The Protagonistic Role of Women in Latin America

by Rachel Rodriguez

Raquel Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican pastor and theologian who teaches at the Ecumenical Department of Investigations (DEI) in San Jose, Costa Rica.

It is impossible not to notice the protagonistic role in society which the women of Latin America and the Caribbean have played in the last two decades. This role was even more massive and evident in the 1980's.

There are many reasons why the women no longer play the traditional role assigned to them by society and patriarchal culture, which relegated them to the privacy of the home. Numerous studies conclude that the principal reasons for this are the effects of the political and economic crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean these past two decades, and how this had touched their very existence, leading them to a struggle for the defense of life and for survival. This struggle is a result not only of the economic crisis, but of political repression by the State.

One of the most significant features of this protagonistic role of the women in society has been the capacity that many of them have had to unite their efforts and confront the new role that they have had to play in society in a collective and organized fashion. This has prevented the march of the women from turning into an isolated and individual effort. What began as an individual effort became, in many cases, the beginning of women's organization. And these organizations, in some cases, have become an even broader women's movement. At this time we are beginning a new stage in which this women's movement is becoming a social movement with sufficient political power to act, organize and mobilize itself in order to transform our patriarchal society in a more just society which excludes no one.

Groups such as the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, the COMADRES in El Salvador (to name some of the groups of women which arose as a result of state repression against the women and their relatives), the popular soup-kitchens in Peru, the production cooperatives in several countries in the region, the artisan workshops, the small business enterprises are some of the communitarian examples of struggle against the economic crisis and political repression which speak to us of the political, economic and social impact of the women...

Against Whom Are We Struggling?

We believe that one of the things which can help advance the women's movement is the serious reflection on who is "our enemy." Who are we struggling against? This reflection has been initiated and continues to be part of the reflection of some of the groups within the women's movement, but it has not reached all the groups. The reasons are many. Here we want to emphasize two reasons we consider are very important, without pretending these are the only reasons.

One reason may be found within the movement and has to do with the genesis of the
rganization of women's collectives. The urgency for women to confront the economic crisis has led them to a struggle for the defense of life, and for personal survival and survival of the family. This struggle becomes very difficult when it must confront the injustices of the political-economic system, without the necessary means which the system itself defines as indispensable. This pushes the women towards organizing themselves, as they realize that collectively that have more probability to survive the crisis.

Still, we have to recognize that this struggle consumes much energy and time. The women have to develop all of their creativity to be able to survive. This has been the history of many women's collectives, especially during the 1980's when the political and economic situation became even more critical in our region. The crisis does not appear to be getting any better, and the women need to find alternative ways of generating a real change in the social, economic and political structures so that they won't always be struggling just to survive. With the worsening of the economic crisis, the women have to give much more time and energy to this struggle. This situation has become one of the reasons why many organizations have not been able to dedicate time to deepening their reflection about where our efforts should be directed, so that there can be a real change and genuine social transformation which permits us to live without having to constantly struggle to survive.

The other reason why we have not been able to deepen our reflection is external to the women's movement, but has to do with the stereotypes which our patriarchal society has given our movement. We say our "patriarchal society" because both men and women have internalized the patriarchal ideology and reproduce it, unless they have become aware and have made an option to struggle against it.

The struggle of the women, or the feminist struggle, has been stereotyped in many ways. The principal aim of this stereotyping has been to discredit the movement as a valid and just struggle. This discrediting has had so much success that many women's collectives, with a serious awareness of gender, reject using the name "feminist" because they consider it an obstacle not only to their organizing of women, but also in advancing the struggle to transform society...

In order to reevaluate the feminist movement, we should begin with a definition which allows us to visualize what is the real struggle which unites the movement.

Feminism in Latin America

We think of the feminist struggle as that which seeks to transform an unjust society which does not permit the full realization of its members because it is founded on a patriarchal ideology which promotes inequality. These inequalities arise due to stereotyped roles according to their gender. Supremacy and the power to dominate and to require submission are given to them men, while the women are undervalued and their abilities are underestimated in the public sphere of society. Women are relegated to the privacy of the home, and they are only expected to develop themselves there.

