: WOMEN SUFFERAGE MOVEMENT IN COSTA RICA

2. FEMINISM IN COSTA
RICA

3. NO.12SUBMITTED TO: MAM IRAM RUBAB
SUBMITTED BY: AFSANA KARIM (ROLL NO.34)
SANA NAZ (ROLL NO.39)
ALINA NOSHEEN (ROLL NO.43)
ABDUL REHMAN (ROLL NO.20)
MUHAMMAD NOMAN (ROLL NO.59)
SAEED AHMED (ROLL NO.17)
MUHAMMAD ISHFAQ (ROLL NO.71)
AMMAR FAROOQ (ROLL )

4. Feminism is an ideology at
women should have equal
political, social, sexual,
intellectual & economic
rights..
FEMINISM

5.  Costa Rica is located on the central American
isthmus, surrounding the point 10 degree
north of the equator & 84 degree west of the
prime meridian,
 Its borders both the Caribbean sea(to the
east) & the north pacific ocean(to the west),
with a total of 1,228 km of coastline(212 km
on the Caribbean coast & 1,016 km on the
pacific).
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONOF COST RICA

7.  Costa Rica granted independence from Spain on
September 15,1821,at the beginning there was no voting
system in Costa Rica. On the basis of personal wealth, morals
and education leaders were selected.
 At the beginning women’s were not considered as a citizen
of costa Rica. women’s were not given the right to education,
property rights, political, social and economical rights.
women’s were totally excluded from all rights.
 In 1824 voting citizens were defined, who were 18 years of
age and had a honest job or profession, own a house and have
property and capital. women and poor uneducated men were
excluded from right to vote.
HISTORY OF WOMENIN COSTA RICA

8.  In 1848 women were explicitly excluded from voting when
a citizen was defined as male, age 21 or over.
 In 1844 women haven’t the right of parental authority.
 In 1847 women’s right to receive education formally
recognized. “education is a right of all citizens”
specifically, public instruction of both sexes will be
uniform throughout the nation.
 In 1888 she could exercise the guardianship of her child
only when her husband was absent.
 In 1888,women were also granted the right to
guardianship, but male remained the head of the house.
These restrictions were not for a single women, but for a
married women.

9.  In 1869 education become compulsory for both
males and females, but education was not same for
both man and women.
 The first girl’s high school in Costa Rica, a
private girls school begun informally in 1841,
changed in 1847 into a legitimate secondary school
to train women to become elementary school
teachers and to teach other important skills.
An 1887 magazine article encouraged parents to
send girls to school.

10.  The costa Rican suffragist movement shared much with movements
in Europe & the united states, but it is also displayed unique
characteristics.
 as the case in Europe & the united states, women of costa Rica
struggled for sixty years in fact to win the vote.
The Costa Rican feminist movement was started by women who had
struggled for their education & who often shared specific
characteristics.
During the women’s struggle three dominant institutions jointly and
separately enforced and rationalized women’s lack of political rights.
These institutions are the legal system represented by all costa Rican
constitutions from 1821 to 1949,the educational system and the
Catholic Church.
SIXTY YEARS OF SUFFRAGIST STRUGGLE IN COSTA
RICA(1889-1949)

11.  Costa Rican women in the movement
tended to have the following
characteristics…….
 One parent was an immigrant of European
background.
 They had studied in Europe or in united states.
 They had participated in international women’s
organizations.
 They had a professional training as a teachers or
doctors & were self-supporting.
 They were often from the middle class.

12. ANGELA ACUNA

13.  Angela Acuna exemplifies these women. Her mother was half
German. Acuna had studied at a girls private school in England and had
attended suffragist meetings in England. Acuna was a lawyer not a
teacher like most costa Rican suffragists.
 The role of female teachers in the movement was more central in
costa Rica than in Europe and the united states. Women never staged
large protest demonstrations to gain their political rights.
In patriarchal Costa Rica a deviation from prescribed roles was
severely punished. Consequently, attack on brave women who dared
demand the vote were particularly vicious.
 In the early 1900s costa Rica’s newspapers were filled with the cables
from the radical suffragist movement in England. It has an impact on
the costa Rican society and on the local newspaper, people say that it is
ridiculous that women’s are starting political campaigns now family
system will destroyed and there will be no peace in home.

