Cecilia Grierson
Encyclopedia
Cecilia Grierson was an Argentine physician, reformist, and prominent Freethinker
. She had the added distinction of being the first woman to receive a Medical Degree in Argentina.
in 1859 to Jane Duffy, an Irish Argentine woman, and John Parish Robertson Grierson. Her paternal grandfather, William Grierson, was among the Scottish colonists who had arrived in Buenos Aires in 1825 to settle Santa Catalina-Monte Grande
.
Grierson spent her early childhood on her family’s estancia
in Entre Ríos Province
, where her family were prosperous farmers. At the age of six she was sent to attend English and French schools in Buenos Aires, but had to return home upon the early death of her father. She assisted her mother in managing a country school, and would eventually teach there. Cecilia returned to Buenos Aires to enroll at the Nº 1 Girls Normal School
, where she graduated as teacher in 1878. She taught for a number of years at a nearby boys’ school, and decided to study medicine.
, becoming in 1885 the first Argentine woman to earn a university diploma in Argentina. Passo overcame numerous rejected applications and returned to earn a Medical Degree. She became seriously ill while in the fifth year of medical school, however, and died in 1893 without a diploma.
Women were barred from the School of Medicine at the nation's four universities in operation at the time; indeed, few women in 19th century Argentina enrolled in formal secondary education. Grierson, however, was an exceptional student, volunteering as an unpaid assistant at the university laboratory, and in 1885, beginning her internship under the auspices of the Public Health Department. She organized an ambulance
service while with the department, introducing the use of alarm bells (equivalent to today’s sirens), an innovation that until then had been exclusive to the fire brigade. Her work during an 1886 cholera
epidemic garnered her widespread acknowledgment for her efficient work in caring for patients in the Isolation Unit (in present-day Hospital Muñiz
).
Grierson was also a pioneer in kinesiology
. She introduced a course in massage therapy at the School of Medicine, and later articulated her ideas in her textbook, Practical Massage. The book was widely read and played a key role in the development of modern kinesiology in Argentina. She joined the staff at the important Hospital Rivadavia
in 1888, and graduated in 1889 upon her successful defense of her thesis on gynecology: Histero-ovariotomías efectuadas en el Hospital de Mujeres desde 1883 a 1889 (Ovary Extractions at the Women’s Hospital, 1883-1889). Grierson thus became the first woman in Argentina to earn a Medical Degree
.
She joined the medical staff at Hospital San Roque (today Hospital Ramos Mejía
) upon graduation. She also offered classes in anatomy
at the Academia de Bellas Artes, and provided free psychological and learning consultations for children with special needs, particularly blind
and deaf mute children. She also finished her textbooks: La educación del ciego (The Education of the Blind), Cuidado del enfermo (Patient Care) and Primer Tratado Nacional de Enfermería (First National Nursing Textbook).
Grierson founded the first nursing school
in Argentina, the Nursing School of the Hospital Británico de Buenos Aires
, in 1890. Student nurses attended classes on childcare, first aid and treatment of patients. This initiative led, in 1891, to the creation of the Nursing School, which Grierson directed until 1913. This success helped make her a founding member of the Argentine Medical Association
(1891). Encouraged by the reports of the Third International Conference of the Red Cross on first aid
training, she created the Argentine First Aid Society in 1892, publishing a book on the care of accident victims.
Taking part in 1892 in the first cesarean section performed in Argentina, she founded the National Obstetrics Association in 1901, and its journal, Revista Obstétrica. She also gave gymnastics
lessons at the School of Medicine and mentored the few other female students that had enrolled; one of these, Armandina Poggetti, in 1902 became the first woman in Argentina to earn a degree in Pharmacology
.
