The founding moment of suffragism is historically found in 1848 with the Declaration of Sentiments of Seneca Falls3
The international movement for the defense of the right to women's suffrage is encouraged and developed by women suffragettes. It is a social, economic and political reform movement that promotes the extension of suffrage (the right to vote) to women, advocating "equal suffrage" (abolition of the difference in voting capacity by gender) in the place of the current « universal suffrage »(abolition of discrimination due mainly to race), since the latter, at the beginning of the discrimination of female suffrage was too revolutionary.4 5
Votes for Women pennant from the Indianapolis Children's Museum collection
The suffragists are members of different associations with the same objective, but using different tactics; For example, British suffragists are characterized by a more combative type of defense. Some prominent suffragists were Emily Davison, Emmeline Pankhurst, Carmen Karr among others. In 1904, the International Women's Alliance, which claimed women's suffrage, was founded in Berlin by Carrie Chapman Catt, Millicent Fawcett and other feminists. In other countries, women's suffrage was established by state institutions through laws that were directly promoted by women in politics, such as the case of Spain with Clara Campoamor, Argentina with Alicia Moreau de Justo and Eva Duarte de Perón or Mexico with Elvia Carrillo Port.
The main objectives of the feminist movement evolved from the suffrage movement, went from revindicating the feminine vote and equality before the law to seek more "palpable" objectives outside the legal framework increasingly distance from the suffrage movement directly understood as a liberal proposal of even before the law. Feminism increased its objectives including the following: the incorporation of women into work during World War I, the right to vote, the improvement of education, professional training and the opening of new work horizons, the equalization of sexes in the family as a means of avoiding the subordination of women and double sexual morals. The great novelty came from the broad collective mobilization that managed to lead the suffrage movement in certain countries.
International legislation recognized women's suffrage through the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. In 1948, the United Nations approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1 whose article 21 states:
Everyone has the right to participate in the government of their country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
Everyone has the right of access, on equal terms, to the public functions of his country.
The will of the people is the basis of the authority of public power; This will will be expressed through authentic elections to be held periodically, by universal and equal suffrage and by secret ballot or other equivalent procedure that guarantees freedom of vote.
The Convention on the Political Rights of Women2 was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in resolution 640 (VII), of December 20, 1952 and entered into force on 7 July 1954, based on Article 21 of the Declaration of Human Rights, and explaining the right of women to vote and their access to public office. In Article I, the convention provides
