Esther Carrillo

Peruvian feminist who organized Latin America's first women's suffrage movement

Esther Carrillo (1867-1942) was a trailblazing feminist from Arequipa, Peru who founded the Unión Femenina Pericana in 1898 - the first organization in Latin America dedicated to women's suffrage. Her activism challenged Spanish colonial gender norms that denied women property rights and political participation.

Carrillo published La Mujer y el Sufragio, the first feminist manifesto in the region arguing for women's right to vote. She organized cross-border alliances with Chilean and Argentine feminists, creating the Red Sudamericana por la Emancipación Femenina in 1902. Though her movement didn't achieve suffrage until 1955, her groundwork laid the legal framework for later victories.

Less celebrated than North American suffragettes, her work is now recognized through the Esther Carrillo Archive in Lima. Her advocacy for women's education and labor rights influenced Peru's 1920 labor code, which first recognized female workers' rights. Modern Peruvian feminists regularly cite her 1899 speech 'The Vote is the Oxygen of Citizenship' as foundational to their movement.