There is a long tradition of women throughout history, with extraordinary knowledge about the healing power of plants and their medicinal uses. They were the ones who provided the first pharmaceutical, hygienic and medical care. There are figures such as Hildegard of Bingen, abbess of the 12th century, who among many other texts, wrote "Causes and solutions", a medical text with recommendations and medicinal uses for different diseases.
In Spain, despite the difficulties for women to access the University (Concepción Arenal, in 1841, went to the Faculty of Law dressed as a man, in order to attend the class), there are data on women graduates in pharmacy since the nineteenth century. In the 1930s, the female quota in the Official College of Pharmacists of Madrid reached 25% of the total membership. There were Josefa Bonald (Madrid, 1893), who registered fourteen medicines between 1923 and 1935, or Rosa Martín de Antonio (Guadalajara, 1891), affiliated to the Republican Party and exiled to Venezuela during the civil war. Teresa Gonzalo Lázaro belongs to a new generation of pharmacists who, like many of her predecessors, has managed to develop a substance, a gel, of great interest for women's health, as it prevents the spread of HIV. Teresa Gonzalo has two world patents, the result of research at the University of Santiago together with the scientist and university professor María José Alonso Fernández.