Latin American women rise in nations long dominated by men

[elfeminista]

Warning monster post, it's a big article.

Often we get discouraged in our battle because the enemy is everywhere and in nearly everything.we see Global warming, and we trace it to the capitalist men who sought to increase production to maximize "owning" or things people and land. We see pornography and religion, obstacles to Women's awakening and leaving the toxic miasma that men have made. we see rape and violence against women and kids, and we know that here are the main instruments of fear, along with poverty and social pressure that keep Women from self realization.
Sometimes we see lights of hope, peeking out from the unlikelyest of places, sometimes entire continents, as shown in this article, and we know that our march is moving forward. That we won't be stopped, that someday the insanity will end thanks to the feminist revolution.

It's about freaking time.

By Jack Chang, McClatchy Newspapers Mon Oct 22, 1:23 PM ET

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Defying Latin America's longtime reputation as a bastion of machismo, women in South America are winning political power at an unprecedented rate and taking top positions in higher education and even, albeit more slowly, in business.


The election last year of Michelle Bachelet to Chile's presidency and the all-but-certain victory of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in Argentina's presidential balloting next Sunday are the most visible examples of the trend.

South American women also are leading important social movements and are earning, studying and speaking out more than ever. For the first time, women are forcing their traditionally male-dominated societies to confront such issues as domestic violence and reproductive health.

"I think there's been a general change," said Elena Highton , who in 2004 became Argentina's first female Supreme Court judge appointed by a democratically elected government. She promptly headed a commission on domestic violence.

"This is the time of the woman, and people want to try something new," Highton said. "Women are seen as more believable, more honest, more direct. And in this world dominated by men, we've seen lots of failures."

It's a fundamental shift in a region long ruled almost exclusively by men, where the influence of women was relegated to the home or, in public life, to supporting roles for powerful spouses.

Such perceptions changed for good, many say, with Bachelet's election last year in one of the most socially conservative countries in the hemisphere. A single mother and an atheist with no family member already in power, Bachelet, 56, won support from male and female Chileans in her historic election.

Public opinion polls in neighboring Argentina show similar widespread support for Kirchner, a longtime politician and current senator who's expected to win the contest to succeed her husband, Nestor, in this country's top job. Kirchner has frequently cited U.S. presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton as an inspiration.

Women are considered possible successors to the top spot elsewhere in South America .

In Paraguay , former education minister Blanca Ovelar is a top candidate to represent the long-ruling Colorado Party in next April's presidential race. In Brazil , presidential chief of staff Dilma Rousseff has emerged as a possible front-runner for the presidency in 2010. They follow women who were elected president in Central America in the 1990s, Violeta Barrios de Chamorro in Nicaragua and Mireya Moscoso Rodriguez in Panama .

The emergence of what's been called a "feminine bloc" in the Western Hemisphere's Southern Cone is yet more evidence of the historic changes that have opened doors for millions of women.

Latin American women also have taken charge in more humble circumstances. Soledad Puebla , 54, runs a bustling day care center in the slums of Santiago, Chile's capital. She's also the activist heart of her neighborhood and a confidante of legislators in Bachelet's government.

Puebla grew up desperately poor on the city's periphery and worked for years as a nanny before she joined a local Lutheran church and became a community organizer. She eventually was appointed the church's regional coordinator, which sent her around the world.

Speaking tearfully in her cramped office, she seemed astonished by her latest accomplishment— earning a college degree in social work, something that was unimaginable to the poorly educated grandparents who raised her.

"When I grew up, we didn't even have a mattress to sleep on," Puebla said. "So this is what I tell people now: When you want to rise as a woman and value your life, you can. But you have to be true to what you think and fulfill the agreement you make with yourself."

Latin American women still trail men in key measures of social well-being, according to the World Economic Forum , which ranks gender equality in 116 countries based on education, health and economic and political participation. Of Latin American countries, Costa Rica ranked the highest, 31st of 116 countries, and Bolivia , the lowest, at 88th.

But women are steadily catching up, United Nations statistics show. In many instances, the gaps are closing much faster than they are in the United States .

For example, the average wage of urban Latin American women has grown from 70 percent of men's in 1990 to 90 percent this year, and they're expected to reach parity by 2015, U.N. figures show. For comparison, U.S. women earned 77 percent of what men earned working full-time, year-round jobs in 2006.

In the business world, women make up as much as 35 percent of the managers in private companies, also a dramatic increase from just a decade ago, according to the International Labor Organization . However, they still account for only 10 percent of company presidents and vice presidents, according to a seven-country survey by the U.S.-based think tank the Inter-American Dialogue.

