Margarita Penón Góngora (born October 11, 1948) is a

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

. She was the First Lady of Costa Rica from 1986-1990, as well as an advocate and promoter of the landmark gender equality law passed in 1990. She ran for the presidential nomination in 1993 and served in the Legislative Assembly between 2002 and 2005. She currently represents Costa Rica on the board of directors of the

Central American Bank for Economic Integration The Central American Bank for Economic Integration - CABEI ( BCIE in Spanish) was founded in 1960. It is an international multilateral development financial institution. Its resources are invested in projects that foster development to reduce pov ...

Background

She was born into a family belonging to the Creole aristocracy of Costa Rica. Her parents were Eugenio Penón Ferrer and Margarita Góngora Hernández. After attending primary and middle school in Costa Rica, she was educated in the United States, graduating from Pius XI Catholic High School in

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Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

and

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

, with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. She married

Óscar Arias Sánchez Oscar or Oskar is a masculine given name of English and Irish origin. Etymology The name is derived from two elements in Irish: the first, ''os'', means "deer"; the second element, ''car'', means "loving" or "friend", thus "deer-loving one" or "f ...

in San Francisco de Heredia, Costa Rica, in 1973. Arias Sánchez would go on to serve two terms as president of Costa Rica (1986-1990 and 2006-2010) and receive the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

in 1987.

Political career

Her main focus as First Lady was to advance gender equality. She was instrumental in the passage of the 1990 Act for Promoting the Social Equality of Women, which bettered conditions for women in areas such as property rights, employment, and domestic violence law. She also participated in social welfare work, the preservation of national traditions, environmental causes, the establishment of parks in rural communities, anti-drug work, and the prevention of violence against children. She took part in her husband's efforts to promote peace in

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

and accompanied him on many of his official trips abroad. She was the first president of the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, which was founded with the money awarded to Arias Sánchez as part of the Nobel Prize. She has been an advisor to the

Secretary-General of the United Nations The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...

and to various important foundations. In 1993 she became the first woman in Costa Rica to run for the presidential nomination, as a member of the National Liberation Party. Her campaign opened up new possibilities for women in the political arena. Penón Góngora left the party in 2001 to join the Citizens’ Action Party. She was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2002 and was president of the Women's Committee, secretary of the Budgetary Committee, and member of the Second Committee with Full Legislative Authority and of the Fiscal Agreement Special Joint Committee. She divorced Arias Sánchez in 2005 and resigned from the Legislative Assembly soon after he announced his intention to seek the presidency a second time. In the 2014 elections she gave her support to the Citizens’ Action Party candidate, Luis Guillermo Solís, who was elected to the presidency. Solís appointed Penón Góngora the representative of Costa Rica to the Central American Bank for Economic Integration.

References

External links

Primeras Damas de Costa Rica
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penon Gongora, Margarita 1948 births Living people Members of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica First ladies and gentlemen of Costa Rica Citizens' Action Party (Costa Rica) politicians 21st-century Costa Rican women politicians Vassar College alumni