Stefania Wolicka

Stefania Wolicka (1851–1937) was a Polish historian and the first woman awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy at the University of Zürich (in 1875).

Biography Wolicka, born in Warsaw (which from 1867 was within the Russian Empire) pursued her history degree despite the efforts of the Russian government of the time to prevent women from pursuing higher education. In 1873 she defied a decree ordering Russian women studying abroad to abandon their studies. However, Wolicka's name was on a list of 45 female Russian students sent to Tolstoy, who were all banned from teaching in the Russian Empire, forcing them to leave Switzerland by January 1, 1874.

According to University of Zürich records, Wolicka was from Posen (Poznań), and was born in Warsaw, and while she attended the University of Zürich, her parents were living in Zürich. Despite being forced to leave Switzerland, she received her Doctorate of Philosophy in 1875. Her doctoral dissertation is titled "Griechische Frauengestalten, 1.Teil" (Greek Figures of Women, Part 1). Hulewicz noted that she belongs to the first generation of Polish female students, a generation that was composed "primarily of heroic individuals."

Wolicka married, and became known by the name Stefania Wolicka-Arnd. Her doctoral dissertation was published in 1875 by Zürcher und Furrer in Zürich. She became a noted writer on women's rights in Poland. In 1895, she published an article in the Polish law journal Athenæum titled "Twenty five years of the parliamentary struggle for the rights of women."

Wolicka was the first woman to earn a Doctorate of Philosophy degree in Europe in the modern era. The first woman known to receive a Doctorate of Philosophy in Europe is believed to be Elena Cornaro, who received her degree at the University of Padua in 1678. Universities in Switzerland were the first modern-era European universities to admit female students. Female scholars from Poland, Austria, Belgium, and other parts of Europe relocated to Switzerland in the late 19th century to enroll in university, such as Belgium's first female university graduate, physician Isala Van Diest.