Sergia Galván Ortega (born 1955) is a Dominican feminist activist, teacher, and counselor. She has been active in the feminist movement since 1979. She was born in the provincial capital Hato Mayor del Rey, in the Dominican Republic.
Feminism
Galván has advocated for women's rights, both as a member of women's organizations and as a part of political and social movements.
In 1980, Galván worked with (AFI; 'Women's Action Incorporated'), a left-feminist organization that collaborates with . She was part of the delegation of Dominican women who participated in the First Feminist Encounter of Latin America and the Caribbean held in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1981.
In 1984, she joined the Dominican Center for Education Studies in the Women's Program. That same year, alongside other women's groups, she founded the ('Women and Health Collective'), an organization focused on women's health and sexuality.
Between 1989 and 1992, Galván lived in Mexico, where she took Women's Studies courses at the Universidad Metropolitana and was employed at the (CIDAL; 'Research Center of Latin America and the Caribbean').
Galván coordinated the first convention of Black Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, which was held in the Dominican Republic in 1992. She was a cofounder of ('Network of Afro-Descendant Women of Latin America and the Caribbean') as well as the ('Movement for the Identity of Black Women') in the Dominican Republic.
Galván has advocated for abortion rights for decades, and was part of a months-long protest in 2021 demanding for the government to include the three exceptions to the Dominican Republic's total abortion ban (known as the ) in the criminal code.
International activism
At an international scale, she has been part of various organizations and networks: (Women's Health Network of Latin America and the Caribbean), as part of its board of directors; the ('Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action'; CAFRA); ; and CLADEM (Latin American Committee for Women's Rights).
Galván was the first Dominican to be part of the expert committee to follow up on the implementation of the , also known as the "Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women". She was also an alternate delegate before the Inter-American Commission of Women of the Organization of American States (OAS) 2009, a member of the Women's Committee of Latin America and the Caribbean preparatory for the Human Rights Conference held in 1993 in Vienna, a member of the Women's Committee of Latin America and the Caribbean preparatory for the Beijing Conference held in 1995 in China, and a member of the International Committee to Follow up the Durban I World Conference against Racism 2001, which first met in 2003.
In 2023, she joined the Board of Directors of Ipas, a reproductive health nonprofit focused on access to abortion and contraception.
Political career
In the late 1970s, she was a soldier in the liberal (CORECATO) and later in the Socialist Movement of the MST (, the 'Landless Workers' Movement'), a militant group. Galvan left these to pursue work in the social and feminist movements. In 2015, Galván joined professor and politician Minou Tavárez Mirabal in the process of building the (Democratic Choice Party).
As a member of the Democratic Choice Party, Galván is a member of the Political Directorate and leads the Secretariat for Women. She was a candidate for deputy by Circumscription No. 1 of the National District in the 2016 Minou Coalition, in box No. 23 of the Alliance for Democracy APD, but was not elected.
In 2021, she confirmed that she had served as a technical advisor to the ('Ministry of Women'), one of the government ministries of the Dominican Republic.
See also
Ochy Curiel
References
Further reading
Peguero JR. La conferencia de Beijing no lleno nuestras expectativas. Entrevista a Sergia Galvan [The Beijing conference did not meet our expectations. Interview with Sergia Galvan]. Rev CEPAE. 1995 Oct;15(66):8-12. Spanish. PMID: 12291595. Robert Lee Adams Jr (2012) Rewriting the African Diaspora in the Caribbean and Latin America: beyond disciplinary and national boundaries, African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, 5:1, 3-20, DOI: 10.1080/17528631.2012.629430
