Home » The first woman to graduate in the world, in Padua, reminds us how ancient the female question is

The first woman to graduate in the world, in Padua, reminds us how ancient the female question is

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June 25, 1678 (yes, you read that right: 1678) Elena Cornaro Piscopia graduates. She is the first woman to graduate in Padua, in Italy and throughout the world. Everyone knew that something special was happening since the discussion of the degree thesis in Philosophy had been moved from the university to the cathedral to accommodate the large audience of onlookers coming, it seems, from various Italian universities. Elena Cornaro Piscopia discussed the doctoral thesis in Latin commenting on passages chosen by the examination commission which at the end, instead of meeting to deliberate the grades, chose to approve the new doctor on the spot. He had just turned 32 and she was never allowed to teach, as a woman: she died a few years very young, ending a life, as far as we have learned, rather unhappy.

She was born in Venice, fifth of seven children, from a noble father and a commoner mother, Already at age 6, his father was aware of his daughter’s intelligence and he had encouraged their education by hiring renowned teachers. At 19, when she was of marriageable age, Elena decided to become a Benedictine oblate, to devote herself to the religious life, in order to continue studying. He spoke Greek, Latin, Spanish, French and English, he played four instruments but his passion was theology. But when the father asked the University of Padua to assign his daughter a degree in Theology, the bishop (and the university chancelleries) said that “doctor a woman” was a “blunder” which would have made decision makers “ridiculous to the whole world“. Not the first and not even the last as we know, an “out of turn” intervention by the Church. But Elena did not give up, she changed subject and a few years later she managed to graduate.

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His business remains a world example of women’s emancipation, even bigger if you think that to have the second woman graduate in the world, also in Italy, it will be necessary to wait 54 years. And that only a few days ago Padua has had its first woman rector. The statue of Elena Cornaro Piscopia is in the courtyard of the University.

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