Month: March 2023

Yesterday was International Women’s Day, which is celebrated on March 8 every year.

There is much to celebrate about women’s achievements, and yet there is still more we can all do, women and allies alike, to #EmbraceEquity and ensure that we build a world for those that come after us that is evermore diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

We’ve compiled a list of successful women in various fields who’ve graduated from each of our partner universities below.

But first of all, GLOCAL Cohort V student Melanie Thut paid this tribute to her fellow GLOCAL students:

International Women’s day is the perfect opportunity for me to say how much the women of GLOCAL Cohort V have inspired me, made me stronger as a feminist woman and made me understand the world from completely new perspectives. The past 1.5 years have shaped my personality, my beliefs and opinions immensely and this is thanks to all of you!! I was able to thrive as a character, find communion in our appreciative environment and a never-ending circle of love

Marion Gilchrist, University of Glasgow

Marion Gilchrist was the first woman to graduate from the University of Glasgow in 1894, and the first woman in Scotland to graduate with a medical degree, despite medicine being considered an ‘unfeminine’ subject at the time. She worked as a GP in Glasgow, specialising in eye diseases, and was also an early motoring enthusiast, having a garage on Ashton Lane. She was also a leading figure in the UK suffragette movement, but change took time: it would be 34 years after Marion graduate that women were finally granted full voting rights.

You can read more about her and other inspiring women who graduated from the University of Glasgow here

Lydia Wahlström, Uppsala Universitet

Lydia Wahlström was a Swedish historian, author and feminist, and one of the founders of the Sweden’s National Association for Women’s Suffrage. In 1892 she founded the first organisation for female students at Uppsala University, Uppsala Female Students. Among other innovations, the members became the first female students to wear their student caps in public, which was considered extremely inappropriate. A few years later, Lydia Wahlström was the second Swedish woman ever to defend a doctoral thesis in history.

María Elena Maseras, Universitat de Barcelona

This year’s IWD coincides with the 150th anniversary of the enrolment of Maria Elena Maseras in Medicine studies at the University of Barcelona: she was the first woman to ever enter higher education in Spain, paving the way for all who came after her.

The fact she was a woman caused great bureaucratic confusion, taking three years to grant her permission to sit exams. The Elena Maseras gardens at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona are dedicated to her as a tribute to her pioneering status in the academic world.

Willemijn van der Goot, Erasmus University Rotterdam

All Rotterdam GLOCAL staff members have their office in the van der Goot Building on the Woudestein campus. Willemijn van der Goot was a pioneering figure in the field of economics, and was the first woman in the Netherlands to receive a PhD in economics.

She received her doctorate in 1927 for her dissertation on the expenditure of household income in the Netherlands. In 1935, she co-founded the International Archives for the Women’s Movement. Her achievements paved the way for other women to enter and succeed in the field of economics.

Chizuko Ueno, Kyoto University

An alumna of Kyoto University, Chizuko Ueno is a Japanese sociologist and known as ‘Japan’s best-known feminist’. Her work covers sociological issues including semiotics, capitalism, and feminism in Japan. Her research includes feminist theory, family sociology, and women’s history, and is best known for her contribution to gender studies in Japan.

She’s been a vocal critic of Japanese postwar revisionism, in particular defending the compensation of Korean comfort women forced into prostitution by the Empire of Japan. She also often discusses the semiotics and accessibility of feminism, arguing that Japanese feminist discussion often lacks the language needed to make concepts understandable and approachable.

María Ángela Holguín, Universidad de Los Andes

An alumna of the Universidad de Los Andes, María Ángela Holguín was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. She has also served as the 25th Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations, and as Ambassador of Colombia to Venezuela.

She graduated from the Universidad de Los Andes in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in political science, and she also completed a specialization there in public management and administrative institutions in 1992.

Chizuko Ueno, Kyoto University

An alumna of Kyoto University, Chizuko Ueno is a Japanese sociologist and known as ‘Japan’s best-known feminist’. Her work covers sociological issues including semiotics, capitalism, and feminism in Japan. Her research includes feminist theory, family sociology, and women’s history, and is best known for her contribution to gender studies in Japan.

She’s been a vocal critic of Japanese postwar revisionism, in particular defending the compensation of Korean comfort women forced into prostitution by the Empire of Japan. She also often discusses the semiotics and accessibility of feminism, arguing that Japanese feminist discussion often lacks the language needed to make concepts understandable and approachable.

Marlina Flassy, University of Göttingen

Marlina Flassy is an Indonesian anthropologist and the first woman to hold a deanship at Cenderawasih University in Jayapura, Papua province. She is also the first indigenous Papuan to be appointed Dean of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences there.

She studied for her PhD at the University of Göttingen, graduating in 2015 after submitting her thesis, entitled “Local Knowledge, Disease and Healing in a Papua Community“. Her research interests include women in West Papua, the Mooi people, the Napan-Wainame people, the Maybrat community and gender and health equality in West Papua.