Women have made some of their biggest advances in politics, where thousands of women are reaching public office, many for the first time.

About a quarter of all Latin American local council members are women, more than double the percentage from a decade ago.

Women also make up more than a quarter of the Cabinet ministers in the region and more than a fifth of lower-chamber national legislators in Costa Rica , Cuba , Argentina , Peru , Guyana , Suriname, Ecuador , Honduras and Mexico , double the regional rate in 1990. By comparison, only 16 percent of the U.S. Congress is female.

In the eyes of Ana Maria Romero de Campero , who was Bolivia's top human rights official, women are riding the same democratic wave that's empowered other marginalized groups, such as indigenous people and the poor working class.

It's no coincidence, she said, that women are making gains at the same time that her country elected its first indigenous president, Evo Morales , or neighboring Brazil chose Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva , a former factory worker, as its president. Both leaders were the first presidents in their countries not to come from white, privileged backgrounds.

"This democratic process is raising the question of the rights of different people," Romero de Campero said. "And people are asking, 'Do women have the rights of equality along with human rights?'"

Fourteen countries in Latin America have passed quota laws requiring that as many as 40 percent of the candidates for political posts be women. Similar laws require that women fill a minimum number of union leadership posts and even executive-branch positions.

That's produced dramatic results in countries such as Argentina , the first in the region to implement quotas. Women now make up 35 percent of the lower house and 43 percent of the Senate. Only nine countries claim higher percentages of female lower-house legislators, and two of those are in Latin America — Costa Rica and Cuba . The other seven are Rwanda , Sweden , Finland , Norway , Denmark , the Netherlands and Spain .

"We women in the Congress have managed to be respected, but the road here was a long road, and there were many acts of discrimination along the way," said Argentine Sen. Silvia Ester Gallego , who helped lead the push in 1991 to pass the quota laws.

But the shift isn't just a political one, said Lidia Casas Becerra , a law professor and women's rights activist in Chile . Traditional notions about gender roles are changing, and women, as well as men, are taking on new responsibilities.

"This is still a very machista country, and it's hard to make that cultural transformation, but Bachelet was a beginning," Casas Becerra said. "Chileans are, in fact, much more liberal now than their political elite."

One sign of the change: The big hit on Chilean television this year was a soap opera named "Papi Ricky" about the misadventures of a widowed young man raising his daughter alone.

"Things have changed a lot since our parents' generation," said Rodrigo Delgado , 31, who was picking up his son from a Santiago, Chile , day care center while his wife worked. "There are more women working now because that's what we need to do to survive. And at home, we share the responsibilities."

Not everybody sees the changes as a step in the right direction.

Argentine community leader Monica Carranza said the breakdown of the traditional, male-headed household is to blame for the abandonment of thousands of women and children on the poor outskirts of Buenos Aires , where she runs a network of shelters and a soup kitchen.

"For me, the man had his home, his family, his children, and the man was the strong machine, and the woman took care of her children and her man, and now everything has been turned around," Carranza said. "I think the changes have been lamentable."

Other women, such as Brazilian legislator Marina Maggessi, complain that women are still denied real power. Brazilian women, for example, make up only 9 percent of federal legislators, although quota laws require that women comprise a quarter of each party's candidate list. Like several other countries with quota laws, Brazil's government has dragged its feet on enforcing them.

"What we need is women to wake up," said Maggessi, who was the chief of Rio de Janeiro state's anti-narcotics police before being elected last year. "The majority of the electorate are women, but they still elect men."

Many women find their path to power in extraordinary circumstances. Roxana Argandona Vargas was a poor farmer with four children in Bolivia's Chapare region when she began protesting a U.S.-backed campaign to eradicate coca plants, the primary ingredient of cocaine, but an economic mainstay for growers. Eventually she was elected president of the women's branch of the local coca growers union and then the president of the city council of Villa Tunari.

"Before, we women were totally excluded from the union meetings and were just asked to serve food to the men," Argandona Vargas said. "There's still machismo here. Some men will die as machistas. But now we women know what our rights are."

Readers seeking more information may wish to read the following reports online:

Women's Contribution to Equality in Latin America and the Caribbean at http://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/200 ... ate.91.pdf

Gender, Health, and Development in the Americas, Basic Indicators, 2005, at http://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/200 ... ate.91.pdf

Induced abortion: estimated rates and trends worldwide by the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization at http://medi

[Andrew]

We can't let women have any real power, because we're the best and look what a mess we've made of things. We couldn't survive if women took over.
Sarcasm, of course. Thanks for the article. Very encouraging indeed.

