Women's suffrage in Venezuela
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{{Expand Spanish|Sufragio femenino en Venezuela|date=October 2020}}
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File:Mujer venezolana ejerciendo el derecho al voto.jpg, the first in which women participated]]
Women's suffrage in Venezuela was implemented in March 1946.Jenni Maria Lehtinen: [https://books.google.com/books?id=oxmRtoFNC54C&dq=women%27s+suffrage+venezuela&pg=PA79 Narrative and National Alleghory in Rómulo Gallegos's Venezuela] After President Isaías Medina introduced municipal voting reforms in 1945, the Right to Universal Suffrage was established on March 15, 1946 and was constitutionalized on July 5, 1947 by President Rómulo Betancourt.
The women's movement in Venezuela started late compared to other countries, and did not fully organize until the 1930s. After the death of dictator Juan Vicente Gómez in 1935, Venezuela's first notable women's rights organization, the Asociacón Cultural Feminina (ACF), was founded and swiftly followed by others such as the Asociación Venezolana de Mujeres (AVM).{{Cite web |title=La Asociación Venezolana de Mujeres cumple 80 años – Red Venezolana de OSC |url=https://acsinergia.org/2016/02/12/la-asociacion-venezolana-de-mujeres-cumple-80-anos/ |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=acsinergia.org}}{{Cite thesis |last=Skog |first=Erica Lynn |title=Equal rights for equal action : women's mobilization for suffrage in Venezuela |date=2008 |publisher=UC San Diego |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0qw974v9 |language=en}} The ACF was a leading organization in support of women's suffrage. Suffrage was supported by President Rómulo Betancourt, in his effort to appeal to women and minorities.Jenni Maria Lehtinen: [https://books.google.com/books?id=oxmRtoFNC54C&dq=women%27s+suffrage+venezuela&pg=PA79 Narrative and National Allegory in Rómulo Gallegos's Venezuela]
History
Nationwide protests in 1928 catalyzed mobilization for women's suffrage. In 1935, women organized to author and publish formal demands to Venezuela's new President Eleazar López Contreras in “Mensaje de las Mujeres Venezolanas al General Eleazar López Contreras".{{Cite journal |last=Betancourt |first=Rebeca Gomez |date=2024-12-27 |title=Women Economists in the Global South: The Case of Two Venezuelan Women Ministers of the Economy in 1968 and 1969 |url=https://rhetm.org/article/id/17465/ |journal=Review of the History of Economic Thought and Methodology |language= |volume=1 |issue=1 |doi=10.16995/RHETM.17465 |doi-access=free |issn=3049-9542|url-access=subscription }} Though the Constitution of 1811 abstractly granted citizenship rights to Venezuelans, subsequent iterations and suffrage laws limited women's eligibility to vote, with 1942 recognized as the year when Venezuelan women were first granted citizenship.{{Cite book |last=Diaz |first=Arlene J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ebdd4TGmyIC&q=1811 |title=Female Citizens, Patriarchs, and the Law in Venezuela, 1786-1904 |date=2004-01-01 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-6640-7 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=VENEZUELA APPEARS TO HAVE TAKEN STEP BACKWARDS ON WOMEN'S ADVANCEMENT, WOMEN'S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE TOLD {{!}} Meetings Coverage and Press Releases |url=https://press.un.org/en/1997/19970122.wom940.html |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=press.un.org}}{{Cite web |title=Women and the Public Sphere in the Age of the French Revolution by Joan B. Landes {{!}} Paperback |url=https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801494819/women-and-the-public-sphere-in-the-age-of-the-french-revolution/#bookTabs=3 |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=Cornell University Press |language=en-US}}
On May 5, 1945, reforms by President Medina allowed women to vote in municipal elections. Medina was succeeded by President Betancourt, who extended women's suffrage in his first 1945 - 1948 term.{{Cite journal |last=Lieuwen |first=Edwin |date=1983-02-01 |title=Rómulo Betancourt and the Transformation of Venezuela |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article/63/1/186/148603/Romulo-Betancourt-and-the-Transformation-of |journal=Hispanic American Historical Review |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=186–188 |doi=10.1215/00182168-63.1.186 |issn=0018-2168}}
On March 15, 1946, the Right to Universal Suffrage granted Venezuelans over the age of 18 the right to vote, without discrimination based on gender, literacy, or social status.{{Cite journal |last=A |first=Edda O. Samudio |date=2020-08-27 |title=El imaginario femenino emeritense y el advenimiento del movimiento sufragista en Venezuela (1936-1947) |url=https://revistas.uasb.edu.ec/index.php/procesos/article/view/1658/2064 |journal=Procesos. Revista Ecuatoriana de Historia |language=es |pages=177–196 |doi=10.29078/p.v0i51.849 |issn=2588-0780|doi-access=free }} This allowed women to vote and be elected in the October 27, 1946 National Constituent Assembly, with the first six women members of Parliament elected that year.{{Cite web |title=Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) {{!}} National Assembly {{!}} Historical data on women |url=https://data.ipu.org/parliament/VE/VE-LC01/elections/historical-data-on-women/ |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=IPU Parline: global data on national parliaments |language=en-GB}}
The July 5, 1947 Constitution established universal women's suffrage as a constitutional right.File:Venezuela votes Brasil.jpgWomen's suffrage, and electoral processes in general, regressed during the 1948 - 1958 period influenced by Dictator Pérez Jiménez.{{Cite news |date=1953-02-01 |title=Venezuela |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1953/02/venezuela/640267/ |access-date=2025-05-07 |work=The Atlantic |language=en |issn=2151-9463}}
Free, general elections were reinstated in December 1958, resulting in Betancourt's return to the presidency.{{Citation |title=Elections in the Americas. 2: South America |date=2005 |edition=1. publ |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-19-928358-3}}{{Cite web |title=Historical Documents - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v05/d351 |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=history.state.gov}} The Constitution of 1961 reaffirmed voting rights.{{Cite web |title=University of Minnesota Human Rights Library |url=http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/research/venezuela-constitution.html |access-date=2025-05-07 |website=hrlibrary.umn.edu}}Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (in English translation from the original legal text)https://policehumanrightsresources.org/content/uploads/2016/02/Constitution-of-the-Bolivarian-Republic-of-Venezeula.pdf?x1823
See also
References
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Category:Women's rights in Venezuela