Executive Committee

Nach der dritten Teilung Polens (1795) waren in den an Österreich gelangten polnischen und ukrainischen Landesteilen (Galizien und Lodomerien) die pharmazeutischen Studien- und Prüfungsordnungen Österreichs von 1804 bis 1889 gültig. Und obwohl in Österreich Frauen erst ab 1878 Vorlesungen als Gasthörerinnen besuchen durften, setzte Professor Josef Sawiczewski an der Universität Krakau (Alma Mater Cracoviensis) die Sponsion der Nonnen Filipina und Konstancja Studziński 1824 als erste Frauen zu Magistern der Pharmazie durch.

Thank you, Vilma, for sharing this document which beautifully captures an international milestone in women in pharmacy history. While searching for her name, I came across an intriguing detail in the English section of your 2017 book "Social Features of Lithianian Pharmacy from the 19th to the First Half of the 20th Century" which I found on the University's website. It mentions that "The first female pharmacist in Lithuania was Juzefa Girdzijevska – the widow of a pharmacist." This caught my attention because the first female community pharmacist in Turkey, Fatma Belkis Derman, was also married to a pharmacist, Hasan Derman, who later became the president of the Turkish Pharmacists Association. It seems that in male-dominated professions of the past, the initial challenges were often taken up by the wives and daughters of men already established in those fields. Do you think Girdzijevska's entry into pharmacy was influenced by her marriage to a pharmacist?

In 1874 (150 years ago), Jozefa Girdzijevska became the first woman in Lithuania (Kėdainiai) to receive permission to work as a pharmacist’s assistant. Russian Empire's authorities debated the permit in confidential correspondence.