Matilde Hidalgo was the first woman to vote in all of Latin America.
Matilde Hidalgo de Prócel was a doctor, poet and activist from Ecuador. She was the first woman to exercise the vote in Ecuador, as well as the first to obtain a doctorate in medicine.
During the presidency of José Luis Tamayo, Matilde announced that she would vote in the following presidential elections. She approached to register in the electoral registries of the Machala canton, to participate in the next elections of senators and deputies, but she was prevented from saying that she was a woman. At her insistence, they registered her, but the parliament and the Council of State were consulted and, in its session on June 9, 1924, it unanimously resolved that "Ecuadorian women had the right to choose and be chosen. ''
In 1924, she was able to vote in Loja, turning Ecuador into the first country in the continent that won the female vote.