[elfeminista]

Yeah, I have heard "There would be a war once a month, every time the president got her period, yuck yuck yuck"

[MaggieH]

Thank you so much, Elfem, for posting this incredibly interesting article.

There have been considerable political, economical, and educational (,etc.) positive and feminist progressions in such a male-dominated nation like Latin America, but no doubt there's still a long way to go (especially in South American countries where patriarchal religions unfortunately still dominate society)!

South American women also are leading important social movements and are earning, studying and speaking out more than ever. For the first time, women are forcing their traditionally male-dominated societies to confront such issues as domestic violence and reproductive health.

In my opinion, women in South America still need loads more opportunities in Education, work, politics & other important fields as well. They also need the right to legal and safe abortions (because lots of women die at the hands of butchers in those Latin countries by not having this particular right), although there is still a while to go before that happens due to religious Anti-Choice movements' cruel oppositions. Do you know by any chance if they have many Pro-Choice movements in South America?

It is also great and amazing that such issues as domestic violence are being brought up. I'm also hoping that women and men in those Latin countries get more educated on issues like prostitution and trafficking, as increasingly many Latin, Mexican, South American (& many women from poor countries in general) get trafficked into the developed countries' sex industry at an alarming rate! (No doubt rich countries also need to choose better anti-trafficking measures -- such as the 1999 Swedish anti-prostitution legislation as a model).

But women are steadily catching up, United Nations statistics show. In many instances, the gaps are closing much faster than they are in the United States .

For example, the average wage of urban Latin American women has grown from 70 percent of men's in 1990 to 90 percent this year, and they're expected to reach parity by 2015, U.N. figures show. For comparison, U.S. women earned 77 percent of what men earned working full-time, year-round jobs in 2006.

Ha, Ha, I'm not surprised! Are you surprised?

Elfeminista, personally, what do you think of this quote (below):

Not everybody sees the changes as a step in the right direction.

Argentine community leader Monica Carranza said the breakdown of the traditional, male-headed household is to blame for the abandonment of thousands of women and children on the poor outskirts of Buenos Aires , where she runs a network of shelters and a soup kitchen.

"For me, the man had his home, his family, his children, and the man was the strong machine, and the woman took care of her children and her man, and now everything has been turned around," Carranza said. "I think the changes have been lamentable."

What do you think, Elfem? What should we think of this above quote?

"What we need is women to wake up,"

Well, sometimes it is very hard for women to "wake up" in a patriarchal society that keeps shaping women's views and and opinions with any male-dominated means they have (be it patriarchal religions, pornography, rape, etc.). Personally, it took me a little while to "wake up", and I've always lived within the G8. I was raised in a Catholic family and a pornographized culture. So, somehow many prominent men everywhere are definitely creating or perpetuating hindrances to women's awakening and rising by brainwashing them (women) with pernicious anti-feminist pornographic or religious doctrines (as well as men in general tacitly condoning rape & domestic vilence as "normal", "natural", or "inevitable").

Many women find their path to power in extraordinary circumstances. Roxana Argandona Vargas was a poor farmer with four children in Bolivia's Chapare region when she began protesting a U.S.-backed campaign to eradicate coca plants, the primary ingredient of cocaine, but an economic mainstay for growers. Eventually she was elected president of the women's branch of the local coca growers union and then the president of the city council of Villa Tunari.

Well, I fully understand how a poor woman like Roxana wanted to save those means for economic survival. But she could still get outrageously blamed for defending the growing of drug plants. I wish women like her had better opportunities for managing an economy. What do you think? It's a hard & difficult issue, isn't it?

"Before, we women were totally excluded from the union meetings and were just asked to serve food to the men," Argandona Vargas said. "There's still machismo here. Some men will die as machistas. But now we women know what our rights are."

Yep, I agree.

[elfeminista]

Well as very often happens, "minorities " are often ascribed the cultural traits that the voice, the writer of the article or the report usually members of a dominant class , wish for them to have regardless of what the social reality may be.This may be even done by well meaning writers.


I don't really consider "Countries" to be any more or ny less more patriarchal than other countries. I let that slide when posting the aricle because my desire was to show that yes women are making progress in the unlikely places, and going back in places where we would not expect that to happen.
To me countries are artificially made patriarchal entities,like coorporations are.

Somen "Countries" south of the Rio Gande( to me geographical areas)like Argentina, Chile, Uruguay Cuba,and subsections of other countries are more like Europe than anything else culturally."latin America is not one big homogenous mass.There are millions of Italians and Spaniards in Argentinea, English French and Spaniards in Chile, Spaniards and african Americans in Cuba, Germans portugese and African Americans .in Brazil. Giselle Bundchien is Brazilian, so is Pele'. Cameron Diaz is Cuban so are Mongo Santamaria, and Celia Cruz. (RIP)Celia more like James Brown and Cameron Diaz more like a slice of wonderbread. The latin "macho culture". Is really the same as the Russian "macho Culture" or Israeli Macho Culture. Or the African macho culture. In Mexico you have a very large indigenous population, about 80%. Same in Bolivia. So I really become a bit anoyed when I hear of the "Latin American macho culture". It's all one patriarchal virus Worldwide.
It's MALE culture that defines the nuances between culture based on perceptions and social directives of men in power. Women's culture remains invisible to the mainstream, remains invissible to the males within those cultures because In patriarchy males are everything, they are *All of culture* in their eyes.
Isn't that why we have the father the son and the holy Ghost? Catholiscism Islam Judaism. Worldwide capitalism, worldwide prostititution,rape, The armed forces of all the countries (Men with guns). Army navy, airforce, marines.etc etc.

That women are gaining power in Latin America, means to me that Women's conciousness will not be destroyed by the patriarchs and that this conciousness keeps welling up from that becoming that will not be denied. That is what I find so awesome about feminists throughout Herstory and the feminist movement now, that it is a heartbeat, that sometimes becomes almost imperceptible and women are born and die generations apart yet many of the concepts of society and creating a social order are somehow always clearly juxtaposed in oposition of patriarchal madness. And often related to the thoughts of other women even though they may never know of each other. almost like an automatic sense of logic instead of male megalomania. Ome day we will have a feminist Culture. and that culture will be there to help us extricate ourselves from the mess that men have brought this planet to.

"As a woman I have no country, as a woman i have no country, as a woman, my country is the world"~Virginia Woolf

Well, you wanted feedback.

[Andrew]

Well one war a month would be an improvement.
QUite a last post there, el feminista.I appreciated your point about the sameness of macho culture world-wide.

[elfeminista]

Thank you Andrew.

Maggie I didn'y mean to shrug off your questions and will contribute my thoughts tomorrow. One of the things that makes me happy when I ride the subway, and this probably applies here and latin america too.
is to see Women in the Subway reading books and guys just sitting there hung over in the morning just zoning out with their I pods. Women "get" the value education on a broader spectrum than men.

[Andrew]

"to see Women in the Subway reading books and guys just sitting there hung over in the morning just zoning out with their I pods. Women "get" the value education on a broader spectrum than men."

Ain't that the truth! And I don't even ride a subway, but I see that happening.

[elfeminista]

Ok maggie i am goint to try to answer your questions.


"There have been considerable political, economical, and educational (,etc.) positive and feminist progressions in such a male-dominated nation like Latin America, but no doubt there's still a long way to go (especially in South American countries where patriarchal religions unfortunately still dominate society)!"

Again I brought this up before, I am sorry to be redundant.
Latin America is a big place, and patriarchal religions do not hold sway over all societies.
Cuba for example is predominantly atheist.It is far less religious than the United states, cradle of televangelism. I am sure you realize that South America is a continent with many "nations"(a concept that I do not believe in, and use only for cultural and geographic descriptions). The only things that separates South American from North American patriarchy is the Amount of power that males have, not unly politically but culturaly or we can say , the amount of shit that women put up with. American women fought for many many years to get us here. and we exist today, because of those women who were force fed mush through a tube back in 1900 C.E. when Women wanted abortion rights and went jail were they went on hunger strikes for all Women. In 5the united states women used to be spat on in the streets for wearing pants. in 1965,here in the united states, a friend of mine who is a lawyer was sent away from court by a Judge who told him that he would not have a Woman in pants as an attorney in "his' court.


Quote:
"South American women also are leading important social movements and are earning, studying and speaking out more than ever. For the first time, women are forcing their traditionally male-dominated societies to confront such issues as domestic violence and reproductive health."

This is very apparent, thankfully.


"In my opinion, women in South America still need loads more opportunities in Education, work, politics & other important fields as well. They also need the right to legal and safe abortions (because lots of women die at the hands of butchers in those Latin countries by not having this particular right), although there is still a while to go before that happens due to religious Anti-Choice movements' cruel oppositions. Do you know by any chance if they have many Pro-Choice movements in South America?"


