As we celebrate International Women’s Day, I present to you several women who have had a significant impact on education.

In October 2012,Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl, was shot by the Taliban while returning from school. Rushed to the United Kingdom, doctors removed the bullet from her head and, after several months of recovery, she was discharged. When he woke up in a Birmingham hospital 10 days after the attack, he had become a symbol not only in Pakistan but around the world.

Malala spoke at the United Nations where she proposed to the international community ‘education for all the children of the world’. “Without quality, inclusive and equitable education for all and lifelong learning opportunities, countries will not achieve gender equality or break the cycle of poverty.”

Since then, Malala has been a beacon for humanity. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.

“A child, a teacher, a book and a pen can change the world.”

Concepcion Arenal, a law graduate, journalist and writer, was a prison visitor and one of the pioneers of feminism in our country, convinced of women’s right to vote. He deeply believed that education prevented crime and social marginalization. He studied the condition of prisoners in prisons and denounced the poor conditions in which they lived. She was a key figure in the education of women. From a very young age she expressed her desire to study at university and when she reached the age to enter, she was rejected for being a woman. She had to disguise herself as a man, wearing a cape and hat, and she did so for a while until she was discovered. The rector allowed him to take an exam, thanks to which he ended up studying law.

“Schools open and prisons will close.”

Maria de MaeztuBorn in Vitoria in 1881, she was a pioneer in the fight for women’s education in Spain, a mission that she pursued throughout her career as a teacher, from her beginnings in a humble school located in the Las Cortes neighborhood of Bilbao, to her establishment in Madrid, where she worked tirelessly so that the young women who came to study in the capital could receive the best university education possible. “The old saying that ‘learning must be engraved in blood’ is true, but it must not be the blood of the child, but that of the teacher.”

Finally, María Montessori, a woman with an impressive resume who revolutionized the educational system of her time and made me completely rethink my vision of the child and what education should be like. Thanks to her inspiration, the Sotogrande International Montessori School was born because, like her, we are convinced that Montessori education is the best tool to prepare our children for the future and for life.

“The essence of Montessori education is to help the child in his development and help him adapt to the conditions that the present may require.”