María Abella de Ramírez (28 September 1863 – 5 August 1926) was an

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, noted for her role in establishing Uruguayan and Argentine women's groups in the early 1900s. Abella published a journal, ''We Women (Nosotras)'', and was a contributor to the National Feminist League journal ''The New Woman''.

Life

Involved in the Argentine freethinking movement, in 1903 Abella supported the creation of a feminist center to facilitate discussions, later explaining her “minimum plan of female vindications” at the 1906 Freethinker Congress, arguing for equal opportunities and pay for women. She also campaigned for female divorce rights while facing opposition from the Roman Catholic Church. Even pro-divorce groups left out the female voice and body; in 1905, for instance, Oneto y Viana's proposed bill legalized divorce, but confirmed the reason as female adultery in all cases. Abella also argued that the state had no right to regulate the sex trade, which she announced in a conference in 1906: ''“Que la prostitución sea tolerada pero no reglamentada. La mujer soltera y mayor de edad es dueña de si misma: su cuerpo es lo que más legítimamente le corresponde: puede hacer de él lo que quiera, como el hombre, sin pagar impuestos ni sufrir vejámenes policiales."'' [Prostitution should be tolerated but not regulated. A single adult woman is her own master; her body is what most legitimately belongs to her; she can do whatever she wants with it, just like a man, without paying taxes or being bothered by the police]. In 1907, Abella's campaign for women's rights, particularly her argument that marriage is a union of ''separate bodies'', helped pass new divorce laws in Uruguay and set a new legal precedent throughout early 20th-century Latin America. In 1909, Abella founded the National League of Women Freethinkers with Dr.

Julieta Lanteri Julieta Lanteri (born Giulia Maddalena Angela Lanteri, 22 March 1873 — 25 February 1932) was an Argentine physician, leading Freethought, freethinker, and activist for women's rights in Argentina as well as for social reform generally. Early ...

, and in 1910 Abella founded the National Women's League in

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. According to the 2022 Argentina census, census, the La Plata Partido, Partido has a population of 772,618 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 938,287 inhabit ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. This organisation supported women's suffrage, and was aligned with the

International Woman Suffrage Alliance The International Alliance of Women (IAW; , AIF) is an international non-governmental organization that works to promote women's rights and gender equality. It was historically the main international organization that campaigned for women's suff ...

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Abelia de Ramirez, Maria 1863 births 1926 deaths Freethought writers Uruguayan expatriates in Argentina Uruguayan suffragists 19th-century Uruguayan women writers 19th-century Uruguayan writers 20th-century Uruguayan women writers 20th-century Uruguayan writers Uruguayan women activists Uruguayan women's rights activists