Women at university. Strategies and achievements of a secular presence in Latin America and Spain

Abstract

This paper offers a descriptive and critical overview of the experience of the presence of women at university in Spain and several countries in Latin America. It focuses not just on how they embarked on different degrees, but also on the extent to which they went on to exercise professionally and the social barriers encountered at each step. It describes some of the strategies used on the paths followed to study at university during almost one hundred and fifty years, and the achievements made possible by this education, both inside and outside the academic setting. The paper draws on primary documentary sources from university archives and newspaper libraries and includes a review of the literature on the subject. These documentary searches provided us with a great deal of valuable information that has helped us in our task. The indicators of the subject matter studied are, amongst others, university education, female lecturers, history and sociology, female students and life aspirations.