Luisi, Paulina (1875–1950)

Paulina Luisi (b. 22 September 1875; d. 17 July 1950), physician, educator, feminist, diplomat, social reformer. Luisi was the first Uruguayan woman to receive a medical degree. Her lifelong work on behalf of children (president of the Uruguayan delegation to the First American Congress of the Child, Buenos Aires, 1916) and women's health (Uruguayan delegate to the International Congress on Social Hygiene and Education, Paris, 1923; member of the League of Nations consultative committee on the Treaty to End Traffic in Women and Children, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925) was paralleled by her commitment to woman suffrage and female education. She founded the Uruguayan branch of the National Women's Council in 1916 and represented Uruguay at the International Congresses of Women in Geneva and Cristiana, Norway, in 1920 and Rome in 1925. She was the first woman in the Western Hemisphere to represent her government as an officially appointed delegate to an intergovernmental conference (Fifth International Conference of American States, Santiago, 1923). Luisi also served as head of the Uruguayan delegation to the League of Nations. With her colleague, Argentine feminist and socialist Alicia Moreau De Justo, Luisi believed that female education and equal political rights were crucial to improving working conditions and health care for women and children.

See alsoFeminism and Feminist Organizations; League of Nations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Inter-American Commission Of Women, Libro de Oro (1980), and Marifran Carlson, ¡Feminismo! The Woman's Movement in Argentina from Its Beginnings to Eva Perón (1988).

Additional Bibliography

Cabrera de Betarte, Silvia. Paulina Luisi: Una socialista para conocer, querer y emular. Montevideo: Partido Socialista, 2001.

Henault, Mirta. Alicia Moreau de Justo: "Dad paso a la honradez, al trabajo, a la justicia." Argentina: CUATA Ediciones, 2002.

                                         Francesca Miller