Maria Rivera de Paz

Peruvian educator and suffragette who led Latin America's first women's voting rights campaign

Maria Rivera de Paz (1898-1972) was a Peruvian educator and political activist who spearheaded the region's earliest organized movement for women's suffrage. Establishing the Frente Unico Feminista in 1920, she united over 200 women's organizations across Peru to demand voting rights through her influential journal La Mujer Nueva. Her 1932 petition campaign secured women's right to vote in municipal elections, paving the way for full suffrage in 1955. As founder of the Escuela de Trabajo Social, she trained generations of social workers. Her life story is chronicled in 《Peruvian Women's Rights Movement》 and her methods influenced later Latin American feminist movements. The Maria Rivera Archive contains her correspondence with Eleanor Roosevelt regarding women's rights strategies.