The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Marie Bentivoglio was the first Australian woman to receive a scholarship to the University of Oxford.

Bentivoglio graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Science in 1919. She completed a Diploma in Education in 1920.

She was the first woman to win an 1851 Exhibition Science Scholarship to the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, where she gained a Doctorate of Philosophy and a Diploma of Geography.

On return to Sydney, Bentivoglio lectured at both the University of Sydney and the Sydney Teachers College. In 1928 she succeeded Thomas Griffith Taylor as Head of the Department of Geography.

In 1931 she published A physical and practical geography for secondary schools with Frieda Frances Friederich.

She later travelled to North and Central America, teaching in universities and working in the chemical industry.