Grierson founded the Society for Domestic Economy in 1902. This organization, later renamed the Technical School for Home Management, was the first of its kind in the country, and in 1907, she instituted the Domestic Sciences
course at the Buenos Aires Girls’ Secondary School (the first such course in Argentina). Following her 1909 report on improving conditions in Europe regarding education, living standards, and the availability of vocational school
s, the National Education Council
approved a curriculum for vocational schools in Argentina. Grierson published Educación técnica de la mujer (Women’s Technical Education), introducing the study of day care
in these schools. She held teaching positions in the School of Fine Arts and the National Secondary School for Girls, where she taught from its inception in 1907. The Argentine government named her as a representative to the First International Eugenics Conference, held in London
in 1912.
and the women’s emancipation movement that had developed in the United States
and the United Kingdom
.
Grierson was named Vice President of the second meeting of the suffragist organization, the International Council of Women
(ICW), held in London in 1889. This led her to establish the Argentine Women’s Council (CNM) in 1900. The CNM, in the person of Grierson and Elvira Rawson de Dellepiane, presented a draft bill in 1906 to the National Congress providing for the creation of funds for social welfare benefits and maternity leave for working-class women. The bill was not passed, however, nor was another measure drafted by Grierson banning the white slave trade.
Rifts developed within the CNM, however. Alvina Van Praet de Sala, the president, arranged for a priest to attend all their meetings, a decision which was opposed by Grierson and her allies. These began to identify themselves more closely with feminism and to promote a more vigorous campaigns in favor of women’s suffrage. Some thirty university and professional women, including Grierson, broke with the more conservative Catholic line in the CNM. They, among them Grierson, Elvira Rawson de Dellepiane, Julieta Lantieri Renshaw
, Alicia Moreau de Justo
, and other prominent women from academia, co-founded the Association of Argentine University Women (AMUA), the first university student association for women in the country, in 1904. The AMUA sought to engage with the problems of working-class women as much as with those of female university graduates. They campaigned against women’s inferior legal status, their exclusion from civic activity and lack of access to education relative to men. They also campaigned for civil and political rights, the rights of children (particularly illegitimate children), legalized divorce
; and against alcoholism
, prostitution
, and gambling
. Grierson presided over the First International Women’s Conference, organized by the AMUA.
Grierson was an active supporter of the Argentine Freethinkers
Association (AALP), which advocated rationalism
, anticlericalism, a scientific approach to life, and full equality for women. The AALP sought to join the CNM, but were rejected on account of their anticlerical views. This provoked a new confrontation between Grierson and the membership of the CNM, upon which she joined the Women’s Socialist Centre. Grierson chaired the First International Feminist Conference of Argentina organized by the Association of University Women during the Argentine Centennial
, in 1910. This provoked her departure from the CNM, which, with official support, had organized the rightist First Patriotic Women’s Congress. Grierson articulated her opposition to a turn to the right on the part of Argentine feminists in her 1910 treatise Decadencia del Consejo Nacional de Mujeres de la República Argentina (Degeneration of the Argentine National Women’s Council).
, during her retirement, practicing family medicine on a largely pro bono basis and teaching. She inaugurated a school in the rural town, as well as a residence for teachers and artists. She was allowed credit for only a few years' service upon her retirement and received but a modest pension; she lamented most, however, that she was never offered the position of Chair of her alma mater's School of Medicine. Grierson never married. The noted academic and activist died in Buenos Aires in 1934, at age 75, and was buried in the city's British Cemetery.
The nursing school she established in 1891 was renamed for her following her death. A street in Los Cocos and one in the newest district of Buenos Aires, Puerto Madero
, were also named in her honor.
Freethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...
. She had the added distinction of being the first woman to receive a Medical Degree in Argentina.
Early life
Cecilia Grierson was born in Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
in 1859 to Jane Duffy, an Irish Argentine woman, and John Parish Robertson Grierson. Her paternal grandfather, William Grierson, was among the Scottish colonists who had arrived in Buenos Aires in 1825 to settle Santa Catalina-Monte Grande
Monte Grande
Monte Grande is a city which forms part of the Greater Buenos Aires urban agglomeration. It is the capital of the Esteban Echeverría Partido in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina....
.
