Elvira Lutz

Elvira Lutz (born 2 December 1935) is a Uruguayan midwife, sex educator, and writer. A feminist activist, she has been an advocate for women's sexual and reproductive rights, and a member of the Advisory Council of the Latin American and Caribbean Women's Health Network (RSMLAC).

She has received recognition and tributes from organizations such as the Uruguayan Congress of Sexology (2010), the Organizing Commission of the Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Meeting (2017), and the Departmental Intendency of Montevideo (2019).

Early life and education
Elvira Lutz was born in Trinidad, Uruguay on 2 December 1935. She studied teaching, and moved to Montevideo at age 20.

"There I met Aurelia, an older midwife, who motivated me in training and activism in favor of women's rights. I listened to her, and I felt that it was a good idea, that it would help me clear up some doubts about my future. I studied with great sacrifice, because working, I was separated from the father of my first two children"

She attended the University of the Republic's School of Midwifery, graduating in 1964.

Career
Lutz began her professional career at the Ministry of Public Health's External Assistance Service and at Hospital Pereira Rossell in the 1960s. In 1968, she joined the Uruguayan Family Planning Association, where she worked on issues related to sex education, alongside her husband, psychologist Arnaldo Gomensoro, until 1992. She was editor of the association's bulletin, Ser Mujer (I Am Woman).

For two consecutive terms, from 1986 to 1990, she was elected permanent secretary of the Latin American Federation of Sexology Societies (FLASSES). In 2002, she was one of the founders of the Uruguayan branch of the Humanized Childbirth Network.

As an educator, she taught courses, seminars, and workshops on humanized childbirth and female sexuality, both nationally and internationally. Likewise, she provided consultancies in projects on family planning, quality of care, and sexual and reproductive health at women's NGOs and private institutions.

From 1985 to 1987, Lutz was the editor-in-chief of Cotidiano Mujer, contributing an article on abortion titled "Why do only men have the floor?" to its August 1985 issue. She is the author of numerous publications on women's rights and female sexuality. In 2018, she published the book Provocaciones de una parteraː pasado, presente y futuro (Provocations of a Midwifeː Past, Present and Future). In the epilogue, she wrote:

"I have mainstreamed everything, because nothing is alien to me, from a feminist perspective. I was finding omissions, marginalization, discrimination in the disciplines in which I was trained – in obstetrics, in sexology, in sexual education – and I became an activist in the field of human rights and in the humanization of childbirth."