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Feminism in Latin America

12/06/2019

Feminism in Latin America

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Feminism in Latin America is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and achieving equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for Latin American women. It also includes establishing equal opportunities for women in education and employment. The people who practice feminism by advocating or supporting the rights and equality of women are called feminists.

History

Latin American Feminism rose during the centuries of colonialism, the transportation and subjugation of slaves from Africa, and mistreatment of native people. The origins of Latin American Feminism can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s social movements. Throughout the various regions in Latin America and the Caribbean, the definition of feminism varies where there has been cultural, political, and social involvement.

Its been stated that the beginning of the revolution for Latin American feminism started in the 1800s with two women, one named Manuela Saenz from Ecuador and another named Juana Manuela Gorriti from Argentina. Prior to the revolution,women had almost no rights. However, women who belonged to wealthier, european families had more opportunities to education. In the 1920s, feminism moved towards the political and educational changes for women's rights. In the 1930-50s, a Puerto Rican group of ladies founded what is now the current movement for Latin American women. Some of these movements included founding the needle industry which created seamstress jobs. Then in the 1960s, the movement changed to advocate for bodily and economic rights of women. The 1980s moved towards political rights and the movement began to shed a light on domestic violence. The 1990s made strides towards legal equality of women. Today, Latin American feminism has been broken down into multiple subcategories by either ethnicity or by topic awareness.

History

Feminism in the 21st Century

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Overview

The institutionalization of feminism came under scrutiny in the 2000s. Feminists argued that as feminist practices continued to normalize, they failed to account for the inequities among women. As the century came to a close, critiquing voices emerged, arguing that liberal feminisism tends to overlook difference, inequity, and exclusion amongst women located in vastly different social and cultural locations.

The 2000s were marked by an attempt to dry out the institutionalization of gender. At the same time, there has not been an impetus to reconfigure a social movement in the wake of neoliberal shifts.

The more professional tactics of NGOs (non-profit organizations) and political lobbying has given Latina feminists more influence on public policy, but at the cost of giving up “bolder, more innovative proposals from community initiatives."

Today, there are feminist groups that have spread to the United States. For example, The Latina Feminist Group formed in the 1990s, composed by women from all places of Latin America. Although groups like these are local, they're all inclusive groups that accept members from all parts of Latin America. Members of the organizations are predominantly from European - Native American backgrounds with some members being completely descendants of Native American people.

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Feminism and LGBTQ+

Today, there is a weak relationship between lesbianism and feminism in Latin America. Since the 1960s, lesbians have become a viable group in Latin America. They have established groups to fight misogynist oppression against lesbians, fight AIDS in the LGBT community, and support one another. However, because of many military coups and dictatorships of Latin America, feminist lesbian groups have had to break up, reinvent, and reconstruct their work. Dictatorships in the 70s and 80s in Chile and Argentina were examples of the resistance to these feminist lesbians groups of Latin America.

In the 2000s, Latin American feminist groups have set goals for their communities. Such goals call for the consolidation of a more organized LGBT community across Latin America. Other goals look to change smaller domestic policies that in any way discriminate to members of the LGBT community. They also aim to have more people on office, to network better with the broader Latin people. They have set goals to advocate for LGBT rights in the political world, from organizations and political groups to acknowledge their rights, and encourage other countries to protect feminists and other members of the LGBT community in Latin America. Leaders such as Rafael de la Dehesa have contributed to describe early LGBT relations in parts of Latin America through his advocacy. De la Dehesa, a Harvard alumni, has introduced the idea of normalizing LGBT issues in patriarchal conservative societies such as Mexico and Brazil to suggest that being gay should no longer be considered taboo in the early 2000s.

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Indigenous Feminism in Latin America

Indigenous Latin American feminists face an abundance of struggles, including little to no political representation across all of Latin America. It was not until the 2000s that indigenous feminists leaders were able to gain any political power. In 2006, Bolivia elected Evo Morales for president, who spearheaded a new Bolivian movement called the Movement for Socialism. This movement allowed for Indigenous working-class women to become members of parliament as well as serve in other branches of the government. Although this important change in power was more peaceful and inclusive than any other country in Latin America, obstacles still remain for indigenous women to have any representation or political identity in other countries. For example: The Mayan women that live in Guatemala and parts of southern Mexico have struggled to gain any political mobility over the last few years due to immigration crises, economic and educational disadvantages.

Organization:

Centro de Promocion y Defensa de los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos (PROMSEX)

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PROMSEX

PROMSEX was founded in 2005. It is one of the leading organizations in the field of sexual and reproductive rights and health in Peru and Latin America. The organization aims to ensure access to safe and legal abortion, promote sexual and reproductive health and rights, ensure access to modern family planning methods, and prevent violence based on gender or sexual orientation through political advocacy and collaboration with other civil social organizations.

PROMSEX is a member of several regional and international networks such as the Latin American Consortium for Emergency Contraception, the Latin American Consortium against Unsafe Abortion, Red de Salud de las Mujeres Latinoamericanas y el Caribe, Red Iberoamericana de Educación LGBT, and the International Lesbian and Gay Association, among others.

Fun Fact:

Abortion is outlawed in Peru except to save the life of a woman. PROMSEX is working in coalition with other feminist organizations on the Dejala Decidir ("Let Her Decide") campaign, launched in Sept.2012 to petition Congress to decriminalize abortion in the case of rape. Through the campaign, PROMSEX helped educate the Peruvian public about the prevalence of sexual violence in the country, where 1 in 5 women are victims of sexual violence before the age of 15, and where 9 out of 10 pregnancies of girls under the age of 15 are the product of incest.

Info

Latina suffragists

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Latina suffragists of Latin American origin advocate for women's right to vote. One of the most notable Latina suffragists is Adelina Otero-Warren from New Mexico. Ortero-Warren was a prominent local organizer for the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage organized by Alice Paul. She was chosen by Paul to organize suffragists on behalf of the Congressional Union in 1917. Other prominent Latina Suffragists include: Josefina Fierro de Bright, Luisa Moreno, Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, and Maria Guadalupe Evangelina de Lopez, President of the College Equal Suffrage League. Maria G.E. de Lopez was president of this league when women won the right to vote in California in 1911. She was a high school teacher, and the first person in the state of California to give speeches in support of women's suffrage in Spanish.

Where do you stand?

I support women.

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Thank you!

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