15 Facts About Julieta Lanteri

Julie Madeleine Lanteri was born in rural Briga Marittima, in the Province of Cuneo, Italy.

Julieta Lanteri became, in 1891, the first woman to enroll at the Colegio Nacional de La Plata, a public college preparatory school.

Julieta Lanteri worked for a decade in the Public Assistance Bureau of Buenos Aires and in the Emergency Hospital and Dispensary.

Julieta Lanteri campaigned actively for greater access to medical care for the poor early on, and founded a periodical, Semana Medica, for the purpose.

Julieta Lanteri established the Argentine Association of Free Thought in 1905, and remained active in women's rights causes, having joined Grierson, Alicia Moreau de Justo, and others in the establishment of the Center for Feminism at the 1906 International Congress of Free Thought, held in Buenos Aires.

Julieta Lanteri founded the National League of Women Freethinkers and its journal, La Nueva Mujer.

Julieta Lanteri helped organize the first International Congress of Women in 1910, and later helped organize the first National Child Welfare Congress.

Julieta Lanteri's application for a faculty position at her alma mater's Medical School was denied on grounds that she was a still a resident alien, prompting her to apply for Argentine citizenship.

Julieta Lanteri married Dr Alberto Renshaw in 1910, and following an eight-month-long lawsuit, she was granted citizenship in 1911.

Armed with detailed knowledge of Law 5.098, which specified numerous requisites for the right to vote while remaining moot on a woman's right to do so, Julieta Lanteri persuaded the precinct chair to accept her vote in the 16 July 1911, elections for the Deliberative Council, thus becoming the first woman to vote in South America; women were not granted the right to vote in Argentina nationwide until 1947.

Julieta Lanteri instead joined her lawyer, Angelica Barreda, in forming a political party, the National Feminist Union, in 1918, and she ran for a seat in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies in every election thereafter until the 1930 military coup.

Julieta Lanteri continued to practice medicine, and provided psychiatric and mental health nursing to needy women and children.

Julieta Lanteri founded the first primary school in the town of Saenz Pena, Buenos Aires, and lectured extensively in Europe.

Julieta Lanteri ventured into other activities, introducing a hair restoration tonic in 1928.

Julieta Lanteri walked along Diagonal Norte Avenue, in downtown Buenos Aires, on 23 February 1932, when a motorist struck her.