujeres Universitarias. 3 January 2011. Archived from the original on 12 March 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
- ^ a b c "Alvarez & Carbonetti (2008)", p 138
- ^ "Alvarez & Carbonetti (2008)", p 145
- ^ a b Hilton, Ronald (editor) (1950). Who's Who in Latin America: Part V, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-804-70741-1. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
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has generic name (help) - ^ "Alvarez & Carbonetti (2008)", p 155
- ^ "Alvarez & Carbonetti (2008)", p 148
- ^ "Alvarez & Carbonetti (2008)", p 149
- ^ "Alvarez & Carbonetti (2008)", p 156
- ^ "Quiénes somos". Federación Argentina de Mujeres Universitarias (in Spanish). Buenos Aires, Argentina: Federación Argentina de Mujeres Universitarias. Archived from the original on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
- ^ "Alvarez & Carbonetti (2008)", p 151
- ^ a b "Alvarez & Carbonetti (2008)", pp 166-167
- ^ "Alvarez & Carbonetti (2008)", p 152
- ^ Miller, Francesca (1991). Latin American women and the search for social justice. Hanover: University Press of New England. p. 125. ISBN 0-87451-557-2. Retrieved 20 June 2015.