Virginia Bolten was born in 1870 in San Luis, Argentina, the daughter of a German liberal who had been exiled from Europe.

[1] Part of the second generation of anarchist feminists,[2] Bolten quickly developed a reputation as a "great orator" and an "indefatigable organiser",[3] capable of drawing in large crowds to see her speak.

[5] As a member of the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA), she travelled throughout the country on speaking tours,[7] encouraging women to become involved in anarchist politics.

[3] Bolten and Gori also established an anarchist-socialist organisation which was dedicated to abolishing mores and traditions that they found authoritarian, including the institution of marriage.

[11] In January 1905, after receiving news of the Bloody Sunday massacre in the Russian Empire's capital of Saint Petersburg, Bolten publicly denounced the Tsarist autocracy and directly compared its actions to those of the Argentine government.

But the Federation delayed in establishing a Uruguayan section, stalled by its hopes for reform from the new liberal President José Batlle y Ordóñez.

[23] Immediately after the vote, Emancipación agreed on anarchist-inspired statutes that upheld women's education and self-defense, while also advocating for integration with the progressive movement across gender lines.

[24] In contrast to the middle-class suffragism of the liberal feminists, Emancipación focused on organising working women such as seamstresses and telephone operators.

In June of that year, the Socialist Party's newspaper published a hit piece against Bolten, which accused her of supporting the progressive Batlle government.

[31][32][33][34] In 2007, the government of San Luis Province in Argentina decided to fund a film honoring Virginia Bolten.