8th March - International Women's Day; Five women who changed the course of Belgian history

International Women’s Day is on Monday, 8 March. We recognise the day devoted to the emancipation of girls and women around the world with a list of five women who helped chart the course of modern Belgian history.

Had Isala Van Diest not had such progressive parents, she might not have become the first woman in Belgium to obtain a university degree, which led to her become its first female doctor. Born in 1842 Leuven to parents who did not believe in educating their daughters and sons differently, Van Diest eventually travelled to Switzerland to obtain her diplomas as university was not open to women in Belgium. 

Told that her foreign medical degree did not allow her to practice in Belgium, she enrolled at the ULB in Brussels when it opened to women a few years later. She famously had to enter the building through a back door as her male classmates took to shouting and throwing rocks at her at the main entrance. She earned her medical degree in 1883 and opened her own practice in Brussels, treating mainly women and children.

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