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Vilma Hugonnai, the first Hungarian woman to get a diploma – the doctor of the poor
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According to shewolves.blog.hu, Vilma Hugonnai fled from the misery of her marriage into studying. Her thirst for knowledge, love for science and endless persistence made it possible that 20 years after her graduation in Zürich she was acknowledged in Hungary as the first diplomaed woman.
Vilma Hugonnay (with ‘y’ indicating nobility) was born on the 20th of September, 1847 as the fifth child of Count Kálmán Hugonnay and Riza Pánczély. She had lessons with a private tutor in the Castle of Nagytétény and then spent four years in Budapest in the Prebstel Mária Seminary, where she obtained the highest possible qualification for women.
She married Baron György Szilassy in 1865, they had their first child the next year. Unfortunately, their marriage seemed to be unsuccessful: while Vilma was occupied with the chores of their land, her husband went from casino to casino, accumulated a gaming-debt, and cheated on his wife continuously.
Vilma fled from the misery of her marriage into studying. The family had a library full of books, but Vilma was most interested in scientific and educational publications. She learned the basics of nursing and medical science from books in a self-educating way. As the wife of a landowner, she frequently visited the houses of their maids, peasants to practice what she had learnt.
Her husband and mother-in-law weren’t thrilled by Vilma’s love for science. But she was brave enough to admit that she wasn’t happy with only being a housewife, she wanted more. She especially emphasized the lack of intellectual activities.
She was pregnant with her second child, when her father-in-law caught smallpox. No one dared to attend to him, except for Vilma. He recovered with her help and gifted her a jewellery collection. Even though she managed to save her father-in-law’s life, her child died three weeks after birth.
Despite the tragedy, she made a resolution to become a doctor. She had heard that the University of Zürich accepted women as well, so she mentioned it to her husband. After a fight he gave in, but didn’t support his wife financially. She sold all of her jewellery to cover her expenses, and commanded her 6-year-old son to her family’s care.
University years
She was 25 years old in the September of 1872, when her dream came true and she started studying medicine at the University of Zürich. One time, she read an article about vegetarianism in Freitagszeitung, which convinced her to give up meat. The diet, which was very new at the time, didn’t only strengthen her willpower, but also gave her a new topic to study. People believed that the human body couldn’t function without meat, but Vilma proved this theory wrong with an 80-day test, during which she only ate fruits.
She continued to study hard and eat vegetarian meals, mostly milk, bread and fruits, because she couldn’t afford more. Furthermore, she said goodbye to one of the indicators of her noble origin, and changed the ‘y’ in her name to ‘i’, thus becoming Vilma Hugonnai.
On the 3rd of February, 1879 she successfully graduated. In the next one and a half years she worked as a physician assistant at the surgery department of Professor Rosé. However, she dreamt of a Hungarian practice, so she rejected Swiss job offers and returned home in 1880.
