Vilma Hugonnai, the first Hungarian woman to get a diploma – the doctor of the poor

According to shewolves.blog.hu, Vilma Hugonnai fled from the misery of her marriage into studying. Her thirst for knowledge, love for science and endless persistence made it possible that 20 years after her graduation in Zürich she was acknowledged in Hungary as the first diplomaed woman.

Vilma Hugonnay (with ‘y’ indicating nobility) was born on the 20^th of September, 1847 as the fifth child of Count Kálmán Hugonnay and Riza Pánczély. She had lessons with a private tutor in the Castle of Nagytétény and then spent four years in Budapest in the Prebstel Mária Seminary, where she obtained the highest possible qualification for women.

She married Baron György Szilassy in 1865, they had their first child the next year. Unfortunately, their marriage seemed to be unsuccessful: while Vilma was occupied with the chores of their land, her husband went from casino to casino, accumulated a gaming-debt, and cheated on his wife continuously.

Vilma fled from the misery of her marriage into studying. The family had a library full of books, but Vilma was most interested in scientific and educational publications. She learned the basics of nursing and medical science from books in a self-educating way. As the wife of a landowner, she frequently visited the houses of their maids, peasants to practice what she had learnt.

Her husband and mother-in-law weren’t thrilled by Vilma’s love for science. But she was brave enough to admit that she wasn’t happy with only being a housewife, she wanted more. She especially emphasized the lack of intellectual activities.

She was pregnant with her second child, when her father-in-law caught smallpox. No one dared to attend to him, except for Vilma. He recovered with her help and gifted her a jewellery collection. Even though she managed to save her father-in-law’s life, her child died three weeks after birth.

Despite the tragedy, she made a resolution to become a doctor. She had heard that the University of Zürich accepted women as well, so she mentioned it to her husband. After a fight he gave in, but didn’t support his wife financially. She sold all of her jewellery to cover her expenses, and commanded her 6-year-old son to her family’s care.

Photo by Wiki Commons

University years

She was 25 years old in the September of 1872, when her dream came true and she started studying medicine at the University of Zürich. One time, she read an article about vegetarianism in Freitagszeitung, which convinced her to give up meat. The diet, which was very new at the time, didn’t only strengthen her willpower, but also gave her a new topic to study. People believed that the human body couldn’t function without meat, but Vilma proved this theory wrong with an 80-day test, during which she only ate fruits.

She continued to study hard and eat vegetarian meals, mostly milk, bread and fruits, because she couldn’t afford more. Furthermore, she said goodbye to one of the indicators of her noble origin, and changed the ‘y’ in her name to ‘i’, thus becoming Vilma Hugonnai.

On the 3^rd of February, 1879 she successfully graduated. In the next one and a half years she worked as a physician assistant at the surgery department of Professor Rosé. However, she dreamt of a Hungarian practice, so she rejected Swiss job offers and returned home in 1880.

The fight for the diploma

The fight for the acknowledgement of her diploma in Hungary was very long and tough. She passed the matriculation necessary for university studies in 1881. She asked the Budapest medical faculty’s professors for the naturalization of her diploma. They supported the idea, but the Minister of Religion and Education, Ágoston Trefort rejected the naturalization.

Vilma Hugonnai was very disappointed, because she wanted to work in her homeland. She visited the minister twice to convince him, but he stuck to his opinion. He believed that women would rummage the state if they were equal to men in the field of science. Vilma tried to argue that educated women didn’t rummage Switzerland for instance, but her efforts were in vain.

The minister kept on referring to the law, which made Vilma feel humiliated. Even though she passed the exam of midwives, she wasn’t satisfied, because she knew that she was capable of much more. In 1883, she wrote a thesis titled “Women’s scope of activities”, in which she popularised the harmony between family life and work, and emphasized the importance of school reforms, so that women could get an equal education as men.

She divorced in 1884, and translated Dr Délacoux Professor’s book titled The midwives of the ancient and modern times. Three years later she married university professor Dr Vince Wartha, with whom she had a daughter.

She was the front-line fighter of Hungarian women’s education in 1890, to then teach hygienics at the Women’s Training College at the request of Pálné Veres. She became the vice-president of the Scientific Lyceum in 1894. In the same year, a memorandum was petitioned to Minister of Education Gyula Wlassics, who then asked the professors of the Budapest medical faculty to decide whether or not they would open the medical career to women. The answer was yes, so the naturalization of foreign diplomas could finally start.

Vilma had to pass three exams to get her diploma naturalized. She was preparing for the last one, when her husband was invited to Vienna as the rector of the university. When Franz Joseph found out why his wife was missing, he said: “I’m happy that the countess will be the first Hungarian woman doctor, but I hope she’ll also be practicing, because the real value of science is shown in practice”.

On the 14^th of May, 1897, at the age of 50, 18 years after she had obtained her diploma in Zürich, Vilma Hugonnai became the first Hungarian woman doctor. She started practicing as an internal specialist, while also being the general practitioner of several families. She had jottings about all of her patients, this is how we know that she attended to everyone without picking.

The Hungarian version of “The woman as a general practitioner” – Photo: Wiki Commons

In 1907, she translated Dr Anna Fischer Dückelmann’s The woman as a general practitioner. She wanted women to have a superstition-free knowledge about hygiene, pregnancy, giving birth, and nursing.

Her daughter died from phthisis in 1908, while her husband struggled from Parkinson’s disease and passed away in 1914. At the age of 67, she finished a military surgical training to help the victims of WWI. She spent the last years of her life alone, she only welcomed patients in her home. She died from a heart attack in 1922.

Featured image: Wiki Commons

Ce: bm

Source: http://shewolves.blog.hu/