Today, I am thankful for those salient examples of individuals continuously striving to break the glass ceiling.
In 1946, the Second World War had come to an end. In the years leading up to that victory, women supported the war effort, both at home and abroad, under the urging of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Nearly 350,000 women joined the Armed Forces, and millions more flooded the workforce at home. Immortalized by the ‘Rosie the Riveter’ campaign, female laborers were instrumental in ensuring an Allied victory. So, it should come as no surprise that, in 1946, movies and musicals began showcased the power of women. That year, the musical Annie Get Your Gun featured a duet composed by Irving Berlin that made it abundantly clear that ‘anything you can do, I can do better.’ In the Broadway production, Ethel Mermen and Ray Middleton sang the ditty while portraying Annie Oakley and Frank Butler, the famous real-life couple from the Wild West, as they prepared for their infamous sharp-shooting contest.
Ironically, exactly three hundred years prior to this musical, a real-life female protagonist would emerge on the stage. Now, in the past, I’ve chronicled the story of Leonardo da Vinci, the famous Florentine polymath who, despite being born out of wedlock in 1452, would change the world with his numerous contributions to science and humanities. Well, in 1646, exactly three centuries before Annie Get Your Gun, appeared on Broadway, a girl unbeknownst to most of us was born on this exact date (June 5) in the nearby Italian town of Venice. Like da Vinci, Elena Cornaro Piscopia was the illegitimate child born to a nobleman and a peasant woman. Like da Vinci, she was not afforded the opportunities of the noble privilege. Like da Vinci, she excelled anyway and would change the world.
Seeing Elena as a future prodigy at an early age, a local Italian priest befriended and instructed her in the classics. Soon, Elena was excelling. By the age of seven, she was proficient in classical Greek and Latin. She would learn 7 different languages in her lifetime. She excelled in linguistics, theology, and philosophy, and she even became proficient in mathematics, astronomy, and physics. She translated books from Spanish to Italian. She became a musical virtuoso, eventually mastering the violin, harp, harpsichord, and clavichord. She also became a professional singer.
One of her tutors, Clarlo Rinaldini, was so impressed with Elena that he petitioned the University of Padua, where Elena was studying, to permit her to seek a degree in theology. The notion that a woman would seek a degree from a university was a taboo subject at that time, and, indeed, the Bishop of Padua forbid her study of theology. However, as her fame and recognition in scholarly societies had grown, she was permitted to seek a degree in philosophy. At the age of 32, after successfully matriculating her course of study, Elena received a Doctorate Degree (or laurea) in Philosophy (PhD). At a ceremony in the Padua Cathedral attended by hundred of faculty, students, and Venetian statesmen, she read passages of Aristotle’s most difficult works in classical Latin. Moreover, she was fittingly awarded all the rights a doctor in philosophy might receive, including a ceremonial vestment draped over her shoulders, a signatory ring secured on her finger, and a laurel wreath placed on her head.
In other words, Elena became the first woman in the world to ever receive a doctorate degree from a university. Sadly, seven years later, Dr. Elena Cornaro Piscopia would succumb to tuberculosis.
A statue of Dr. Cornaro was erected at the University of Padua. Here in the US, she is also commemorated as the central figure in a stunning stained glass window of Thompson Memorial Library at Vassar College. It’s only fitting that a woman who broke the glass ceiling deserves to be the centre feature of a glass memorial in tribute to higher learning.
Kommentare