The “modernas” girls of Madrid

A room of their own. Indeed, a residence all for them. The Residencia de Señoritas on Calle Fortuny in Madrid, inaugurated in 1915 under the auspices of public and private institutions as a subsidiary of the Institución Libre de Enseñanza. Yes, precisely that “revolutionary” Institute of Free Teaching that had so much influence on Spanish culture and history at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. From that liberal vein he drew inspiration Residencia de Senoritas. Which was the first center in Spain designated to promote university education or, in any case, higher education for women. Between 1915 and the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936, three hundred female students lived and trained there. They called them “las que estudian”, “those who study”. Thus, on April 7, 1929, the ABC newspaper headlined the two pages dedicated to the Residencia with an interview with the founder, Maria de Maeztu. And the title already documents the amazement in front of such different, so unusual women. How to call those girls “que querían saber”? That they wanted to know. To try their hand at the arts and above all with science. To try the path of professions, economic independence.