Marthe Condat
Marthe Condat | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Marthe Louise Lydie Condat. 19 July 1886 |
| Died | 24 October, 1939 |
| Occupations | physician and Professor |
| Employer(s) | Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Toulouse |
| Known for | first woman to hold a chair in French medicine |
Marthe Louise Lydie Condat (19 July 1886 – 24 October, 1939) was a French physician. She was the first woman to pass the competitive Agrégation de Médecine in 1923. She was the first woman in France to be a professor with a chair in French medicine when she was appointed at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Toulouse. She has a street named after her in Paris and her name is to be added to the Eiffel Tower.
Life
Condat was born in Graulhet, Tarn on July 19, 1886, in Graulhet, Tarn.[1] Her mother was Marie Athénaïs Victorine and her father was Georges Condat. He was a haberdasher and she was a milliner.[2]
Marie-Louise Roques who was the head of the Lafont boarding school boasted of Marthe Condat's success as a teenager in achieving an advanced diploma. The story was covered by the Toulouse newspaper L'Express du Midi in 1903.[3]
Condat was an intern at the hospitals of Paris from May 1, 1910, to May 1, 1914 [8] (the internship lasted four years). In 1914 she volunteered at a children's hospital (Hôpital des Enfants Malades) to compensate for the removal of so many male staff. It was said to be the first pediatric hospital in the world. For her work during the first world war when she was also the head of a pathology lab in Paris in 1916 she was awarded a Public Assistance Medal. She successfully defended her doctoral thesis: "leukocytolysis and leukocytic fragility" in 1916. In 1918 she moved to Toulouse.[1]
She became the first woman in France to pass the competitive Agrégation de médecine in 1923, and the first woman to hold a chair of medicine in 1932[1] at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in Toulouse.
Death and Legacy
Condat died in Toulouse on 24 October 24, 1939. She was chosen as one of the 72 women of science to be added to the existing 72 men of science and engineering who have their names on the Eiffel Tower.[4]
In July 2023, the Paris City Council named a street in the 12th arrondissement after her: the Cité Marthe-Condat.[5]
She was one of six women honoured in an exhibition by Haute-Garonne Departmental Council in 2023[6]
References
- ^ a b c "UPJV - Portrait de "Femmes en sciences" - Marthe CONDAT". www.echosciences-hauts-de-france.fr. Retrieved 2026-02-12.
- ^ Boudet, Alain. "Marthe Condat (1886-1939)" (PDF). academie-sciences toulouse. Retrieved 14 February 2026.
- ^ "L'Express du Midi : journal quotidien de Toulouse et du Sud-Ouest ["puis" organe quotidien de défense sociale et religieuse "puis" organe régional de redressement national, de défense religieuse et de progrès social]". Gallica. 1903-07-18. Retrieved 2026-02-12.
- ^ Claereboudt, Louise (2026-01-30). "Madeleine Brès, Marthe Condat… Ces femmes médecins vont voir leur nom gravé sur la tour Eiffel | Egora". www.egora.fr. Retrieved 2026-02-12.
- ^ Hidalgo, Anne (2009). "agreement to name a street". Le Conseil de Paris.
- ^ "Nos expos numériques". Haute-Garonne (in French). Retrieved 2026-02-12.