Born: 9 February 1884, Philippines
Died: 26 January 1967
Country most active: Philippines
Also known as: Concepción Felix Rodriguez
Feminist, lawyer, social reformer and human rights activist Concepción Felix Roque founded one of the Philippines’s first women’s organisations, Asociación Feminista Filipina, and one of the first humanitarian organisations, La Gota de Leche, focused on the well-being of mothers and their children. She also lobbied lawmakers to support giving women the vote, and is considered one of the country’s first feminists.
As a young woman, Felix earned her teaching degree at the Instituto de Mujeres (Women’s Institute), then continued her studies while teaching math classes, completing her bachelor’s degree in 1904. She then studed law at the Escuela de Derecho (Law School) in Manila, where she was tutored by the school’s founder, Felipe Gonzáles Calderón Roca, who drafted the Malolos Constitution. Felix was one of the first four women admitted to the law school and became one of Philippines’s first women admitted to the bar association.
In 1905, Felix established the Asociación Feminista Filipina as a volunteer social reform group advocating for prison and labor reform for women and children. The group organised drives against drinking, gambling, and prostitution and implemented campaigns in schools and factories, with lectures on hygiene, health and infant care. Although Felix was not yet focused on women’s suffrage, the group campaigned for including women on local boards of education and municipal committees.
Working with the non-profit La Protección de la Infancia, Inc., Felix founded La Gota de Leche in 1907, with the goal to establish a small maternity ward to train nurses and distribute sterile milk to sickly and malnourished infants. By 1909, La Gota de Leche was so successful that it needed a larger space and Felix led a successful drive to raise funds to buy sterilising equipment for the newly donated facility.
In 1912, Felix, Pura Villanueva Kalaw and other women came together to form The Society for the Advancement of Women, laying a foundation of civic and social programs. Over time, the women became more political, and by 1920 suffrage was a prominent issue. That year, Felix was one of three Filipina women who addressed legislators when they presented a suffrage petition signed by 18,000 women. Although a bill was passed giving women the vote in 1933, a technicality in the formation of the the Philippine Commonwealth forced the process to start over. Along with fellow activists like Pilar Hidalgo-Lim, Josefa Llanes Escoda, Maria Paz Mendoza-Guazon, Constancia Poblete, Rosa Sevilla de Alvero, and Pura Villanueva Kalaw, Felix continued to lobby for women’s suffrage during the 1934 Philippine Constitutional Convention. The 1935 Constitution allowed for women to gain the vote if they could get an affirmation of 300,000 qualified women in a special plebiscite. Held on 30 April 1937, the plebiscite was a landslide victory for women, with 447,725 out of 500,000 votes in favour of suffrage.
Felix was awarded the Republic Medal of Merit and a diploma of honor in 1948, and was recognized for her human rights work by UNESCO in 1949. For her work with the Catholic Women’s League, she received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice by Pope Pius XII in 1956. When the Josefa Llanes Escoda Medal was created by the National Federation of Women’s Clubs, and the Carrie Chapman Catt Award by the Manila Women’s Club, she was the first recipient of both. Shortly before her death in 1967, Felix was honoured with a Presidential Medal at the 1966 Women’s Rights Day celebrations. In 1984, a commemorative stamp was issued with her name and image.