Lucila Gamero de Saravia

Peruvian educator and feminist who pioneered women's universities and voting rights campaigns in South America.

Lucila Gamero de Saravia (1847-1924) was a visionary educator and suffragette in Peru, establishing the continent's first women's university and leading early feminist movements. Born into a middle-class family in Arequipa, she defied norms by studying literature and law independently, later becoming a teacher at 16.

In 1876, she founded Instituto Nacional Femenino, Peru's first state-run women's high school, which taught mathematics and natural sciences alongside humanities. By 1886, she established the Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa's first women's faculty, offering degrees in education and law.

Her 1895 pamphlet Women's Right to Vote argued for political equality, citing French feminist works. She organized the 1899 Women's Congress, the first feminist conference in Latin America, demanding access to public office and university careers. Her advocacy led to women's admission at Lima's National University in 1902.

Gamero de Saravia's pedagogy emphasized critical thinking, as seen in her Methodology of Teaching textbooks used until the 1930s. She also wrote Education and Progress (1908), advocating for co-educational systems. The Museo Gamero in Arequipa preserves her manuscripts and correspondence with activists like Emilia Pardo Bazán.

Modern scholars like María Elena Díaz credit her with shaping Peru's 1929 suffrage law. The Escuela Lucila Gamero de Saravia in Lima continues her mission, while her portrait appears on Peru's 50 Nuevo Sol banknote since 2018. Her work influenced later activists like Grace Eddy in Chilean suffrage movements.