Esmeralda Arboleda Cadavid

Who was Esmeralda Arboleda Cadavid?

Esmeralda Arboleda Cadavid was a Colombian politician and the first woman to be elected to the Senate of Colombia serving from 1958 to 1961.

A leader of the women's suffrage movement in Colombia, she, along with fellow suffragist Josefina Valencia Muñoz, became the first women to be appointed to serve in a national legislative position in Colombia as part of the National Constituent Assembly in 1954 where they presented what would eventually be the Legislative Act No. 3, which modified Article 171 of the Colombian Constitution of 1886 granting universal suffrage to women. She also served as the 10th Minister of Communications of Colombia, as Ambassador of Colombia to Austria, and as Deputy Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations.