Women protagonists: students, workers and researchers who left their mark in the early years of the UdeC

In the first years of the institution, the students had a relevant numerical presence. Although there is no complete enrollment data, the enrollment records found in the Central Archive indicate that, out of a total of almost 500 records, women made up 39.1% of the enrollment, for enrollees between the years 1919 and 1931*. Of these young women, who mostly entered the UdeC between the ages of 18 and 19, 42% were enrolled in the Pharmacy course; 36% in Pedagogy, 13% in Dentistry, 6% in Medicine, 2% in Industrial Chemistry and zero in Law.

Medical students at the Institute of Physiology, c. 1928-1934. In the background, Professor Alejandro Lipschutz/UdeC Photographic Archive

These generations of students thus showed career choices adjusted to social expectations about female education, as can be seen when comparing the opinions in the press of the time. In 1924, the newspaper La Nación published a text defending the work of the UdeC, which recognized the work it carried out in favor of female education, and indicated that “there are few careers more suitable for a girl than that of a teacher. Something similar can be said of the dentist and pharmacist. On the other hand, I don’t imagine a girl as an engineer or a mine administrator”. Although the vast majority of the students enrolled in Pharmacy and Pedagogy courses, there were some enrollments in Industrial Chemistry, a career that would later become Chemical Engineering. These are four students who appear in the 1926 and 1927 enrollment: Emma Aguayo Evans, Adela Garcés Gaete, Irene Offermanns Flood and Lidia Pino Cochbain. However, there is no record that they have managed to graduate and at least until 1929, there was no woman with an engineering degree from the University.

Space for philanthropy

Another place from which women had a say in organizing the University was through charity and fundraising. While the men were part of the Pro-University Committee, their wives held events that sought input from the community. This is confirmed in the correspondence received. In 1921, a collection was developed in the cities of Concepción, Talcahuano, Coronel, Penco, Carahue, Traiguén, Perquenco, Nacimiento and Quillón. It was organized in Concepción by Ester Barañao de Molina (wife of the rector Enrique Molina), together with Cristina Moller de Ferrer, Hortensia Larenas de Burgos, Amelia Squella de Martínez, Blanca Ojeda de Gazmuri, Luisa Carmona de Spoerer and Hortensia Parga de Urrutia.

Ester Barañao de Molina/ Enrique Molina G Collection.

Another space for collaboration occurred in girls’ high schools. Both the women’s and men’s establishments became involved in supporting the new institution. The memories of the University show that, in 1917, among the 10 most relevant donations was that of the Santa Filomena Girls’ High School, for an amount of 2,507 pesos and that of the Concepción College, also for women, for 500 pesos.

Pharmacy Students, c.1919-1921/UdeC Photographic Archive.

The high schools also maintained communication with the UdeC to inform about the high school girls who were able to enter the University. In 1921, the Liceo Americano de Señoritas de Chillán sent the list of students who finished the sixth year of Humanities in 1920 and who could eventually choose the University of Concepción to obtain a profession. There are 20 students from cities like Chillán, San Carlos, Ninquihue and Temuco.

These communications show the interest that existed in studying at the University of Concepción, especially in those young women who were trained in high schools in the south of the country, and who by the beginning of the 20th century were already part of a network of establishments that were located in the main cities. The young women, after taking their baccalaureate, had as options to obtain a profession to transfer to the university schools of the University of Chile or to their similes at the University of Concepción. In the case of the UdeC, the data shows that the students did take the opportunity with enthusiasm.

workers

Regarding the presence of women in the work spaces offered by the University, the first worker mentioned in the reports dates back to 1922: Leonor Merino Vargas, recently graduated as a pharmacist and member of the first generation of graduates, who took over of the Model Pharmacy, an establishment that served as a practice center and public service to the community. According to administrative documentation, contained in the book of correspondence received from 1923, Merino worked at least until that date as a pharmacy manager, with a monthly salary of 400 pesos, equivalent to what a technical preparer in a laboratory earned.

Model Pharmacy/UdeC Photographic File

That same year, she was accompanied on the payroll of the Pharmacy and Chemistry staff by Sabina Luengo, cashier at Farmacia Modelo, Inés Rougier, inspector, Ana María Ochoa, head of Physics jobs, Paulina Rubio, head of inorganic chemistry jobs, and Elena Medina, head of Organic Chemistry works. With this, six of the 61 positions in these schools were served by women and two of them, Leonor and Elena, belonged to the first generation of graduates.

According to the minutes of the directory, which contains the information addressed to the Treasury, between 1928 and 1930, at least 66 women were working at the University, in positions such as heads of work in laboratories, assistants, library assistants, typographers and teachers. In the case of the teachers, these were mostly in the Annex School, dependent on the School of Education, in areas such as pre-school education, English, physical education and other subjects. Meanwhile, between the years 1933 and 1934, there are decrees appointing about thirty women in various positions: assistants, assistants, laboratory assistants, statistical officers, among others, with salaries ranging from 150 pesos to 400 pesos per month. , the latter in the case of technical coaches.

Among the women hired in this initial period of the University, there were those who made a career up to the highest positions in the academic administration, as was the case of Professor Corina Vargas de Medina, who became Dean of Education in 1943. Corina Vargas entered the University in 1920, one year after its foundation, to study Pedagogy in English. In 1924 she moved to the United States to study psychology at Teachers College of Columbia University. The academic she developed different professional and administrative tasks until 1963, when she presented her retirement file, as indicated in the book “Corina Vargas, pioneer of Chilean education”, by Professor Carlos Muñoz Labraña.

Corina Vargas de Medina

Another professional who developed her entire academic career at the institution was Elena Medina Mckey, who graduated as a pharmacist in 1922. By 1920 she was already the head of General Chemistry works, according to her enrollment file. In 1934 she became assistant professor of Inorganic Chemistry, on an interim basis, being the first person to hold that position. She retired in the 1950s and had responsibilities as a full professor at the School of Chemistry and Pharmacy. In the field of research, the memories of the 1930s highlight the work of Teresa Vivaldi Laura, who collaborated with Dr. Alejandro Lipschutz, director of the Institute of Physiology. Vivaldi developed research on prolan (an old name given to the hormones that act on the human sexual glands). Unfortunately, Vivaldi’s career was cut short by her death, a product of the 1939 earthquake, which meant the loss of several professionals linked to the institution.

Professor Juanita Van Rysselberghe (second row, first person seated from left to right) in the premises of the Girls’ High School /UdeC Photographic Archive

Even though it is incomplete, this account of the female presence at the University of Concepción, rescued from its historical documentation, gives an account of the work that they carried out during the first decades of institutional life, opening new perspectives on the contribution that, both women and men, They did to build the foundations of the institution, leaving traces that last to this day.

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*This is a review of 491 registration forms that the author is analyzing in the framework of her doctoral thesis in History “Women in higher education, factors that influenced the admission of the first generations to the University of Concepción”.

Sources

La Nación newspaper, Diego Portales E University Archive. La Nación newspaper, February 5, 1924, “High School and University of Concepción”, p.3.

Dossier of the School of Chemical Engineering, University of Concepción, 1929.

Munoz, Carlos. 2016. Corina Vargas, pioneer of Chilean education. Concepción, editions Faculty of Education, University of Concepción.

From the Central Archive of the University of Concepción:

Records of the Honorable Directory of the University of Concepción (Treasury) 1928-1930.

Correspondence received, years 1921-1923.

Decrees of appointment, years 1933-1935.

Memories of the University of Concepción, years 1917-1922 and 1939.

Images: University of Concepción Photographic Archive.