Women's suffrage in Uruguay

Uruguay's 1917 Constitution announced the general right of women to vote and hold office at local and national levels in Uruguay. Despite the Constitution affording women equal political and civil rights, to become law, women's suffrage required a two-thirds majority in each legislative house.^[4][5] In 1919 the feminist Paulina Luisi established the Uruguayan Women's Suffrage Alliance, affiliated to the International Women's Suffrage Alliance, to push for women's suffrage.^[6]

At the municipal level, women were allowed to vote in Uruguay in July 1927 within the plebiscite zone of Cerro Chato.^[8] This has been commemorated as the first time that women cast votes in Uruguay.^[9][10][11]

A December 16, 1932 decree declared women's eligibility to vote in the national elections scheduled for 1934. ^[12] Though Gabriel Terra's 1933 coup resulted in those elections not being held, the new 1934 constitution reaffirmed that "national citizens are all men and women born within the nation [...] every citizen is as such a voter and entitled to hold office".^[4] The first national election in which women participated was the 1938 Uruguayan general election.

• 1927 Cerro Chato referendum
• Cerro Chato
• Uruguayan Women's Suffrage Alliance