Feminism, Equality and Difference in Elvira López and her Intellectual Sources

Abstract

Elvira Virginia López defended her doctoral thesis, entitled “The Feminist Movement”, at the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina) in 1901. This article has two aims. On the one hand, to offer for the first time to English-speaking readers a general presentation of her figure, her context and the main theoretical cores of her thesis. On the other hand, to make a novel contribution to existing studies by analysing in detail what were the most important influences and sources of her views on feminism, equality and sexual difference. We will show that her knowledge of the discussions surrounding the so-called ‘woman question’ of her time was often indirect and based on the work of the jurists Carlo Francesco Gabba and Adolfo Posadas. Furthermore, we will point out that her positions on equality and sexual difference are fundamentally referenced in the perspective of the Ernest Legouvé and, to a lesser extent, in that of the Herbert Spencer, Concepción Arenal and Paola Lombroso.