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

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. She graduated in 1877 in medicine and surgery from the

University of Florence The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'') (in acronym UNIFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The f ...

Early life and education

Ernestina Puritz-Manassè was born in

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

in 1846 to a wealthy bourgeois Jewish family of Russian origins. After graduating high school, Paper attended the

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

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 The University of Pisa (, UniPi) is a public university, public research university in Pisa, Italy. Founded in 1343, it is one of the oldest universities in Europe. Together with Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Sant'Anna School of Advanced S ...

. She completed her studies at the

'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 Amenorrhea or amenorrhoea is the absence of a menstrual period in a female organism who has reached reproductive age. Physiological states of amenorrhoea are most commonly seen during pregnancy and lactation (breastfeeding). In humans, it is wher ...

cured by Paper using electricity were reported on in scientific journals. She was reported to have attended an

international medical congress The International Medical Congress () was a series of international scientific conferences on medicine that took place, periodically, from 1867 until 1913. The idea of such a congress came in 1865, during the third annual Medical Congress of Fr ...

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 who was the mayor of Rome from November 1907 to December 1913. Biography Nathan was born in London in 1845 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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

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 19th-century people from the Russian Empire Immigrants to Italy University of Florence alumni {{Med-bio-stub