Grierson spent her early childhood on her family’s estancia
Estância
Estância is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Sergipe. Its population was 62,218 and its area is 642 km². The city is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Estância....
in Entre Ríos Province
Entre Ríos Province
Entre Ríos is a northeastern province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires , Corrientes and Santa Fe , and Uruguay in the east....
, where her family were prosperous farmers. At the age of six she was sent to attend English and French schools in Buenos Aires, but had to return home upon the early death of her father. She assisted her mother in managing a country school, and would eventually teach there. Cecilia returned to Buenos Aires to enroll at the Nº 1 Girls Normal School
Normal school
A normal school is a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name...
, where she graduated as teacher in 1878. She taught for a number of years at a nearby boys’ school, and decided to study medicine.
Medical Career
Grierson faced entrenched opposition to her enrollment in medical school in 1883, and was asked to provide written justification for her wish to become a doctor. Another woman, Elida Passo, had entered the School of Medicine to pursue a degree of Doctor of PharmacyDoctor of Pharmacy
A Doctor of Pharmacy is a professional doctorate degree in pharmacy. In some countries, it is a first professional degree, and a prerequisite for licensing to exercise the profession of pharmacist.-Kenya :...
, becoming in 1885 the first Argentine woman to earn a university diploma in Argentina. Passo overcame numerous rejected applications and returned to earn a Medical Degree. She became seriously ill while in the fifth year of medical school, however, and died in 1893 without a diploma.
Women were barred from the School of Medicine at the nation's four universities in operation at the time; indeed, few women in 19th century Argentina enrolled in formal secondary education. Grierson, however, was an exceptional student, volunteering as an unpaid assistant at the university laboratory, and in 1885, beginning her internship under the auspices of the Public Health Department. She organized an ambulance
Ambulance
An ambulance is a vehicle for transportation of sick or injured people to, from or between places of treatment for an illness or injury, and in some instances will also provide out of hospital medical care to the patient...
service while with the department, introducing the use of alarm bells (equivalent to today’s sirens), an innovation that until then had been exclusive to the fire brigade. Her work during an 1886 cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
epidemic garnered her widespread acknowledgment for her efficient work in caring for patients in the Isolation Unit (in present-day Hospital Muñiz
Hospital Muñiz
Hospital Muñiz is a hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina....
).
Grierson was also a pioneer in kinesiology
Kinesiology
Kinesiology, also known as human kinetics is the scientific study of human movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, mechanical, and psychological mechanisms. Applications of kinesiology to human health include: biomechanics and orthopedics, rehabilitation, such as physical and occupational...
. She introduced a course in massage therapy at the School of Medicine, and later articulated her ideas in her textbook, Practical Massage. The book was widely read and played a key role in the development of modern kinesiology in Argentina. She joined the staff at the important Hospital Rivadavia
Hospital Rivadavia
The Hospital General de Agudos Bernardino Rivadavia was founded in 1774 in 800 Bartolomé Mitre St., San Nicolás, Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the name Hospital de mujeres ....
in 1888, and graduated in 1889 upon her successful defense of her thesis on gynecology: Histero-ovariotomías efectuadas en el Hospital de Mujeres desde 1883 a 1889 (Ovary Extractions at the Women’s Hospital, 1883-1889). Grierson thus became the first woman in Argentina to earn a Medical Degree
Medical degree
A medical degree is, broadly defined, any academic degree which places its holder in a position to engage in the practice of medicine. BBC has reported that Medicine related degree programs such as MBBS, BDS and PharmD are the most difficult degree programs of all the other Bachelor degree programs...
.
She joined the medical staff at Hospital San Roque (today Hospital Ramos Mejía
Hospital Ramos Mejía
Hospital Ramos Mejía is a hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina....
) upon graduation. She also offered classes in anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
at the Academia de Bellas Artes, and provided free psychological and learning consultations for children with special needs, particularly blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
and deaf mute children. She also finished her textbooks: La educación del ciego (The Education of the Blind), Cuidado del enfermo (Patient Care) and Primer Tratado Nacional de Enfermería (First National Nursing Textbook).
