On July 30, 1950, Costa Rica witnessed a quiet but groundbreaking revolution: for the first time, women voted alongside men, marking a turning point in the country’s democratic history. The occasion was a local plebiscite to determine whether the communities of La Tigra and La Fortuna would remain part of the canton of San Ramón or be annexed to San Carlos.
The communities ultimately joined San Carlos, where they remain today. But more significant than the territorial shift was the equality at the ballot box.According to the National Institute for Women (INAMU), the voter registry that day included 349 women and 426 men.
Among them was Bernarda Vásquez, a 32-year-old housewife from La Tigra. She is remembered as the first woman to cast a vote in Costa Rica, becoming a symbol of the long-fought battle for gender equality in politics.
Women’s suffrage in Costa Rica was officially recognized on June 20, 1949, when the Second Republic’s Constituent Assembly voted to include it in the country’s new Constitution. Eighty percent of the delegates supported the measure, laying the legal foundation for women to vote and, just a few years later, run for office.
By the 1953 national elections, women had not only the right to vote but also to be elected. That year, Costa Rica saw its first female legislators: MarÃa Teresa Obregón, Ana Rosa Chacón, and Estela Quesada, all from the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN).
The road to that first vote had been long and fraught with setbacks. As early as the 1880s, liberal reformers had floated the idea of equal voting rights, inspired by international feminist movements. Still, political rights for women remained out of reach.
A 1913 electoral reform under President Ricardo Jiménez proposed direct, secret, and universal suffrage. While the first two principles were adopted, universal suffrage for women was rejected.
In 1917, during the dictatorship of Federico Tinoco, the idea resurfaced, this time allowing certain women to vote. But the proposal was narrowly defeated in the legislature, by just four votes.
In 1920, another attempt was made to give literate women the right to vote and run in municipal elections. It too was shelved.
It wasn’t until the social reforms of the 1940s and the political reorganization that followed the 1948 civil war that Costa Rica finally joined the global wave of electoral modernization.
Since 1994, at least one of Costa Rica’s vice presidencies has consistently been held by a woman. In 1986, Rosemary Karpinsky became the first female president of the Legislative Assembly, and Victoria Garrón the first female Vice President of the Republic.
Then in 2010, Laura Chinchilla made history as the first woman elected President of Costa Rica.
Today, the country continues to push for gender parity in politics, especially at the municipal level, where women’s participation has long lagged. Legal reforms aimed at boosting female representation took effect in the February 2024 municipal elections, leading to 22 women elected as mayors, the highest number ever. In 14 cantons, a woman assumed local leadership for the first time.
