Liga Paraguaya de los Derechos de la Mujer

Liga Paraguaya de los Derechos de la Mujer (League for Women's Rights) was a women's organization in Paraguay, founded in 1951.^[1] It played an important role in the struggle for women's suffrage, which was finally introduced in 1961, the last for any South American nation.^{[citation needed]}

History

The organized women's movement in Paraguay had not been able to form a permanent organization. The Liga Paraguaya was preceded by Unión Femenina del Paraguay (UFP) (1936–1937) and the Unión Democrática de Mujeres (UDM) (1946–1947), both of whom became temporary; the UFP being dissolved because of its affiliation with the government which fell in 1937, and the UDM because of the Paraguayan Civil War (1947). In contrast to their predecessors, however, the Liga Paraguaya de los Derechos de la Mujer was to become the first long term women's organization.

In 1948, Paraguay signed the convention of the Organization of American States in Bogotá, which awknowledged that women had the same political rights as men. By the late 1940s, both the Colorado party and the Liberal party officially promised legal equality for women, but little legal reform was performed in practice.^[2]

The Liga Paraguaya de los Derechos de la Mujer was founded by the leading suffragist lawyer Mercedes Sandoval de Hempel in 7 June 1951. Concepción Rojas Benítez, Representative of Paraguay in the Inter-American Commission of Women, was elected its president.

The stated purpose of the Liga was to campaign for political and legal equality for women and men, including the right to women's suffrage. They also sought to inform about women's achievments, rights and possibilities and increase their cultural level.

In a 1954 law, a legal framework was finally introduced providing equal rights for women - but only selectively by civil status: granting equal rights to unmarried women and widows but not married women.^[3]

During the presidency of Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989), the activity of the Liga Paraguaya did not stop, but became difficult, like the work of all organizations not affiliated with the Colorado party.

Women's suffrage was finally introduced in Paraguay in 5 July 1961, because the strongarm president, Alfredo Stroessner, lacking the approval of his male constituents, sought to expand his voter base through women voters.^[4]

References

1. Rodríguez, Pablo (1 January 2004). La familia en Iberoamérica, 1550–1980. Universidad Externado de Colombia. ISBN 978-958-698-134-7.
2. The Paraguay Reader: History, Culture, Politics. (2012). USA: Duke University Press. 435
3. The Paraguay Reader: History, Culture, Politics. (2012). USA: Duke University Press. 435
4. Przeworski, Adam; Shin, Kong Joo; Xi, Tianyang (September 26, 2013). "A Simple Partisan Calculus of Women's Suffrage" (PDF). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas. São Paulo, Brazil: Universidade de São Paulo. p. 22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 September 2017. Retrieved 9 September 2017.