Within the framework of Women's Month, it is relevant to give visibility to all the women who today and have always contributed to making the world a more inclusive place. Performing various tasks, positioning themselves when necessary and offering everything that only they, as women, can offer.
The various achievements and possibilities that women have achieved and continue to achieve are not something of now. We must thank the promoters of the past, who have decided to step forward and fight for their rights, claiming their place in society. For this reason, we selected five names of female figures who have impacted the society of their time and who, having developed within different fields of study, deserve to be remembered today.
Thinking about the fight for women's rights, such as the issue of women's suffrage, we find Carmen Mondragón, born on July 8, 1893. This painter and poet was born in Tacubaya, Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico. She and her parents moved to the French capital, commissioned by the government to her father, and lived there for eight years. In that same place, she studied at a boarding school where she learned various arts, including classical dance, painting, literature and theater.
Her greatest milestone was in 1935, when she founded the Feminist League to Fight Drug Addiction. The purpose was to eradicate the vices that, from her point of view, affected the progress of the country. She took advantage of this to join an even bigger fight, seeking:
- The establishment of the female vote.
- Gender equality.
- Access to work with laws that will benefit pregnant women.
- The right to own land.
- The integration of indigenous women.
- Access to education without distinctions for women.
Another woman who has had an impact on society and history was Paulina Luisi, born on September 22, 1875 in Colón, province of Entre Ríos, Argentine Republic. She shared her life with her seven brothers and sisters, children of María Teresa Josefina Janicki (of French origin) and Ángel Luisi Paisano (of Italian origin), who in 1878 made the decision to move to Uruguay. Thanks to her tertiary studies, she became the first female doctor of medicine in 1908, while she was the first woman to receive a university degree in Uruguay. Of course, with the impetus that other women could achieve the same, Paulina became a Uruguayan feminist leader participating in the fight for women's rights as citizens at the beginning of the 20th century. In addition to this, she was involved with the Socialist Party of Uruguay, becoming one of the founders in 1910, thus marking her identity and her political career.
This continued during the first thirty years of the 20th century: It created the representation of the International Council of Women at the national level as well as the Uruguayan Alliance for Women's Suffrage, with the main objective being the achievement of equal political rights, which was consecrated with the conquest of the female vote in 1932.
- Se collaborated in the founding of two unions: the Union of Telephone Operators and the Union of Tailoring Seamstresses.
- She had great public participation, being sent on several occasions as a representative of Uruguay to congresses of various kinds such as the International Congress of Working Women in Washington in 1919 or the Feminist Congresses held in Norway and Switzerland in 1920, among others.
We cannot fail to mention Angela Davis, an African American activist born in Birmingham, Alabama, on January 26, 1944. Angela was faced with racism from a young age, also suffering persecution of African Americans for living in a housing site intended for African American people. This site was also continually occupied by the Ku Klux Klan.
In this context, Angela had to study in segregated and exclusive schools for African Americans, which would mark the actions of her activists and defense of the rights of people of color. However, the most notable event that is reflected in her work and thought was the murder of four young people in the explosion of the Birmingham Baptist Church in September 1963.
At 14 years old, she had the opportunity to attend a progressive school in Greenwich Village. Her radical environment led her to enter the study of socialism. In 1961 she enrolled at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, where she graduated Magna Vum Laude. Completing university, in 1968 she completed a master's degree from the University of California in San Diego at the same time that she developed her participation in the activist group Black Panthers, as well as in the Communist Party.
On the other hand, we find Maria Rojas Tejada, one of the first women in Colombia to publicly express the need for women's rights to better education and their political participation through voting. She was educated in the United States, when she returned to Colombia she had a revolutionary mentality.
In 1914, at only 24 years old in Yarumal (Antioquía), she founded a women's cultural center. Obviously, this center was frowned upon by the community and had to be moved to Medellín; establishing a female school with comprehensive education. Due to other eventualities, she finally ended up in Pereira, where she developed strongly:
- Se founded a secular and mixed school.
- She translated articles by American and European women feminists.
- She created and published the magazine “femeninas” between 1916 and 1918 about women's rights.
Julieta Lantieri, born in Cuneo, Italy, on March 22, 1873, arrived in Argentina at the age of six with her parents and her sister Regina. Julieta was the first woman who was able to enter and graduate from the National College of La Plata, which at that time was an exclusive institution for men.
In March 1896 she requested admission to the degree from the dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Leopoldo Montes de Oca. This gave her the honor of being one of the first five women in Argentina, and she was the first Italian, to qualify as a doctor.
Among other achievements, she founded the Argentine university association, called the Argentine League of Freethinking Women and also the National Feminist Party. At the first international freethought congress held in Buenos Aires, she spoke on three topics:
- Gender equality.
- Political equality.
- Divorce.
Se organized the “First Children's Congress” worldwide, such as the “League for Women's Rights” and the “League for the Rights of the Child”, in addition to participating in the “League against White Slave Trafficking”.
Her fight included denouncing the inhuman conditions of female workers deprived of any rights, fighting against pimps and officials who enriched themselves with sexual exploitation. As is evident, she pursued equal rights at all levels in which they should be exercised.
It is important to highlight that she was the first woman candidate for deputy in Argentina, for the National Feminist Party, despite the fact that due to prevailing laws she could not access the position. Within this, she promised to fight for maternity leave, provide a child benefit, abolish the death penalty, and establish equality between legitimate and illegitimate children.
Her death was defined as a premeditated murder, since she was run over at the age of 59 in 1932 by Davir Klappenbach, an affiliate of the civic legion (single party during the de facto government). Juliet died two days later.
These women have a very important place in the history of women's achievements, as they have not given in to the pressures of their time and have moved forward despite the dangers of being a minority that raised their voice. May they serve as inspiration for us to continue forward with a fight that is not yet over.