Clara González

Clara González (1898–1990) was a Panamanian feminist, lawyer, judge, and activist. She became the first Panamanian woman to earn her Bachelor of Law Degree in 1922. The same year, she created the Partido Nacional Feminista (PNF, National Feminist Party) to campaign for women's rights and suffrage. González was central to the work of the Inter-American Commission on Women, collaborating with activists from Latin America and the United States to study the condition of women across the Americas and to recommend reforms. González remained a vital organizer for women's rights in Panama for decades and ran for political office after Panamanian women were granted voting rights in 1945. She later became the first Panamanian woman to serve as a juvenile court judge, where she assisted in drafting the Panamanian juvenile code.

Early life and education Clara González Carrillo was born on 11 September 1898 in Remedios, Chiriquí Province, Republic of Panama to a Spanish immigrant, David González, and Basilia Carrillo Sánchez, a woman of indigenous descent. During her early childhood, she lived with her family in Costa Rica, where they were exiled between 1900 and 1904. She earned a teaching degree from the Escuela Normal de Institutoras before enrolling in the Escuela Nacional de Derecho (National School of Law). While she was in law school, she taught at the Escuela Manuel José Hurtado.

In 1922, she became the first Panamanian woman to earn a Bachelor of Law after submitting her graduate thesis, La Mujer ante el Derecho Panameño (Woman in Panamanian Law), which displayed some of her early thinking on feminism. González was prohibited from practicing law until President Belisario Porras's administration amended the law in 1925, allowing González to begin her legal career.

After winning a scholarship in 1927, González moved to the United States to attend New York University where she earned a doctorate in law in 1929.

González returned to Panama in 1930 and began working as a professor at the National Institute teaching economics, political science and sociology. She taught at the Institute until 1937, and later at the newly-founded University of Panama, where she taught criminology, family law, and juvenile justice.

Later Political and Judiciary Career In the early 1940s, González continued her work as a women's rights organizer in Panama. In 1943, she married Charles A. Behringer, an American civil engineer working in the Panama Canal Zone.

In 1951, she became the first Panamanian woman named as a juvenile court judge, a position that gave her the opportunity to assist in establishing standards for the treatment of juvenile delinquents. She continued working for the juvenile court until 1964, when she retired at her husband's request and settled with him in West Covina, California. as does an annual award given by the National Union of Lawyers to the legal professional who has excelled in the fight for women's or human rights.