Women's Suffrage in Puerto Rico: A Double Colonial Struggle

The fight for women's suffrage in Puerto Rico was a fight on two fronts — against colonialism and against patriarchy simultaneously.

The 19th Amendment Gap:
When the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1920, granting women the right to vote, it did NOT automatically apply to Puerto Rico:
- The Insular Cases established that constitutional provisions applied only selectively to territories
- Puerto Rico's colonial legislature had the power to determine voting qualifications within the territory
- The colonial legislature — entirely male — chose not to extend suffrage to women
- This meant that Puerto Rican women were denied a right that mainland American women had won

The Suffrage Movement:
Puerto Rican women organized for decades:
- Liga Femínea Puertorriqueña (1917): Early feminist organization advocating for women's rights
- Asociación Feminista Popular (1920s): Led by working-class women demanding suffrage and labor rights
- Liga Social Sufragista (1921): Founded by Ana Roque de Duprey, Isabel Andreu de Aguilar, and other educated women — fought for literate women's suffrage
- Key leaders: Ana Roque de Duprey, Mercedes Solá, Milagros Benet de Mewton, Ricarda López de Ramos Casellas

The Two-Stage Victory:

1. 1929 — Literate Women's Suffrage:

   • Puerto Rico's legislature approved voting rights for women who could read and write
   • This restricted suffrage largely to middle and upper-class women
   • The literacy requirement excluded the majority of poor and working-class women — many of whom were Afro-Puerto Rican
   • The first election with women's participation was in 1932

2. 1935 — Universal Women's Suffrage:

   • Full suffrage regardless of literacy was achieved in 1935
   • This brought working-class women, rural women, and women of color into the electorate
   • Puerto Rico achieved universal women's suffrage — though still within a colonial system where the territory itself lacked self-determination

The Class and Race Dimension:
The two-stage suffrage process revealed class and race divisions within the women's movement:
- Middle-class feminists initially accepted literate-only suffrage — which excluded poor and darker-skinned women
- Working-class feminists (like those in the Asociación Feminista Popular) fought for universal suffrage from the beginning
- The six-year gap between literate and universal suffrage meant that class privilege temporarily trumped gender solidarity
- Afro-Puerto Rican women were disproportionately excluded by the literacy requirement

The Colonial Irony:
Even after achieving universal women's suffrage, Puerto Rican women (like all Puerto Ricans) could not vote for:
- The U.S. President (who appoints their governor's oversight board)
- U.S. Senators or Representatives (who pass laws affecting Puerto Rico)
- They gained the right to participate in a colonial democracy — a democracy limited by colonialism itself

Legacy:
The suffrage movement laid the groundwork for Puerto Rican feminism:
- Women entered politics — becoming legislators, mayors, and eventually governor (Sila María Calderón, 2001)
- The labor feminism of the suffrage era influenced later movements
- The intersectional analysis — recognizing that race, class, and gender intersect — was present from the beginning
- Contemporary Puerto Rican feminists (Colectiva Feminista en Construcción) draw on this tradition