Matilde Throup

Matilde Throup, who lived from August 18, 1876, to 1922, was a Chilean lawyer regarded as the first Chilean woman to receive the title of attorney, admitted under the terms of the 1877 Decreto Amunategui that opened Chilean universities to women. She earned a Bachelor of Philosophy and Humanities in 1887, a Bachelor of Law and Political Science from the University of Chile Faculty of Law in 1891, and a Licentiate of Laws in June 1892, becoming the first Chilean woman to hold a university law degree. Chile Court of Appeals initially denied her eligibility for civil service positions requiring the title of attorney in April 1893, but the Supreme Court of Chile overturned that decision in September 1893, establishing a precedent for women right to hold offices requiring the attorney title, a precedent later cited when Belgium and Argentina extended the title of attorney to women.