The feminist struggle is a struggle for the transformation of society founded on patriarchal values. In Latin America and the Caribbean this is the strain of feminism which has permeated the march of the women. In the feminist struggle the "enemy" against whom we struggle is not "men," but an ideology.

The feminist movement is a struggle which goes beyond being simply a movement of women for women. It is a struggle for the radical transformation of society so that each person may be allowed to fully realize their capabilities, their talents and interests, instead of these being predetermined by stereotyped roles or capricious limits. It is a struggle for inclusion, not exclusion. It is a struggle to incorporate and open the way for new possibilities, and not to change the person in power.

We think that the feminist struggle, in order to be able to carry out its goal of radically transforming an exclusive society, should become a social force and unite with other social forces which are also struggling for a non-exclusive society from their own point of oppression.

The feminist struggle in Latin America and the Caribbean cannot ignore the historical context in which it is immersed. We recognize that patriarchal values arose many years before the current international political and economic system. Still, we also recognize that patriarchal values all serve very well the goals of a market economy and imperialist domination. This region is living under imperialist domination, and an economic system which has made it dependent upon the wealthy nations.

We also have a strong religious tradition, predominantly catholic and hierarchical, which is the product of the conquest of our indigenous peoples by the Europeans 500 years ago. We are a region made up of many races, and a mixture of races and cultures. We are a wealthy region which has been impoverished, and the majority of our women, and also our men, are poor, and they suffer discrimination on the part of white race, the wealthy class, and the Western culture. These and other factors regarding the particular experience of our peoples are elements which should be taken into account by the feminist struggle.

We cannot determine the feminist struggle of other parts of the world. We have some things in common with the struggles of women in other parts, but our reality pushes us to a struggle with particular characteristics.

Faced with the reality of Latin America and the Caribbean, it is unthinkable that we struggle from a feminist perspective without recognizing that there will never be justice, nor the probability to live a full life, as long as there are not structural changes at every level which permit the eradication of these inequalities. Our struggle, then, includes the eradication of discrimination and exclusion for reasons of gender, class, race, ethnic group, age, and everything that impedes the full realization of every human being.

It is unjust, then, when many leaders of the popular movements---in which women are also immersed---to criticize the feminist struggle for diluting and diverting the struggle of the popular movement. We believe that the popular movement not only should take up the cause of feminism, but should live out its values in each organization and in each family, and in this way begin to taste "the first fruits" of the just society for which we are struggling.

Moreover, from our own particular struggle as women we can and should unite ourselves to other social forces which compose the popular movement so that we can achieve our common goal: the transformation of this exclusive society.

Where Should We Be Headed?

While it is true that the feminist struggle has been strengthened in the past five years, it is also certain that there is still far to go. The movement has increased numerically, but now we need to deepen our reflection and reconceptualize aspects which have emerged in the march of our movement.

By definition, we think of the feminist struggle as a political struggle. In order that it be an effective political struggle, we have to convert the women's movement into a genuine movement with social force.

We will not be able to do this as long as each woman's organization remains a collective isolated from other collectives. We will begin to have political "power" when we begin to unite the various separate efforts into a movement with social force.

Within the feminist struggle a debate has been initiated about the concept of "power." We believe that there still exist very patriarchal concepts of this term. We reject thinking of ourselves as a force with "power," because we define "power" as domination, subjugation, destructive hegemony and exclusion.

We should reflect on the human expressions of "power." In order to be a social force we need to have "power." Power of convocation, power of organization and mobilization, power of building community, power of transformation... We should give this concept meaning, which is indispensable if we are to carry forward this task of social transformation.

This very effort to become a social force demands of us to carry forward this reflection. To try to unite the different efforts of organization and struggle into one movement makes us aware of the need to recreate this concept of "power" beginning with lived experience of exercising power. We continue to reproduce the patriarchal concepts of "power," even though in our language we reject the word. We have worked in an exclusive manner, even though our goal has been a non-exclusive society. We exercise a hegemonic "power," even though we propose to work for pluralism and respect for differences.

The exercise of creating social force will be the best laboratory to give this concept of "power" new meaning.