Grierson founded the first nursing school
Nursing school
A nursing school is a type of educational institution, or part thereof, providing education and training to become a fully qualified nurse. The nature of nursing education and nursing qualifications varies considerably across the world.-United Kingdom:...
in Argentina, the Nursing School of the Hospital Británico de Buenos Aires
Hospital Británico de Buenos Aires
Hospital Británico de Buenos Aires is a hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina....
, in 1890. Student nurses attended classes on childcare, first aid and treatment of patients. This initiative led, in 1891, to the creation of the Nursing School, which Grierson directed until 1913. This success helped make her a founding member of the Argentine Medical Association
Argentine Medical Association
The Argentine Medical Association is the principal professional association of physicians in Argentina. It is a medical non-profit organization with headquarters in Buenos Aires.-Overview:...
(1891). Encouraged by the reports of the Third International Conference of the Red Cross on first aid
First aid
First aid is the provision of initial care for an illness or injury. It is usually performed by non-expert, but trained personnel to a sick or injured person until definitive medical treatment can be accessed. Certain self-limiting illnesses or minor injuries may not require further medical care...
training, she created the Argentine First Aid Society in 1892, publishing a book on the care of accident victims.
Taking part in 1892 in the first cesarean section performed in Argentina, she founded the National Obstetrics Association in 1901, and its journal, Revista Obstétrica. She also gave gymnastics
Gymnastics
Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
lessons at the School of Medicine and mentored the few other female students that had enrolled; one of these, Armandina Poggetti, in 1902 became the first woman in Argentina to earn a degree in Pharmacology
Pharmacology
Pharmacology is the branch of medicine and biology concerned with the study of drug action. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur between a living organism and chemicals that affect normal or abnormal biochemical function...
.
Grierson founded the Society for Domestic Economy in 1902. This organization, later renamed the Technical School for Home Management, was the first of its kind in the country, and in 1907, she instituted the Domestic Sciences
Home Economics
Home economics is the profession and field of study that deals with the economics and management of the home and community...
course at the Buenos Aires Girls’ Secondary School (the first such course in Argentina). Following her 1909 report on improving conditions in Europe regarding education, living standards, and the availability of vocational school
Vocational school
A vocational school , providing vocational education, is a school in which students are taught the skills needed to perform a particular job...
s, the National Education Council
Pizzurno Palace
The Pizzurno Palace, as the "Sarmiento Palace" is commonly known, is an architectural landmark in the Recoleta section of Buenos Aires and the location of the Argentine Ministry of Education.-Overview:...
approved a curriculum for vocational schools in Argentina. Grierson published Educación técnica de la mujer (Women’s Technical Education), introducing the study of day care
Day care
Child care or day care is care of a child during the day by a person other than the child's legal guardians, typically performed by someone outside the child's immediate family...
in these schools. She held teaching positions in the School of Fine Arts and the National Secondary School for Girls, where she taught from its inception in 1907. The Argentine government named her as a representative to the First International Eugenics Conference, held in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1912.
Feminist activism
The harassment Grierson endured as a medical student and afterward helped make her militant advocate for women's rights in Argentina. She joined the recently established Socialist Party of Argentina, and became one of a relatively small number of Argentine women in academia or from high society who supported feminismFeminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
and the women’s emancipation movement that had developed in the United States
Women in America
Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being is a report issued in 2011 by the United States Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration and the Executive Office of the President Office of Management and Budget for the White House Council on Women and Girls,...
and the United Kingdom
Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom
Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom as a national movement began in 1872. Women were not prohibited from voting in the United Kingdom until the 1832 Reform Act and the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act...
.
Grierson was named Vice President of the second meeting of the suffragist organization, the International Council of Women
International Council of Women
The International Council of Women was the first women's organization to work across national boundaries for the common cause of advocating human rights for women. In March and April 1888, women leaders came together in Washington D.C...
