Manuela Beltrán

A Colombian feminist leader who pioneered Latin America's first women's university

Manuela Beltrán (1920–2013) was a Colombian educator and feminist who transformed women's access to higher education in Latin America. Born into a middle-class Bogotá family, she witnessed the exclusion of women from Colombia's leading universities. In 1948, she co-founded the Pontifical Xavierian University, becoming its first rector and designing its groundbreaking gender-inclusive curriculum. Beltrán's 1957 book <《Woman and Citizenship》 argued that women's political participation was essential for democracy. She later established the Colombian Women's University in 1966, which became a model for women's higher education across Latin America. As a UN Women consultant, she helped draft the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1979. Her 1980s advocacy for rural women's education led to the creation of over 300 literacy centers in remote regions. Beltrán's legacy is preserved in the Manuela Beltrán Foundation, which continues her work promoting gender equality through education. Her influence can be seen in modern Colombian feminist movements like the Women's March for Peace (2016).