The Women’s Suffrage Movement and Feminism in Argentina from Roca to Perón by Gregory Hammond (review)

Gregory Hammond proposes to study the “unique features” of the process that granted women suffrage rights in Argentina in 1947. His purpose is to examine what Argentina’s history can tell us about the suffragist movement and the society in which it took place. He considers “Argentina’s experience a standout in the women’s right movement globally” (p. 2). The text is divided into five period-based chapters. These are: The Origins of the Argentine Suffrage Movement, 1900–1910; The First Triumphs of Argentine Feminism, 1910–1926; Progress and Setbacks, 1927–1943, The Rise of Peronism and a “New” Feminism, 1943–1947; and Consolidating Victory: The Peronist Women’s Party, 1947–1955. Hammond provides a detailed description of the women’s suffrage movement from its earliest stages with an overview in the conclusion of the events leading up to the election of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner as president in 2007.

Hammond’s meticulous analysis of the history of the suffrage movement considers the effects produced by World Wars I and II, the Great Depression and the participation of Argentinean feminists in the International Council of Women. It also takes into account the influence of specific developments in Argentine politics such as the signing of the Ley Sáenz Peña (1912), the consequences of the Semana Trágica (1919), the reform of the Código Civil (1926), and the establishment of female suffrage in the San Juan province in 1928.

Hammond reflects on important feminist figures, such as Cecilia Grierson, the first woman to graduate from the School of Medicine who, together with other conservative, radical, independent, socialist, and anarchist feminists prepared the field that brought the implementation of the female vote in 1947 during the Peronist government, under the unifying force of Eva Perón. From the first chapters the author establishes the significance of class differences among the elite women actively involved in the cause and the women in the general population as one of the most important aspects of the tensions produced around the issue. Personal grievances, as in the case of the conflict between Grierson and Alvina Van Praet de Sala, are also responsible for producing a movement considered fragmented from the start.

The last two chapters provide full background information on the Peronist governments and analyze how the question of timing, and Evita’s assistance, helped Juan Perón to co-opt the advances of the suffragists, even with the opposition of the socialist women who had fought for the cause from the beginning of the century. However, the study’s strength resides in the first chapters, dedicated to lesser-known female historical figures who are abundantly quoted, and in Hammond’s nuanced analysis of the influences of different groups, including, for instance, the ultraconservative Patriotic League. While the text mentions Juana Manso and Juana Manuela Gorriti, important nineteenth-century female writers, and the well-known twentieth-century intellectual Victoria Ocampo, it does not provide a detailed examination of these figures or give consideration to other feminists active in the field of arts and culture who framed the advancement of women’s suffrage. It would have been interesting to see how these two areas mutually influenced each other.

The study provides a chart comparing the implementation of women’s suffrage dates in other Latin American countries and presents the argument that many of these countries followed a similar path. A more exhaustive analysis of what made Argentina’s situation distinctive, as promised in the introduction, would have been welcome. The comparison of Argentina’s literacy rate with that of other countries, for example, could have better demonstrated the uniqueness of the Argentine case, which otherwise remains largely unexplored. This would have added an engaging take to a text that sometimes seems repetitive.

In spite of these small shortcomings, Hammond has made a valuable contribution...