They put a male genital organ in her lab coat pocket to humiliate her in front of her classmates. She, according to an anecdote passed down in her biography, waited for the end of the lesson, took it out and calmly asked: “Did any of you miss this?”.
Era Paulina Luisithe only woman to study Medicine in Uruguay, at a time when her presence at the university was considered almost a provocation.
But that student, whom her colleagues tried to embarrass in every way, would become the first female doctor in the country and one of the most important figures of Latin American feminism.
The first woman to graduate in Medicine in Uruguay
Born on September 22, 1875 in Colón, Argentina, Paulina Luisi grew up in a family of teachers with progressive ideas. The father, Ángel Luisiwas an Italian who had fought alongside Garibaldi; the mother, María Teresa Josefina Janickiwas an educator of Polish origin. Both were convinced that education was the first tool for women’s emancipation.
Having moved with her family to Uruguay, Paulina initially became a teacher, but wanted to go further. For this reason, in 1900, he enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of the Republic of Montevideo, entering an almost exclusively male environment. And there the prejudices were enormous: many believed it was inappropriate for a woman to study anatomy, observe naked bodies or practice the medical profession.
But Paulina did not give up her goal. In 1908 she obtained a degree in Medicine and Surgery, becoming the first Uruguayan woman to obtain that title. He specialized in gynecology and, later, in dermatology and venereal diseases in Paris.
For Paulina, however, curing illnesses was not enough. Through her medical work she understood how women’s health was affected by poverty, lack of education and social inequalities. Thus, he dedicated himself to the so-called social hygienestudying the relationship between living conditions and health, and began to fight against women trafficking, sexual exploitation and regulated prostitution. Above all, she contested the hypocrisy of a system that imposed health checks on prostituted women, without questioning the responsibilities of men and the mechanisms of exploitation.
Another of his great battles concerned sexual education: already in 1906 he proposed introducing it into schools, arguing that girls and boys should receive scientific information on their bodies, on the prevention of diseases and on sexual health.
A revolutionary idea for a time when talking openly about sexuality, especially to women, was still a taboo. But has something changed…?
The battle for the vote for women
In 1916, Paulina founded the National Council of Women of Uruguay and in 1919 the Uruguayan Alliance for Women’s Suffrage, becoming one of the main protagonists of the fight for the right to vote. Through conferences, articles and associations, she called for women’s access to education, work, political participation and equal treatment. She also contributed to the birth of women’s trade unions, including those of telephone operators and seamstresses.
Her battle led to a historic achievement: in 1932 Uruguay recognized by law the right to vote for women, who were able to participate in national elections in 1938.
Paulina was also one of the founders of the Uruguayan Socialist Party and took her ideas beyond national borders, participating in international conferences and in the work of the League of Nations against trafficking in women and children.
In the 1930s he sided against fascism and supported the Spanish Republic during the civil war, continuing to defend peace and human rights.
Paulina Luisi died in Montevideo in July 1950, after having dedicated her life to medicine, education and women’s emancipation. In a society that considered women too fragile for science, too inexperienced for politics and too subordinate to decide about their own bodies, Paulina demonstrated that there was nothing natural about those limits.
