Google dedicated a Doodle in honor of Petrona Eyle, a prominent Argentine Doctor who fought for Women’s Rights

Today’s doodle pays tribute to Argentine doctor and activist Petrona Eyle. In addition to standing out in her medical career, Eyle campaigned to fight for women’s rights in Latin America and led numerous humanitarian and feminist organizations.

Eyle was born on January 18, 1866 in Baradero, province of Buenos Aires. In 1882 she entered the National School of Concepción del Uruguay completing her studies there and where she received the title of normal teacher. She then traveled to Switzerland to study medicine at the University of Zurich, the first European university to accept female students.

After graduation in 1891, she returned home to Argentina and made history when she revalidated her degree to become a doctor in the country. She began to work in public hospitals and in that space began as a feminist activist: she sought to improve the situation of inequality that women faced in all areas.

In 1901 she organized the Argentine Council of Women and in 1910, together with Cecilia Grierson, she founded the Argentine University Association in Buenos Aires where in that year the celebrations for the first centenary of the birth of Argentina were held.

That association presented numerous initiatives to the National Congress, including measures to protect maternity, measures to ensure equal civil rights for women, teacher retirement, as well as projects for health and social assistance.

In 1924, she founded the League Against White Trafficking to fight against the different forms of sexual abuse, rape, prostitution and exploitation to which women and children were subjected.

At 65 he started the magazine Our cause, from where he asked for the right of women to vote, the possibility of holding public office as well as intervening in different political events.

She died on April 12, 1945, two years before the female vote law was approved. Law 13,010 was approved on September 9, 1947 and promulgated on September 23. That day, a crowd celebrated this achievement and Eva Perón gave one of her most memorable speeches:

“I receive at this moment from the hands of the Government of the Nation the law that enshrines our civic rights. And I receive it, before you, with the certainty that I do it in the name and representation of all Argentine women, feeling joyfully that my hands are shaking at the contact of the laurel that proclaims victory.

Eyle was a tireless fighter at a time when women in the country faced far more limitations than today. She stood out as a professional, a pioneer in a discipline in which women were rare, and as an activist. Today, one of the streets in the Puerto Madero neighborhood bears her name in honor of her great work and fighting for women’s rights.