Elisa Soriano Fisher

Elisa Soriano Fisher (October 22, 1891 in Madrid – December 3, 1964 in Madrid) was a Spanish teacher and ophthalmologist. She founded the Asociación Nacional de Mujeres Españolas (ANME, National Association of Spanish Women) and was the president of the Juventud Universitaria Femenina (JUF, Female University Youth) association. She is considered a leading figure of universal suffrage and associative and intellectual feminism of the 1920s and 1930s, until the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.

Biography

Early years Elisa Soriano was born in Madrid on October the 22nd, 1891. Despite the scarcity of information available about her childhood, it is known that her mother was Enriqueta Fisher, who died before Elisa was 5 years old and that her father was José Soriano Surroca (1865-1938), a prominent gynecologist and academic from Madrid. Soriano lived in a period of upheaval in which several political changes took place in the 20th century Spain, such as the monarchy of Alfonso XIII, the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the Second Republic and Francoist Spain. Until the age of 13, Soriano studied at the San Luis de los Franceses School in Madrid. Then she continued her studies at the General and Technical Institute of Guadalajara and later at the Escuela Normal Superior de Maestras, where in 1912 she completed a Higher Degree in Teaching with an outstanding qualification. In 1913 she became a secretary of the Comisión de Reglamento de la Caja de Socorros bank and a member of the female's committee Comité Femenino de Higiene Popular in Madrid.

Medicine was her vocation, with it she intended to help other people and be independent. However, Soriano's main objective was to draw the attention of her fellow men. In addition, the director of the publication El Monitor Sanitario, Luis Ortega Morejón, wrote a biography about her, in which he asserted that Elisa was the one who had provided hin with the data and that she was the first woman to appear in his journal thanks to: “her capacity, preparation, intelligence and energy to always succeed in difficult missions”. Besides, he also talked about the very important achievements for which she had been honored with the position of professor in the Hospital Clínico de la Facultad de Medicina from which she resigned, according to Luis Ortega Morejón, due to the male chauvinism of the time.

Feminism

Elisa Soriano fought all her life for the liberation, modernity emancipation and freedom of women. Dr. Soriano believed in women with self-capacity and autonomy, all of which was mainly provided by education. She supported women to make them realize that they were not the weak sex, and that they did not depend on a patriarchal system. The end of World War I meant the beginning of the struggle for women's rights. At the end of 1918, the National Association of Spanish Women (ANME) was created and Elisa was one of its members. Some of the organization's most desired objectives were: to obtain the right and access to education, to work with equal pay, i.e. the same salary for the same work regardless of who has done it, to defend feminine rights, the protection to all feminine initiativex and humanitarian ideax.

Life’s Work

Elisa Soriano wrote many works during her whole life. She wrote, with assiduity, in publications such as La Medicina Social Española (1918–20) and El Siglo Médico. Her work is usually related to education and health, ocular diseases and women's rights. Some of the publications that should be highlighted are:

“La mujer española ante los acontecimientos actuales” (The Spanish woman and the current events). “La casa de los niños” (The Children's House). “La higiene y la mujer” (Hygiene and Women). “Desde Guadarrama” (From Guadarrama). “Las mujeres españolas” (Spanish Women). “El tracoma en Vallehermoso” (The trachoma in Vallehermoso). “Protección económica a la mujer” (Economical Protection to Women), “La higiene y la moda” (Hygiene and Style).