A Woman's Place · Episode 4 of 12 · 22 min
The Suffrage Race: The First Woman to Vote Wasn't American
Asking who gave women the vote first in the Americas yields five defensible answers, because first can mean first law, ballot, constitution, or national election. Untangling them shows suffrage arrived when it was useful to someone in power, and the United States' claim to hemispheric leadership dissolves. The story runs from Matilde Hidalgo's 1924 ballot in Ecuador to Paraguay in 1961.
Who's who
- Matilde Hidalgo+1 more episodeEcuadorian physician; first woman to vote in a national election in Latin America
- Paulina LuisiUruguay's first woman medical graduate and suffrage leader
- Celina Guimaraes VianaBrazilian teacher who voted in Mossoro in 1928
- Bertha Lutz+1 more episodeBrazilian biologist and strategist behind the 1932 electoral code
- Getulio VargasBrazilian president whose government enfranchised women in 1932
- Isidro AyoraEcuadorian president under whom the 1929 constitution enshrined women's suffrage
- Jose Batlle y OrdonezUruguayan reformist president behind the 1917 constitution
- Rita Riberareported first woman to register for Uruguay's 1927 Cerro Chato plebiscite
Where it happens
- Machala, Ecuadorwhere Hidalgo registered and voted in 1924
- Cerro Chato, Uruguay1927 plebiscite with women voting
- Mossoro, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazilwhere Viana voted in 1928
- Wyoming Territoryfirst US jurisdiction to grant women suffrage
Timeline
- 1869Wyoming Territory grants women full suffrage
- 1917Uruguay's constitution makes women's suffrage legally possible
- May-June 1924Hidalgo votes in Ecuador's legislative elections
- March 26, 1929Ecuador's constitution enfranchises literate women
- February 24, 1932Brazil's electoral code enfranchises women nationally
- 1961Paraguay becomes last in the hemisphere
Still debated
The competing firsts are definitional rather than factual. The Rita Ribera detail is beloved in Uruguay but rests on thin documentation.