Women's History Month 2020: Not Everyone Voted: Puerto Rican Women

Puerto Rico. The island became a US territory in 1917. Because they are a territory and not a state they did not ratify the 19th amendment. And when the time came, Puerto Rican women living on the island  were not granted suffrage.

Yes, Puerto Ricans are US citizens and those who live on the island do vote, just not for president. But when the 19th amendment passed, Puerto Rican women were not granted suffrage. The men in charge preferred women in their traditional roles and denied women the vote. Puerto Rican women of the early 20th century were actively demanding equal rights by getting an education, working in previously male dominated fields, and organizing around issues such as labor rights. "As in most countries, women were not allowed to vote in public elections. The University of Puerto Rico graduated many women who became interested in improving female influence in civic and political areas. This resulted in a significant increase in women who became teachers and educators but also in the emergence of female leaders in the suffragist and women rights movements."[1]

Puerto Rican Suffragist Milagros Benet de Newton, Wikimedia Commons

One Puerto Rican suffragist was Mialgros Benet de Newton who was "was active in the struggle for women's enfranchisement and joined the first suffragist organization Liga Femínea Puertorriqueña in 1917. When U.S. women gained the right to vote with the passage of the 19th Amendment, Benet led the push to extend its coverage to Puerto Rico. In 1924, she filed a lawsuit challenging the right of the electoral board to refuse to register women as they were U.S. citizens. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico ruled that states and territories have the right to determine who can vote and denied her claim." [2]

Throughout the 1920s (1919, 1921, 1923, 1927) Puerto Rican women activists fought and submitted suffrage bills to the island's legislature but were continually denied their rights. It wasn't until 1929 with pressure from the US Congress that literate women on the island were allowed to vote. Six years later in 1935, all Puerto Rican women were granted suffrage. [3]

So did your Puerto Rican female ancestor vote? It matters. If she lived on the US mainland after 1920, then yes, she could have. If she lived on the island, her literacy level determines when she would have been granted suffrage. 






[1]"History of Women in Puerto Rico," Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_women_in_Puerto_Rico: accessed 24 March 2020).
[2] "Mialgros Benet de Newton," Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milagros_Benet_de_Mewton: accessed 24 March 2020).
[3] "Women's Suffragist Movement (1896-1935)," Enciclopedia De Puerto Rico (https://enciclopediapr.org/en/encyclopedia/womens-suffragist-movement-1896-1935/: accessed 24 March 2020).