The Women's Vote in the Central American Press (1940-1955)

Abstract

The right to suffrage of women, in the Western world and in Central America in particular, was the fruit of a slow, exhausting process and full of sacrifices. Particularly in Central America, the internal political upheaval was another problem in the process. The press, as a means of forming public opinion, played a fundamental role in the issue, collaborating and hindering. The objective of this essay is to analyze the role played by the press two weeks before and two after the approval of women's right to vote in the Central American countries. To this end, the main newspapers and feminist magazines circulated between 1945 and 1949, years in which the right of women to elect their rulers, were approved in the respective congresses. Given the absence of digital newspaper archives in the countries of the region, the journalistic references that are exposed in published academic studies on the history of suffrage in Central America were resorted to.