University women in Salamanca in the first third of the 20th century: quantification and profiles

Abstract

In the last decades of the nineteenth century, the educational issue took on a greater political dimension. This general impulse benefited women’s education, fostered by legislation developed since the mid-nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. The Royal Order of March 8, 1910 facilitated the path opened by its predecessors and was a real revulsive for those women who would like to enter the University. Our research focuses on this context and on how its access to the University of Salamanca occurred in the first third of the 20th century. The analysis of the fundamental sources allows us to quantify the number of students and their distribution by faculties and branches of studies, in addition to demonstrating to what extent the gradual elimination of obstacles, as a consequence of the new legislation, impelled their entrance in this University. The biographical fragments of the most relevant university students show us, as much as possible, their academic and vital trajectory and help us to end their invisibility.