In 1924, she announced her decision to vote in the next presidential election, setting the stage for another first when she signed the register of voters that year.
When questioned by the State Council over her right to vote, she pointed out that Ecuador’s Constitution makes no mention of gender as a requirement for voting - only citizenship, age, and literacy.
After a ministerial consultation, her argument was later affirmed by a unanimous vote and on June 9 of that year she became the first woman in Latin America to exercise her constitutional right to vote in a national election.
It was a decision that would ensure she would go down in history, after she inspired her country to become the first Latin American state to grant suffrage to all women.
Procel eventually ran for public office, and she became the country's first female elected official in 1941. She was awarded the Medal of Merit and the Medal of Public Health by the government, and her hometown established a museum in her honour.
