Most of you must have wondered who the first woman to get a PhD was. Women in the olden days weren’t very keen on pursuing education or they weren’t allowed to. Facing all obstacles, Elena Cornaro was the first woman to be awarded with a PhD 338 years ago. She was awarded her Doctor of Philosophy from the University Of Padua, Italy. She was born to a nobleman father and a peasant mother. She never married and she was awarded at the age of 32.

She was born as Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia on June 5, 1646 in Venice, Italy and she died on July 26, 1684 in Padua. A priest encouraged her father to begin lessons for her in Greek and Latin. She later became fluent in French, Spanish, and Hebrew, and she also studied mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, music, and theology. In 1669 she translated Colloquio di Cristo nostro Redentore all’anima devota (“Dialogue between Christ Our Redeemer and a Devoted Soul”) from Spanish to Italian, a book by the Carthusian monk Giovanni Laspergio. The fame of her intellectual accomplishment spread, and she was invited to join several scholarly societies. In 1670 she became president of the Venetian society Accademia dei Pacifici (the Academy of the Peaceful).