Maria de Maeztu

Her father, Manuel de Maeztu Rodríguez was a Cuban engineer and landowner from Navarre who had met her mother, Joan Whitney, the daughter of a British diplomat[citation needed] in Paris, when she was sixteen.

Her mother, a fragile but enterprising woman with a strong personality, took her three sons and two daughters to Bilbao and, in 1891, set up a residential school for girls to study French and English and improve their cultural skills.

[2] María was an eloquent speaker and her knowledge of languages placed her in a position to represent Spain at international congresses and to import examples of Anglo-Saxon feminist associations.

Governed by the same rules as the Residencia de Estudiantes that had opened in 1910 for men, it became the first official center in Spain whose main objective was to encourage women's participation in advanced education, by providing accommodation for female students.

She was its first director and with lectures, poetry readings, musical and theatrical recitals she attracted such intellectuals as Ortega y Gasset, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Victoria Ocampo, etc.

Together with assistance from Carmen Baroja and Concha Méndez they modelled it after the Lyceum Club's that were in existence in Brussels, London, Milan, New York City, Paris and The Hague.

With departments devoted to social issues, literature, the arts and music, science, as well as international affairs, the group sponsored lectures, concerts, exhibitions, and a variety of literary tributes.

[4] Conservative opposition flared up with religious groups and publications condemning the club on its liberal political ideas, its library and what they regarded as its threat to marriage, family, and the Church.

Throughout Spain, in Alicante, Avilés, Barakaldo, Elche, Estella-Lizarra, Estepona, Galapagar, Granada, Málaga, Puertollano, San Sebastián and Zaragoza, there are streets named in honor of María de Maeztu.