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The Faluche: student tradition and symbolism
The faluche, the famous hat worn by French students, has a special place in Montpellier. Here, the faluche features cross-shaped crevices (openings on the hat) on its black velvet, a Montpellier specificity that sets it apart from other university towns. This particularity is a direct tribute to Rabelais, who was a student and teacher at Montpellier's Faculty of Medicine.
Montpellier's faluche tradition has also stood out through the ages. When the faluche was adopted in 1889 by Parisian students to represent the French university, Montpellier chose to differentiate it by adding this colored cross, linked to the student's discipline. This tradition continues to this day, with the medical students' guild adding a pin to the faluche every year, symbolizing their progress.
The Rabelais monument, located in the Jardin des Plantes and donated by students in 1921 to celebrate the faculty's 700th anniversary, is further evidence of the students' attachment to this historic figure. A key anecdote is that the monument, which depicts a student toasting, had its hand broken by bad weather. When the monument was renovated for the faculty's 800th anniversary, the students chose not to rebuild the hand, arguing that the modern student didn't deserve to toast, as they no longer studied with the same fervor as those of Rabelais' day. In the end, the hand was reconstructed on the basis of iconography supplied by the students themselves, after several unsuccessful attempts.
Women at Montpellier's Faculty of Medicine: pioneers and resistance
Montpellier's Faculty of Medicine was a forerunner in welcoming women into medical studies, although this process was marked by resistance and anecdotes that reveal the mentalities of the time.
Agnès McLaren: the first woman to enroll in the faculty (1876)
The first woman to break through Montpellier's glass ceiling was Agnès McLaren, a Scottish woman who enrolled in the faculty in 1876. At a time when women were still largely excluded from the medical professions, she became one of the pioneers not only in France, but also in Europe. McLaren, from a noble Catholic family, had initially tried to enroll in other faculties before finding Montpellier more welcoming. She obtained her medical degree in 1878, becoming the first woman doctor to be trained in Montpellier.
However, despite her success at university, McLaren was unable to practice as a doctor in England, where the laws still forbade her access to the profession. She eventually devoted her career to women's health in India, working as a medical missionary.
Glafira Ziegelmann and Amans Gaussel: a pioneering couple in Montpellier medicine
Another landmark in the history of women at Montpellier's Faculty of Medicine is Glafira Ziegelmann, a Russian-born doctor and wife of Professor Amans Gaussel. Their academic and personal paths form a veritable saga.
Glafira Ziegelmann and Amans Gaussel met as students in Montpellier. The two young medical students shared not only their studies, but also a common determination to succeed at a time when women were struggling to secure their place in the medical field. Their love of medicine and their shared ambition drive them to train each other to pass the prestigious agrégation examination in medicine.
Amans Gaussel first passed the agrégation exam, becoming a professor at the faculty. Encouraged by this success, he encouraged Glafira to take the exam as well. A brilliant candidate, she passed the written test in Paris. However, during the oral exam in 1910, a scandal broke out: when it was discovered that she was a woman, the jury refused to admit her to the examination. In a still largely patriarchal France, the idea that a woman could be an agrégée in medicine and teach at university remained unacceptable.
Despite this injustice, Glafira Ziegelmann remained undeterred. During the First World War, she replaced her husband at the head of a large sanatorium in the Hérault region of France, demonstrating unquestionable managerial and medical skills. Her
role during the war highlights the need to admit women to positions of responsibility in medicine. It was a symbolic turning point in the evolution of attitudes within the faculty.
Glafira's refusal in 1910 and the monument to Rabelais: a troubling coincidence
1910 was not only marked by Glafira's refusal to take the agrégation oral examination. That same year, the "Association Générale des Etudiants de Montpellier" launched a competition to erect a monument to the glory of Rabelais. Rabelais, a great humanist and former student of Montpellier's Faculty of Medicine in the 16th century, is an emblematic figure for the institution.
The model chosen for the monument shows an allegory of the Faculty of Medicine, represented by a woman in a professor's habit. This decision provoked an outcry in the local and national press, with critics objecting to this feminine representation of such a prestigious historical institution. Although the coincidence between Glafira Ziegelmann's rejection in Paris and the controversy surrounding this statue is difficult to prove, some see it as an illustration of the resistance women encountered at the time in their quest for professional recognition.
This debate shows the extent to which the idea of a woman in a position of academic or scientific authority was still widely rejected at the beginning of the twentieth century.
A couple immortalized in Montpellier: the Ziegelmann-Gaussel amphitheatre
Despite this resistance, Glafira Ziegelmann and Amans Gaussel's contribution to Montpellier medicine has left a lasting mark. Their dedication to teaching and medicine is now honoured by an amphitheatre bearing their names on Montpellier's Arnaud de Villeneuve campus. This symbolic gesture testifies to the Faculty's respect and recognition of these women, and reaffirms the importance of their role in the institution's history.
Women's late entry into the medical profession in France
Although Agnès McLaren and Glafira Ziegelmann paved the way for women in medicine, it would be several decades before women could fully access teaching and research positions in French medical faculties. The agrégation in medicine, once an insurmountable obstacle for women, gradually became accessible after the Second World War, at the cost of fierce struggles for gender equality in the academic world.
Montpellier played a pioneering role in this respect, welcoming women as early as the end of the 19th century, helping to change attitudes and gain recognition of their right to practice and teach medicine.
