THE SUFFRAGETTES AND THEIR STRUGGLE FOR THE VOTE OF WOMEN IN THE 20th CENTURY

 THE SUFFRAGETTES AND THEIR STRUGGLE FOR THE VOTE OF WOMEN IN THE 20th CENTURY

In the 20th century, the agenda will expand and will have suffrage as its central axis, since women aspired to obtain full citizenship to stop being considered minors and be able to exercise their civil, political, and social rights. Thus, strategies were organized and developed to get out of political marginalization in a Latin American and global context in which women's struggle for the vote was taking place. María Jesús Alvarado (Ica, 1878) was the first to put the debate on women's suffrage in the country on the agenda in her conference "El feminismo", given at the Geographical Society in 1911. For her part, Zoila Aurora Cáceres (Lima, 1872) founded the Peruvian Feminism Association, which proposed a project to reform the Constitution in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, and tried to make the population aware of women's political rights through the press. In 1952, the Association of Trujillo Lawyers emerged, led by María Julia Luna, in 1953 the University Women's Association was founded to carry out educational campaigns and achieve the right to vote for women, and in 1954 the Convention on the Political Rights of Women came into force. . Finally, they sent a memorial to President Odría, requesting to modify the 1933 Constitution.

In this context, two important milestones were achieved. The first was the inconclusive debate on women's suffrage in the Constituent Assembly from 1931 to 1933, where the municipal vote for women was achieved. It occurred amid a very complicated context that ultimately led to social mobilizations, confrontations between APRA and the military, and the National Emergency Law. Said Assembly was made up of representatives of the political parties and only men, who - despite their ideological and partisan differences - agreed to deny female participation in the presidential elections. The arguments used will be repeated in the debate of the 1950s. These were: the contradiction between public and political participation and the feminine nature centered on the home, marriage, and motherhood; their propensity for Catholicism would lead them to have a conservative vote; the lower education of women; the highest percentage of the female population; that their place in society was the domestic and private sphere; among other reasons related to the conception of traditionally accepted gender roles. Subsequently, the law was debated in Congress between 1954 and 1955, finally being approved, despite resistance. In this sense, women's suffrage was not a gift from the president nor was it given at the request of his wife, María Delgado de Odría (Arequipa, 1900), but rather it was the result of a long process in which women had active participation that led to to the achievement of that long-awaited right.

The 1956 elections concluded with the election of Manuel Prado Ugarteche, as President of the Republic, and the election of 182 deputies, of which 8 were women and, of 53 senators, one woman. The first female representatives were: Irene Silva de Santaolalla, senator for the department of Cajamarca; Manuela C. Billinghurst López, deputy for the department of Lima; Alicia Blanco Montesinos, deputy for Junín; Lola Blanco Montesinos, deputy for Áncash; María Colina de Gotuzzo, deputy for La Libertad; Matilde Pérez Palacio Carranza, deputy for Lima; Carlota Ramos de Santolaya, deputy for Piura; María Eleonora Silva y Silva, deputy for Junín; and Juana Ubilluz de Palacios, deputy for Loreto.

However, we must also remember the action of many other women such as Miguelina Aurora Acosta Cárdenas (Yurimaguas, Loreto, 1887), María Asunción Galindo (Puno, 1895) or Magda Portal (Lima, 1900).

The first eight deputies of Peru. From left to right: Juana Magdalena Ubilluz de Palacios, Manuela Candelaria Billinghurst López, Lola Blanco Montesinos de La Rosa Sánchez, María Eleonoro Silva y Silva, Carlota Ramos de Santolaya, María Mercedes Colina Lozano de Gotuzzo, Matilde Pérez Palacio Carranza and Alicia Blanco Montesinos of Salinas. (Source: El Comercio).

Source: Rosas C. (2021). Desafiando el peso de la historia. El papel de las mujeres en la construcción de la República peruana. Memoria magazine ed 35. IDEHPUCP. https://idehpucp.pucp.edu.pe/revista-memoria/articulo/desafiando-el-peso-de-la-historia-el-papel-de-las-mujeres-en-la-construccion-de-la-republica-peruana/