Ernestina Paper () was the first female university graduate in modern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. She graduated in 1877 in medicine and surgery from the University of Florence.

Early life and education

Ernestina Puritz-Manassè was born in

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

in 1846 to a wealthy bourgeois Jewish family of Russian origins. After graduating high school, Paper attended the University of Zurich for three semesters between 1870 and 1872. This was not an uncommon path for Russian female students, as women were not allowed to attend university in 19th century Russia except for a brief period between 1859 and 1863. In 1872, she moved to

and enrolled at the University of Pisa. She completed her studies at the University of Florence's ''Istitutto di Studi Superiori'', earning a medical degree and becoming the first woman to graduate from university in post-unification Italy.

Career

After graduating, Paper opened her own private practice focused on treating women and children. An 1879 publication noted that Paper attended to women and was "spoken of as a most skillful physician". She often made medical treatment free to those who could not afford it. In 1884, two cases of amenorrhea cured by Paper using electricity were reported on in scientific journals. She was reported to have attended an international medical congress in 1894. Paper remained in Italy for the remainder of her life apart from 1897 to 1905 in which she went back to Odessa. She died in Florence in 1926.

Political activity and feminism

Paper was active as a feminist and women's education advocate along with Mary Nathan, who was the wife of her brother (Giacomo Puritz) and daughter of Mayor of Rome

Ernesto Nathan Ernesto Nathan (5 October 1848 – 9 April 1921) was an English-Italian politician, and mayor of Rome, Italy from November 1907 to December 1913. Biography Nathan was born in London in 1848 to Sara Levi, an Italian from Pesaro, and Mayer Moses ...

. Paper and Nathan were leaders in the Tuscan Women's Federation advocacy group, with Paper being President of the group's hygiene section until at least 1921. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

she was against mandatory civil service for women, claiming this was against the wellness of families since women should be closer to their family.

Personal life

She married Giacomo Paper, though the exact year is unknown. Some sources claim that she gave birth to a daughter, Elisa, in 1875.

References

1846 births 1926 deaths People from the Russian Empire Immigrants to Italy University of Florence alumni {{Med-bio-stub