Isabel Pinto de Vidal

Isabel Pinto de Vidal (Montevideo, December 13, 1885 1969) was a Uruguayan feminist lawyer and politician, and a member of the Colorado Party. Pinto de Vidal was a founding member of the National Women's Council of Uruguay(Consejo Nacional de Mujeres del Uruguay, CONAMU), a branch of the International Council of Women in Uruguay. Her activism alongside the works of feminists such as Paulina Luisi and Francisca Beretervide is credited for achieving women's rights in Uruguay.

After the women's suffrage in Uruguay, the Batllist sector of the Colorado Party, in which Pinto de Vidal was active, entered the electoral campaign of 1942. For the first time in Uruguayan history, women were elected to parliament, Sofía Álvarez Vignoli and Pinto de Vidal were the first senators. In addition, Pinto de Vidal was the first woman to preside over the General Assembly.

As one of the nine women to be named delegates and the only female delegate from Uruguay to the United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO) in 1945, Pinto de Vidal worked to ensure women's rights were referenced throughout early documents and legal frameworks. She introduced an amendment that “representation and participation in the organs of the Organization shall be open to both men and women under the same conditions.” Pinto de Vidal's amendment was eventually included as Article 8 of the United Nations Charter.

Early life Pinto de Vidal was born as the daughter of Francisco Pinto and Maria Tellamon in Montevideo on December 13, 1885. She had two children, Maria Isabel and Hebe, with her husband Angel Vidal.

Political career

The National Women’s Council of Uruguay (CONAMU) Pinto de Vidal joined the National Women's Council of Uruguay (CONAMU), after it was formed by Paulina Luisi in September 1916 and led its Labor Commission until she became the president, replacing Luisi, in 1921. The purpose of the council was to welcome all women to work on behalf of the moral, intellectual, material, economic and legal improvement of their sex. She worked in the organization until 1925. However, CONAMU was known for being a committee of professional and elite women only and therefore, she later expressed that it wasn't the appropriate moment to embark upon such a project. Even women with similar views as CONAMU were not keen in associating or supporting them, hence Pinto de Vidal assumed that CONAMU was having problems gaining new members. Luisi, a socialist, and Pinto de Vidal, a Batillist, partook in a power struggle between Batllistas and anti-Batllistas within the organization. Later that year, Pinto de Vidal resigned from her position and a new board was established. At the time, lack of sufficient education or proper child care and hygiene led to very high infant mortality in Uruguay. Thus, Pinto de Vidal became an activist for the cause, lecturing in congress on the social causes of infant mortality. Her election came shortly after Uruguayan women voted for the first time in 1938, despite women's suffrage being in effect since 1932. The parliament included two deputies, Julia Arévalo de Roche and Magdalena Antonelli Moreno, and two senators Sofía Álvarez Vignoli de Demichelli and Pinto de Vidal.

Delegate at the United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO) In 1945, Pinto de Vidal became one of the six women to be named full delegates of the United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO). She was part of the Uruguayan delegation headed by President José Serrato. One of Pinto de Vidal's most significant achievements for the feminist movement was her participation in the drafting and signing of the United Nations Charter. The three non-Pan American delegates condemned that they [Pan American delegates] “felt it necessary to call attention frequently to women and their problems and to rub in the fact that they were women”, later expressing that “perhaps in the backward countries, where women have no vote and few rights of any kind, spectacular feminism may still be necessary.” As she had to leave the conference early, Lutz and Minerva Bernardino were the crucial supporters of Pinto de Vidal's amendment in the committee meetings. After all, women were already participating in the UNCIO, so it was implicitly understood that women were not excluded from any UN organization and the Human rights declaration stated the equality of the genders.