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By Sandra Ferrer Valero –http://www.mujeresenlahistoria.com/2015/06/la-mistica-feminista-teresa-de.html, Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0″>CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, <a href=”https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60570223″>Link</a></p>

Today it is the celebrating of the 125 Years Women’s Suffrage in New Zealand.

New Zealand’s Electoral Act of 19 September 1893 made this country the first in the world to grant women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Thank you Kate Sheppard. Kate was a leader in the New Zealand women’s suffrage movement and helping many women gain the right to vote in New Zealand. Kate Sheppard

What about women with disabilities over many years ago?

Yes, there were many women with disabilities who achieved their goals, their skills and gain the right to work in the men’s workplace.

Here is one of the earliest women who became deaf in northern Spain – in a city called Burgos.      

Her name is Teresa de Cartagena and she born between 1420 and 1435 to a Jewish family of intellectuals and scholars. Her parents were Maria de Saravia and Pedro de Cartagena. Teresa became deaf and not physically strong during her childhood – possible from her illness and she joined the convent as a nun. She wrote the first book “Arboleda de los enfermos” (in English -“Grove of the Infirm”) and she wrote about her experience deafness and other disability. There was a second book as well.

There is more to come over the next few days.