Zoila Ugarte de Landívar was the first female journalist and key defender of women’s suffrage in Ecuador. She began working as a journalist in the late 1880s. She began to use the pseudonym Zarelia in the weekly Tesoro del Hogar, which was published between 1887 and 1893. In addition, in 1911 she became the first female director and editor of the political newspaper La Prensa. In 1922, Ugarte founded the Light of Pichincha Feminist Society (Sociedad Feminista Luz del Pichincha), serving as the president of the organization. In addition, she founded the Anticlerical Feminist Center (Centro Feminista Anticlerical), an organization that defended women's suffrage.