Valencia was already familiar with the politics of Colombia in the 1950s; her father, Guillermo Valencia had been an active member of the
Colombian Conservative Party, a Congressman,
Minister of Finance, Governor, and presidential candidate in the
elections of 1918, and
1930, and her brother Guillermo León had been Councilman, Congressman,
Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador. In April 1954, the National Feminist Organization of Colombia under the leadership of former
First Lady of Colombia,
Bertha Hernández de Ospina, and
María Currea. When General
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla came to power in a
military coup d'état, the women's suffrage movement had an ideological split between those who opposed military rule and those who supported the regime. Valencia seized the opportunity and joined the
National Popular Alliance, a political movement started by General Rojas. Valencia became a supporter and confidant of General Rojas in a time when the support of women was becoming more and more important. Her direct lobbying to the President paid off, On 28 July 1954 in an unusual move, General Rojas who had maintained the
National Constituent Assembly that had been started by his predecessor, the deposed
Roberto Urdaneta Arbeláez, named Valencia Member of the National Assembly in representation of the
Conservative Party with
Teresa Santamaría as her alternate, thus becoming the first woman to serve in a Colombian national legislative body; she was later joined by
Esmeralda Arboleda Cadavid in representation of the
Liberal Party with
María Currea as her alternate. They joined forces and introduced the
Legislative Act on the Citizenship of Women to be studied and debated by the Assembly. On 25 August 1954 the
plenary of the National Constituent Assembly approved the
Legislative Act No. 3 which modified Article 171 of the
Colombian Constitution of 1886, granting
universal suffrage to all Colombian women. (centre right) and Josefina Valencia (centre left) surrounded by the rest of the
Council of Ministers. On 21 September 1955, General Rojas Pinilla appointed Valencia governor of her native
Department of Cauca, the first woman to ever exercise an executive position in the country, a post in which she served until September 16, 1956, when she was called to Bogotá to serve as the first female government minister, in the
Ministry of National Education. By means of
Decree No. 1283 of 19 June 1957, the
Colombian Military Junta that succeeded Rojas Pinilla in the executive, appointed her Permanent Delegate of Colombia to the
UNESCO in
Paris, becoming the first Ambassadress of Colombia. ==References==