Born: 12 March 1868, Germany
Died: 7 January 1959
Country most active: Peru
Also known as: Dora Mayer Loehrs
Activist, journalist, essayist and intellectual Dora Mayer grew up in Peru after her family moved from Germany when she was a child. Her writing protested against the exploitation of women’s unpaid domestic labor as homemakers and abuses of the country’s indigenous people by the wealthy and powerful, including the lack of effective labor protection legislation. In addition to writing as a journalist, she edited El Deber Pro Indígena, La Crítica, Concordia and El Trabajo.
In 1909, Mayer co-founded the Asociación Pro-Indígena, which provided legal assistance and research to fight for rights such as protection from debt imprisonment.