Calendar - Women in History of Charles University












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            * Calendar - Women in History of Charles University
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            Charles University celebrates the year of the woman with the creation of a calendar honour

            individuals who have contributed to the academic world and beyond.
            In 1890 the first Czech grammar school for girls, Minerva, was established by the libretti
            Krásnohorská, who commences the calendar year as the first female to receive an honorary d

            Charles University in 1922.
            Erstwhile, Czech girls were educated at home. Since 1774 it was recommended that children 
            of 6 to 12 should attend primary school and this would become compulsory in 1805. Girls at

            schools from 1780s, first in separate, girls-only classes and then in co-educational ones.
            also gain access to education through voluntary clubs such as the American Ladies’ Club fo

            Náprstek in 1865.
            The Charles-Ferdinand University did not admit women until 1897. Therefore, women had to r
            university education elsewhere, with the first Czech female doctors graduating in 1880 fro

            diplomas, however, would not be recognised by Austria-Hungary so many had to seek work abr
            Throughout time women have practised medicine often in their own towns and villages or thr
            position as nuns; there was a woman doctor, Trotula, at the Medical School in Salerno in t

            century. Renaissance thinking undermined traditional approaches to medicine which was ofte
            female care. What’s more, women were gradually usurped by male practitioners in midwifery.
            biological barrier as demonstrated by the career of Doctor James Barry. From 1813 to 1864 

            surgeon in the British Army. When an autopsy revealed he was a woman the war department an
            association were so embarrassed that the findings were hidden and Doctor Barry was buried 
            such disguise was necessary for Anna Honzáková who would be the first openly female doctor

            Charles-Ferdinand University in 1902.
            February features the zoologist Marie Zdeňka Baborová-Čiháková, the first woman to receive
            degree at Charles-Ferdinand University, Faculty of Arts in 1901. In March we marvel at the

            Moschelesová who achieved associate professorship of geography in 1934 gaining European ac
            field. Ousted from the faculty in 1939 because she was Jewish, she would spend most of the
            working as a geographer in the military services of the Dutch East Indies. Spring shows Ge

            who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1947 for physiology and medicine. May displays Ludmila 
            an Egyptologist. In June we learn of Albína Dratvová, the first associate professor at the
            Science of Charles University. Her book, Deník (Diary), published posthumously in 2008 des

            obstacles and possibilities which the first generation of female scientists had to combat.
            Jaroslava Pešková is the face of October, the first vice-dean of Charles University, Facul
            revolution 1989. In November we remember Jaroslava Moserová who was a doctor, an associate

            writer, translator, diplomat and politician. In December we celebrate Dana Kalvodová, a pi
            discipline of Asian theatre. Summer shows Milada Paulová, a Byzantine scholar, who in 1939
            the first female professor of Charles University. The diverse disciplines in which these w

            illustrate a determined departure from studies previously deemed suitable for their sex.
            August’s Milada Horáková was expelled from school for partaking in an anti-war demonstrati
            studying law in interwar Czechoslovakia she joined the Women’s National Council concentrat

            emancipation. Later, she became a member of the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party, par
            the World War Two resistance movement, and would lead the Women’s Council after the war. H
            Horáková would become a victim of the rising communist power. The feminist movement had be

            bourgeois initiative; supporting first Czechoslovakian president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk an
            institutions. After the communists gained power Milada Horáková was involved in the compos
            which benefitted women. However, she became target of suspicion and was executed in June 1

            Another important female introduced in the calendar who confronted totalitarianism is Růže
            a professor of classical archaeology, who was imprisoned by the Nazis for supporting the r
            Undeterred, she was involved with anti-communist student demonstrations after the war. In 

            sentenced to 22 years for espionage and attempted treason. During her incarceration she le
            prisoners on philosophy and art history.
                   In 1897 women gained access to higher education at Czech universities. Commencing w

            of Arts, three years later women could train as doctors, and by the end of WWI women were 
            lawyers. Today, the overall majority of students at Charles University are female. However
            is less notable in the academic hierarchy, with women comprising only sixteen per cent of 

            year, as we mark exam dates on the calendar or count the days until summer, we remember th
            helped make this possible.