Serafina Dávalos

Serafina Dávalos Alfonso (9 September 1883 – 27 September 1957) was the first female lawyer in Paraguay, and the country's first prominent feminist.

Early life She was born in the Paraguayan city of Ajos (now Coronel Oviedo).

Career She graduated from law school at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción (becoming its first female graduate) in 1907 with a thesis, "Humanism and Feminism", that questioned the submission of women, argued for the education of women and the improvement of women's status in marriage, and was controversial. She also founded with Virginia Corvalán and others the Feminist Movement for Asunción (in 1919), the Paraguayan Feminist Center (1921), the Feminine Union of Paraguay, and the Paraguayan League for the Rights of Women. In the first International Feminist Congress in 1910 in Argentina, Dávalos was the official delegate of Paraguay, and was appointed as a member of the executive committee of the Pan-American Women's Federation.

Legacy In 1998, long after her death, she became the first woman to appear on a Paraguayan postage stamp when the General Post Office of Paraguay issued stamps that read "The First Female Lawyer and Feminist of Paraguay (1883–1957)." There is also a street named in her honor in the administrative center of Coronel Oviedo, the city where she was born.