Moreau de Justo, Alicia (1886–1986)

Alicia Moreau de Justo (b. 11 October 1886; d. 1986), Argentine physician, socialist, and feminist. She was born in London to French parents, who were exiled in England for their activities in the Paris Commune. The family immigrated to Buenos Aires in 1890, where her father worked for progressive causes and the Socialist Party, founded by Juan B. Justo (1896). At fifteen Alicia Moreau helped to establish the Socialist Women's Center with Fenia Cherkov, believing that the fight for women's education should take precedence over civil or political equality. She taught child care and hygiene at the Socialist Women's Center in Buenos Aires and fought against prostitution. She wrote for the journal Humanidad Nueva and the socialist daily La Vanguardia, which she directed from 1956 to 1962. Moreau studied medicine, taught anatomy, graduated from the University of Buenos Aires in 1914, and practiced in working-class clinics. A lifelong socialist, Moreau put the fight for social-justice issues above individualistic goals. After the death of Juan B. Justo's first wife (Mariana Cherkov), Moreau married him in 1922, despite the objections of Justo's sister Sara, a dentist and prominent feminist. Moreau wrote influential books, including La emancipación civil de la mujer (1919), El feminismo en la evolución social (1911), El socialismo según la definición de Juan B. Justo (1946), and ¿Qué es el socialismo en la Argentina? (1983). The influence of the Socialist Party declined in the 1930s after the defeat of the de la Torre-Repetto presidential ticket, splits in the party, and political repression. Although they belonged to different political camps, Moreau and the writer Victoria Ocampo led the women's movement in the 1930s and fought proposed changes in the Civil Code. Moreau opposed Peronism and said in a 1977 interview that she never understood completely the importance of nationalism to Argentines. In 1984 she was named Woman of the Year and Physician of the Century, and her one-hundredth birthday was celebrated throughout the nation.

See alsoArgentina, Political Parties: Socialist Party .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blas Alberti, Conversaciones con Alicia Moreau de Justo y Jorge Luis Borges (1985).

Marifrán Carlson, Feminismo! The Woman's Movement in Argentina from Its beginning to Eva Perón (1988).

Mirta Henault, Alicia Moreau de Justo: Biografía (1983).

Lily Sosa De Newton, Diccionario biográfico de mujeres argentinas (1986).

Additional Bibliography

Cichero, Marta. Alicia Moreau de Justo. Buenos Aires: Planetas, 1994.

Henault, Mirta. Alicia Moreau de Justo: "Dad paso a la honradez, al trabajo, a la justicia." Argentina: CUATA Ediciones, 2002.

                               Georgette Magassy Dorn