Juanita Molina de Fromen (1893 – 22 December 1934) was a Nicaraguan educator and feminist. She was one of the delegates to the Inter-American Commission of Women in 1930.

Early life and education

Juanita Molina was born in 1893 in Managua, Nicaragua. After completing her primary and secondary education in Managua, she became Principal of the Municipal School. Continuing her education, she attended the

College of the Holy Names A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering v ...

in Oakland, California and went on to earn both a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from Columbia University.

Career

Molina returned to Nicaragua and in 1924 was appointed Assistant Secretary of Public Instruction. She married fellow teacher Gunnar Fromen and returned to New York, where she was teaching Spanish classes in 1926 at such institutions as the Curtis Superior School and

Hunter College High School Hunter College High School is a secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY). Hunter is publicly funded, and there i ...

in New York City. In 1929, she and her husband were both contracted to work for the government of Nicaragua studying schooling systems in the US. Molina was contracted as an educational advisor and her husband as an instructor. In 1930, Molina was appointed by President José María Moncada as the Nicaraguan delegate to the Inter-American Commission of Women. The purpose of the delegation was to compile a report indicating how laws in the various countries of the Americas effected women's nationality. contained in The members for the 1930 Havana meeting were Flora de Oliveira Lima (Brazil),

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(Mexico), Juanita Molina de Fromen (Nicaragua),

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(Peru), and Doris Stevens (USA).Flora de Oliveira Lima
"The First Conference of the Inter-American Commission of Women"
''Bulletin of the Pan American Union'' 84(April 1930): 410. As their governments provided no funding for their attendance, only the women from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Panama, the United States were able to attend. Molina was unable to attend the 1933 Montevideo Convention, because once again her government provided no funds; however, both she and her husband had contributed information on the laws of Nicaragua pertaining to women. Molina and her husband were active

suffragists Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

and worked with President Molina on a constitutional amendment to enfranchise women, which was submitted to the Chamber of Deputies and Senate in 1930, but the effort failed. She continued to fight from New York for the right to vote for Nicaraguan women until her untimely death.

Health issues and death

Molina suffered from a series of health issues in 1934. She underwent two appendix operations and had a mental break due to severe postpartum depression, which was revealed in a letter to Doris Stevens from Gunnar. As a result, she committed

infanticide Infanticide (or infant homicide) is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children, its main purpose is the prevention of reso ...

on her only child and died as a result of suicide on 22 December 1934 in the couple's New York City apartment.

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Molina de Fromen, Juanita 1893 births 1934 suicides 1934 deaths Nicaraguan educators Nicaraguan women's rights activists Nicaraguan women activists Columbia University alumni People from Managua Suicides in New York City 20th-century Nicaraguan women politicians 20th-century Nicaraguan politicians Nicaraguan suffragists Nicaraguan expatriates in the United States