Some patriarchs assert that male dominance occurred due competence not tyranny, but as illustrated by the case of Rosa Venerini (1656 – 1728), it was tyranny not competence.
Venerini made a profound impact on developing education for women and girls in Italy. She was inspired to teach at a young age when she realised that many young women were ignorant, particularly on matters regarding Christianity. After the death of several family members she spent some time at a convent, however, only stayed a few months. A Jesuit priest, who was her spiritual adviser, convinced Venerini that her calling was to be a teacher not a nun. Venerini first opened a preschool for girls and by the end of her life had established forty schools and was the founder of the fraternity of Religious Teachers of Venerini. Initially, she faced a lot of opposition from clergy who believed it was their job to teach Church doctrine but when they saw the positive effects that educating females was having, they gave her support. Other antagonists weren’t so easy to win over and some teachers got shot at with bows and their houses set on fire. Venerini was canonised by Pope Benedict XVI on October 15, 2006.
Venerini’s story is one of great bravery. I wonder how many other women were too afraid to get involved with education because they saw their peers getting shot at with bows and their houses burned? Of course, it was not all men, but the ringleaders most certainly were male.
Source: Catholic Online
In Venice, a woman named Elena Piscopia (1646 – 1684) became the first woman to receive an academic degree from a university, and the first woman to receive a Doctor of Philosophy. Piscopia was bilingual in Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Hebrew, and she knew how to write music, play the harpsichord, clavichord, harp, and violin, and she was a mathematician. Initially, Piscopia attempted to complete a degree in theology, however, when Cardinal Gregorio Barbarigo, the bishop of Padua, learned of this he refused on the grounds that she was a woman and would only allow for her to get a degree in philosophy. Her oral examination required her to speak for an hour in Classical Latin on random topics selected by her assessors from the works of Aristotle; she spoke on Posterior Analytics and Physics. Piscopia was a devout christian and she divided her time between caring for the poor and in education pursuits, either learning or teaching.
It is important to pause upon Piscopia for a moment. Theology is the study of the nature of God. Catholic theology from the time of Constantine onwards was based on Aristotle’s model of men being more spiritually advance, more god-like, than women, who were considered to have a spiritual substance like that of animals (in other words, no intellect). Because of this theology, women were shut out of the discussion about theology. How could women possibly rise up to a rank of equality when there was a potent belief of their so-call inferiority hidden behind an educational glass ceiling? Then again, glass can be seen through, whereas the Aristotelian theology of gender was more like a steel wall that only men were privileged a key to access and see what was on the other side.
Maria Kirch (1670-1720) was a German astronomer who discovered a comet. Approximately 14 percent of German astronomers in the early eighteenth-century were women, however, they were not able to publish their work due to being female.
The second woman in the world to earn the degree of Doctor of Philosophy was Laura Bassi (1711 – 1778). She was an Italian physicist and, therefore, she was also the first woman to have a doctorate in science. At times, she was recognised and depicted as Minerva, the goddess of wisdom. Bassi worked at the University of Bologna where she was the first salaried woman teacher in a university, eventually becoming the first female university professor in the world. When she joined the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in 1732 she became the first female member of a scientific establishment. Bassi was the mother of twelve children and she published yearly reports on subjects like air pressure. She was an upper class woman, therefore, childcare was more available to her than poorer people.
Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799) was a Italian mathematician and philosopher of natural science. In 1738 she produced a text on calculus that made her famous.
Cristina Roccati (1732 – 1797) was an Italian physicist and poet who earned a degree at the University of Bologna (1751).
PART FIFTEEN: Industry Revolution and Female Artists
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