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1. Feminism Before Somoza
- Penn State University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
In 1940, teacher Josefa Toledo de Aguerri, a self-proclaimed feminist, suffragist , and advocate of women’s education, published a series of essays entitled “Feminism and Education.” In one of them, she wrote, “One of feminism’s characteristics is to consider it possible for woman to find in her own self ‘her means and end,’ to be able to live independently of man, if she so desires, and earn her own living.”1 She concluded the piece by noting: “The world will march toward justice . . . when each woman is able to express her mind’s vigor, [and] her impulse for action.”2 Toledo de Aguerri adopted the term “feminism” in the early 1920s, although it was being used earlier in the century in Nicaragua and other parts of Latin America.3 The concern with women’s subordinate status in society was not new in Nicaragua, however. Indeed, Toledo de Aguerri began her campaign for women’s and girls’ educational rights in the 1880s. And she was part of a movement that could trace its origins back to the 1820s and the early days of Nicaraguan independence. This chapter provides a broad picture of the struggle for women’s rights in Nicaragua in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when three key developments in the history of first-wave feminism took place that would facilitate the formation of the Somocista women’s movement in the mid-twentieth century. First, there emerged a tenuous and ambiguous O N E FEMINISM BEFORE SOMOZA relationship between feminists and Liberals. Second, the feminist movement became consolidated under the leadership of one woman, Josefa Toledo de Aguerri. And, third, despite that leader’s broad vision, women’s su¤rage became the one issue that gained prominence within feminism in the first decades of the twentieth century. The chapter is divided into six sections. The first defines the terms “feminism” and “feminist” as used in the book. The second covers Josefa Toledo de Aguerri’s contributions to nineteenth- and early twentiethcentury feminism. The third deals with feminism’s early years (1820s– 1880s). The fourth discusses the role Liberal ideology played in the struggle for women’s political and civil rights during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The fifth deals with women’s rights during Nicaragua ’s Liberal Revolution (1893–1909) and traces the beginnings of the women’s su¤rage movement. And the sixth section documents the course of women’s rights and autonomous feminism in the years after the Liberal Revolution ended, but before the Somozas came to power.4 Among the feminist organizations of this period we find the Nicaraguan Feminist League, the International League of Iberian and Hispanic American Women and Nicaraguan Women’s Crusade (LIMDI y Cruzada), the First Pan-American Women’s Education League, the Inter-American Commission of Women (IACW), and the Workingwomen’s Cultural Center.5 Defining Terms By “feminism,” I mean the support for women’s rights in civil and political arenas, accompanied by a personal stand against male domination in other areas of life. I call “feminist” all those who gave such support and took such a stand before the early 1920s (when Toledo de Aguerri adopted the terms). Thereafter, however, I call “feminist” only those who subscribed to feminism as defined and who also regarded themselves as feminists. I have borrowed the use of “feminist” for the nineteenth century from June E. Hahner’s work on Brazil. Hahner argues that “while [historians] generally seek to avoid the anachronistic use of terms, ‘feminist’ is nevertheless a useful adjective for describing over time . . . [the] opponents of gender inequality.”6 I find that using “feminist” in the Nicaraguan case allows us to make a link between nineteenth- and twentieth-century e¤orts to end gender inequality. If this link is not highlighted, early twentiethcentury feminism appears to grow out of nowhere. F E M I N I S M B E F O R E S O M O Z A 2 3 [3.236.214.123] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 13:52 GMT) I have also heeded historian Nancy F. Cott’s cautionary advice against using the term “feminism” too broadly. I agree with Cott’s argument that feminism is a quite specific movement and that “expanding [the term ‘feminism’] to cover every worthy or new endeavor women take up equates the term with ‘what women did’ and renders it meaningless.”7 Moreover, feminism has to do with women’s consciousness, making it...