Las primeras médicas de Chile y Latinoamérica: Eloísa Díaz Insunza y Ernestina Pérez Barahona / The first chilean female doctors: Eloísa Díaz Insunza and Ernestina Pérez Barahona

ABSTRACT

Dr. Eloísa Díaz Insunza (1866-1950) was the first woman to become a doctor-surgeon in Chile and Latin America in 1887. Less known is her distinguished colleague, Dr. Ernestina Pérez Barahona (1865-1951), the second woman graduated in Chile as a physician, only seven days after Dr. Diaz. Dr. Diaz entered the School of Medicine of the University of Chile in 1881 and Dr. Pérez in 1883. However, both graduated from Bachelor of Medicine and Pharmacy in 1885 and received their degree in 1887. This paper highlights the extraordinary parallelism in their medical studies.