María Teresa Ferrari, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetMaría Teresa Ferrari
Argentinian physician and university professor
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Buenos Aires, Argentina
About María Teresa Ferrari
- María Teresa Ferrari (11 October 1887 – 30 October 1956) was an Argentine educator, medical doctor, and women's rights activist.
- She was the first female university professor in Latin America and one of the first women allowed to teach medicine.
- She was a pioneering researcher in women's health, studying the use of radiation therapy rather than surgery for uterine tumors and developing a vaginoscope which revolutionized women's health care in Brazil.
- She established the first maternity ward and gynecological services at the Hospital Militar Central of Buenos Aires in 1925, which provided the first incubation services in the country. Born into a wealthy family, whose forebears had been involved in ensuring Argentina's independence from Spain, she was not expected to work outside the home.
- Yet Ferrari not only chose to have a career, she insisted on participating in the male-dominated medical profession.
- She first earned a teaching diploma and became a school teacher, then graduated in medicine in 1911.
- After completing her residency, she applied to teach at the university level, but instead was offered a teaching post at the School of Midwifery.
- Outraged, she fought for 13 years against the prejudices which prevented her advancing in her career.
- In 1927, Ferrari won her fight and was granted a professorship as an alternate.
- Finally in 1939, she was awarded a full professorship. Ferrari undertook additional medical study in Europe and the United States, learning pioneering techniques that she brought back to Argentina.
- She studied urinary tract monitoring at the Medical Faculty of Paris, earning the first diploma ever given to a woman.
- She designed a vaginoscope, studied radiation therapy at the Curie Institute, and performed a Caesarean section at Columbia University.
- She was responsible for bringing these innovations back with her to Argentina and implementing them at the maternity and gynecological unit she established at the Military Hospital.
- An ardent feminist, she established the Argentina Federation of University Women in 1936, and pushed for recognition of both civil and political rights for women.
- When the government of Argentina took a conservative turn in the late 1930s, she was pushed out of the hospital and later, in the early 1950s, out of teaching.
- She died in 1956.
Read more at Wikipedia
See Also
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