14.  Angela Acuna returned to costa Rica in 1910 and
become the first women to enroll in the boy’s secondary
school for certification to enter the university.
 In 1923 Angela Acuna founded the first official
suffragist organization in costa Rica named as Liga
feminista (suffragist league) & she was the first president
& most of its member were teachers.
 A few women joined with Acuna to demand the right to
vote’ another group emerged to fight for workers rights
under the leadership of Maria Lsabel Carvajal.

15. MARIA ISABEL CARVAJAL

16.  In 1931 Carvajal was a founding member of the communist party’
the first costa Rican party to put women’s political rights on their
platform. Carvajal herself supported women’s right to vote, but she
fought primarily for workers welfare and did not see feminist
struggle as a separate issue.
 In 1929 the organization changed its name to the cultural society
& also changed its objectives.
 In 1926 Acuna returned to Europe, where she would remained
for three years, her absence affected the suffragist struggle &
feminist league become involved in traditional feminine activities.
 In 1931 Acuna returned and restored the feminist league again
its president & sent another bill to amend constitution, the bill was
about women the right to vote. This time Acuna was joined by
other prominent leaders, the proposed amendment would grant the
right to vote to the following women, university graduates,
teachers, typist, secretaries, accountants, nurses, women who
completed elementary school and could speak one foreign
language, but unfortunately the bill was not passed.

17.  In 1939 the feminist league submitted another demand
to the legislature, arguing that 1848 constitution did not
exclude women. Again the request failed.
 The period from 1940 to 1948 is considered one of the
most significant in costa Rican history.
 On may, 1943 women & students organized to protest a
proposed electoral reform.
 Finally the bill passed on June 20, 1949 after sixty years
struggle of costa Rican women.

18.  In 1949 all citizens male or female, age 20 & above,
could now vote.
 Costa Rican women cast their first votes on a
referendum on July 31, 1950.
 Three years later, in 1953 costa Rican women voted for
the first time in a presidential election.

19. First off’ I think it is a good sign for women’s rights that costa
Rica’s current president is a women’ Laura Chinchilla Miranda.
She is the first women president of Costa Rica and was elected
in 2010, and the 6th female president to be elected in Latin
America.
President chinchilla has started “women continue receiving less
salary for the same kind of job,” in a 2011 Forbes interview.
“Women have a higher unemployment rate in our country.
When you analyze the composition of poverty’ you will find
that most of the families in poverty are being run by a woman.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN COSTA RICA

20. FIRSTWOMEN PRESIDENT OF COSTARICALAURACHINCHILLA
MIRANDA

21. Also, a big issue is violence against women. THE
president mentioned that violence against women is an
issue, so I look it up. I found that men use stupid
excuses to justify their violence. Groups blame sexual
violence on the way that women dress or act. This has
led to there being political protests in the form of “slut
walks.” I think that it is awesome that they are able to
have this kind of protest. If women were to attempt
this sort of thing in Middle Eastern countries, they’d
probably be shot. Costa Rica is a Roman Catholic
country. It is not socially accepted that women are as
sexual as men are. Abortions in Costa Rica are illegal.
The president is against legalizing the morning after
bill.

22. A WOMEN IN COSTA RICA’S “SLUT WALK” HOLDS
UPA SIGN PROCLAIMING THAT JESUS WOULD
LOVE WOMEN NO MATTER HOW THEY DRESS..

23. After sixty years struggle the women of Costa
Rica win the right of vote on July, 1949. All
women age 20 and over could now vote.
women of costa Rica were now considered as
the citizen of costa rica.it was a great
achievement for all the women of costa Rica.
CONCLUSION

24.  digital.library.pitt.edu/Cgi-bin/t/text-
idx?c=pittpress;cc…..
 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Costa_Rican…..
 www.marriam-
webster.com/dictonary/women%20suffrage.....
REFRENCE