(ICW), held in London in 1889. This led her to establish the Argentine Women’s Council (CNM) in 1900. The CNM, in the person of Grierson and Elvira Rawson de Dellepiane, presented a draft bill in 1906 to the National Congress providing for the creation of funds for social welfare benefits and maternity leave for working-class women. The bill was not passed, however, nor was another measure drafted by Grierson banning the white slave trade.
Rifts developed within the CNM, however. Alvina Van Praet de Sala, the president, arranged for a priest to attend all their meetings, a decision which was opposed by Grierson and her allies. These began to identify themselves more closely with feminism and to promote a more vigorous campaigns in favor of women’s suffrage. Some thirty university and professional women, including Grierson, broke with the more conservative Catholic line in the CNM. They, among them Grierson, Elvira Rawson de Dellepiane, Julieta Lantieri Renshaw
Julieta Lanteri
Julieta Lanteri was an Italian Argentine physician, leading freethinker, and activist for women's rights in Argentina as well as for social reform generally.-Life and times:...
, Alicia Moreau de Justo
Alicia Moreau de Justo
Alicia Moreau de Justo was an Argentine physician, politician, pacifist and human rights activist.Born to French parents in London, United Kingdom, the Moreau family moved to Argentina while Alicia was still a child....
, and other prominent women from academia, co-founded the Association of Argentine University Women (AMUA), the first university student association for women in the country, in 1904. The AMUA sought to engage with the problems of working-class women as much as with those of female university graduates. They campaigned against women’s inferior legal status, their exclusion from civic activity and lack of access to education relative to men. They also campaigned for civil and political rights, the rights of children (particularly illegitimate children), legalized divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
; and against alcoholism
Temperance movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...
, prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
, and gambling
Gambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
. Grierson presided over the First International Women’s Conference, organized by the AMUA.
Grierson was an active supporter of the Argentine Freethinkers
Freethought
Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that opinions should be formed on the basis of science, logic, and reason, and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas...
Association (AALP), which advocated rationalism
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
, anticlericalism, a scientific approach to life, and full equality for women. The AALP sought to join the CNM, but were rejected on account of their anticlerical views. This provoked a new confrontation between Grierson and the membership of the CNM, upon which she joined the Women’s Socialist Centre. Grierson chaired the First International Feminist Conference of Argentina organized by the Association of University Women during the Argentine Centennial
Argentina Centennial
The Argentina Centennial was celebrated on May 25, 1910. It was the 100th anniversary of the May Revolution, when viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros was ousted from office and replaced with the Primera Junta, the first national government.-Context:...
, in 1910. This provoked her departure from the CNM, which, with official support, had organized the rightist First Patriotic Women’s Congress. Grierson articulated her opposition to a turn to the right on the part of Argentine feminists in her 1910 treatise Decadencia del Consejo Nacional de Mujeres de la República Argentina (Degeneration of the Argentine National Women’s Council).
Later life
Grierson was publicly honored in 1914 on the occasion of the silver jubilee of her graduation, an homage repeated in 1916, when she retired from academia. She lived in scenic Los Cocos, Córdoba ProvinceCórdoba Province (Argentina)
Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...
, during her retirement, practicing family medicine on a largely pro bono basis and teaching. She inaugurated a school in the rural town, as well as a residence for teachers and artists. She was allowed credit for only a few years' service upon her retirement and received but a modest pension; she lamented most, however, that she was never offered the position of Chair of her alma mater's School of Medicine. Grierson never married. The noted academic and activist died in Buenos Aires in 1934, at age 75, and was buried in the city's British Cemetery.
The nursing school she established in 1891 was renamed for her following her death. A street in Los Cocos and one in the newest district of Buenos Aires, Puerto Madero
Puerto Madero
Puerto Madero, also known within the urban planning community as the Puerto Madero Waterfront, is a barrio of the Argentine capital at Buenos Aires CBD, occupying a significant portion of the Río de la Plata riverbank and representing the latest architectural trends in the city of Buenos...
, were also named in her honor.