Chilean history of powerful women started with Janequeo. She was a Mapuche warrior, and tribal chief, who fought against the Spanish in 1587. Legend says that she directed an army to attack the Fortress of Puchunqui in the South of Chile. She won!

Another powerful Chilean woman was Eloisa Diaz Insunza

Eloisa was born on June 25, 1866. Her parents were Eulogio Díaz Varas and Carmela Insunza. Very early in her life she demonstrated interest in being a doctor. That was totally unheard of in those years when women were suppose to be pretty, get married and have many children. However, she was only 15 years old when she completed her high school studies and passed the Baccalaureate exam in Humanities.

In 1880, shortly after a law was enacted to allow women to study at the university, Eloisa enrolled in at the University of Chile, School of Medicine.

(Interestingly enough, the University of Chile was created in 1942, but the School of Medicine was created in 1833. The School of Medicine was integrated into the University of Chile in 1942.)

Eloisa Diaz was the first woman to pursue higher education in Chile. She attended all her classes accompanied by her mother. In the classroom, a screen separated her from her male classmates.

During her time at the Faculty of Medicine, Eloisa was recognized as the best student in medical clinic and obstetrics.

She became the first woman in South America to graduate and earn her medical license. She graduated on 27 December 1886, and obtained her degree on 3 January 1887. Her thesis was named “Brief observations on the apparition of puberty in Chilean women and their pathological predispositions about sex.” This was a very incredible daring theme at that time.

In the introduction to her thesis Eloisa declared “instruction, as many claim, is not the ruin of women: it is their salvation”. She became the first surgeon in Chile and Latin America. Her thesis was published in the Medical Journal (Revista Médica) in (1886) and in the Anales de la Universidad de Chile (Annals of the University of Chile) in 1887.

In 1888, she attended the First Chilean Medical Congress and was the only woman among 246 male doctors. In January 1891, she started working at the Hospital San Borja, (where I was born).

Eloisa was a professor and physician at the Normal School of Preceptors of the South between 1889 and 1897. In 1898, she became School Medical Supervisor of Santiago (capital of Chile) and held that position for 30 years. She directed medical services for schools at the national level.

In that period, she established that schools should have dental services and that school colonies should be organized.

In 1910, the International Scientific Congress of Medicine and Hygiene named her “Illustrious Woman of America” for her contributions to social medicine. A year later, she became director of the School Medical Service of Chile, promoting initiatives such as mandatory school breakfast, mass vaccination and the fight against alcoholism. She also worked for the eradication of major pathologies that affected children, such as rickets, mental deficiency, oral diseases and tuberculosis.

In 1919, together with Celinda Arregui, Beatriz Letelier, Hayra Guerrero de Sommerville, Isaura Dinator, Juana de Aguirre Cerda, Carmela de Laso, and Fresia Escobar, among others, she founded the National Council of Women of Chile “which actively participated in the defense of women’s rights”

However, Eloisa died in 1952 in relative obscurity and poverty at the age of 86.

Together with Eloisa Diaz is necessary to mention Doctor Ernestina Pérez Barahona. They graduated at the same time in 1985 only with two days of difference. Eloisa Diaz was considered the first woman to graduate as a doctor just because she started her studies at the School of Medicine before Ernestina.

Ernestina Perez was born on August 8, 1865, in Valparaíso. She completed her secondary education at the Isabel Le Brun Reyes High School, like Eloísa Díaz. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Humanities on January 8, 1883, and that same day enrolled in the medical program at the University of Chile. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Pharmacy on January 14, 1885. On December 31, 1886, she received her Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Pharmacy with her thesis entitled “Social Hygiene.” On January 10, 1887, she received her medical degree from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile at the age of 21. It is important to mention that before obtaining her professional degree, she had already published two articles in the “Revista Médica de Chile”, (Chile Journal of Medicine). (Osorio Abarzúa and Osorio Abarzúa 2019)

Ernestina Pérez Barahona “actively participated in controlling the cholera epidemic in the Valparaíso and Quillota area, providing free care in the women’s ward.” She dedicated her professional life to researching diseases affecting women. She was one of the first women to study at the Frederick Wilhelm Universität in Germany, which she attended through a scholarship from the Chilean government. There, she published her text “Lessons in Gynecology.” Pérez also studied in England and France. She was appointed a member of the Berlin Academy of Medicine, the first South American to receive this distinction. In Chile, she participated in social organizations and was a founding member and president of the Association of University Women and the National Council of Women. Her work was published in the Revista Médica de Chile and disseminated at the Buenos Aires Congress, specifically the work entitled “Hygiene of the Corset,” where she explained the diseases associated with the use of this female garment and how it affected the ribs and internal organs. (Pulgar 2025)

She died in 1951 at 86 years old.