At Clara Campoamor Plaza stands an iron statue of Clara Campoamor holding a book that reads: One woman, One vote. It was sculptured by Dora Salazar and dedicated in 2011. The plaque on the ground before the statue reads: “Clara Rodriguez Campoamor (Madrid 1888 – Lausanne 1972) Buried in San Sebastian Achieved Women’s right to vote in 1931 Freedom and equality are learned by exercising them.” Clara Campoamor (1888-1972) was a women’s rights activist, leader of the Spanish suffrage movement, a feminist, and the second woman lawyer in Spain. Campoamor was born in Madrid to a working-class liberal-thinking family. To support her mother and siblings, she left school to work. In her twenties, she became involved in politics, joined numerous women’s groups, and published a political commentary in a liberal newspaper. At 36, she graduated from law school and became the second female lawyer in Spain. She established a private law practice, advocating and defending women’s rights on this platform. In 1931, Campoamor, 43 years old at the time, was one of 21 deputies elected to write the constitution of Spain’s Second Republic. She fought against sexual discrimination, women’s right to divorce, the legal equality of children born within and outside marriage, and women’s suffrage. To convince the party to include women’s rights to vote in the constitution, she became the first woman to address the Parliament’s plenary session in front of 470 men and one woman. Both sides of the Parliament opposed the idea of allowing women the equal right to vote. She left the party and continued advocating women’s rights as an independent assembly member. With endless efforts and the support of women’s activists throughout the country, Campoamor managed to include in the new constitution the article that stated that “Citizens of either sex, over 23 years of age, will have the same rights elections as determined by law.” She lost her parliament seat in the 1933 elections. In 1936, in the Spanish Civil War, Campoamor had to flee the country and ended up in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she worked as a lawyer. She died in exile at the age of 84. Read more...