I am not very knowledgeable about pro abortion movements in latin America. In cuba it is abortion on demand for any reason, like it was in Soviet Russia.
Also, Throughout Latin America midwives perform abortions as well as helping with childbirth. caught early on (first 4 weeks) enducing miscarriages using traditional methods of midwifery is common, esp in the countryside. Oops I had a miscarriage. Of cause they used effective herbal abortifacients but the men do not know anything about them. The curanderas (curers) are very good at what they do. In the old days before pregnancy test kits they could even tell if it was a real pregnancy or a missed period. I don't know how that works.
The catholic church continues to be the main obstacle to women's reproductive freedom, as it is here, i dont think that the anti abortion movement. catholic ireland has worse abortion laws than any latin American nation. Exept maybe el Salvador, thank you liberating sandinista ortega..... and the Church's zeal in preventing women from having rights over there own bodies is very different than here. The institutions have not yet been moved, but they have not been moved in catholic Ireland either. It is patriarchal institutions that are global that stand aginst women's rights, because the one world wide religion *is* patriarchy.

It is also great and amazing that such issues as domestic violence are being brought up. I'm also hoping that women and men in those Latin countries get more educated on issues like prostitution and trafficking, as increasingly many Latin, Mexican, South American (& many women from poor countries in general) get trafficked into the developed countries' sex industry at an alarming rate! (No doubt rich countries also need to choose better anti-trafficking measures -- such as the 1999 Swedish anti-prostitution legislation as a model).


Unfortunately latin American culture is one of the ones where domestic abuse is nearly normal historicaly. But that is not South American, that is because of the latin roots. In Europe Italian men are 3 trimes more likely to do domestic violence than Swedish or Danish men.(hopefully it is changing)
It is northern mediterraenian culture, Greece Italy Southern Spain, Romania where there is more DV in Europe, all Latinate countries exept for Greece.

On the prostitution and trafficking front i think we in the developed countries would do well to educate Women and men *here*. We don't have the wherewithall to stamp it out here and here is where there is the gratest demand. Goods and services flow to money. remove the demand.

Quote:
But women are steadily catching up, United Nations statistics show. In many instances, the gaps are closing much faster than they are in the United States .

For example, the average wage of urban Latin American women has grown from 70 percent of men's in 1990 to 90 percent this year, and they're expected to reach parity by 2015, U.N. figures show. For comparison, U.S. women earned 77 percent of what men earned working full-time, year-round jobs in 2006.


Ha, Ha, I'm not surprised! Razz Are you surprised?

Elfeminista, personally, what do you think of this quote (below):

Quote:
Not everybody sees the changes as a step in the right direction.

Argentine community leader Monica Carranza said the breakdown of the traditional, male-headed household is to blame for the abandonment of thousands of women and children on the poor outskirts of Buenos Aires , where she runs a network of shelters and a soup kitchen.

"For me, the man had his home, his family, his children, and the man was the strong machine, and the woman took care of her children and her man, and now everything has been turned around," Carranza said. "I think the changes have been lamentable."

Maggie, What can I say. This is colonized woman speaking.-


What do you think, Elfem? What should we think of this above quote?

Quote:
"What we need is women to wake up,"


Well, sometimes it is very hard for women to "wake up" in a patriarchal society that keeps shaping women's views and and opinions with any male-dominated means they have (be it patriarchal religions, pornography, rape, etc.). Personally, it took me a little while to "wake up", and I've always lived within the G8. I was raised in a Catholic family and a pornographized culture. So, somehow many prominent men everywhere are definitely creating or perpetuating hindrances to women's awakening and rising by brainwashing them (women) with pernicious anti-feminist pornographic or religious doctrines (as well as men in general tacitly condoning rape & domestic vilence as "normal", "natural", or "inevitable").

I agree 100%- I had a time some years back when I would not read books by men. I keep talking about mary daly all the time. There is one penis brain on youtube that keeps using Gynocentric' as the worst accusation that he has against feminism. And everytime he says 'feminism is gynocentric" I say to mayself.. "yes, exactly".



Well, I fully understand how a poor woman like Roxana wanted to save those means for economic survival. But she could still get outrageously blamed for defending the growing of drug plants. I wish women like her had better opportunities for managing an economy. What do you think? It's a hard & difficult issue, isn't it?
i think that this is a socio economic question and not a feminist one. Women growing those products are doing it together with their husbands fathers etc. Not a feminist issue.

Quote:
"Before, we women were totally excluded from the union meetings and were just asked to serve food to the men," Argandona Vargas said. "There's still machismo here. Some men will die as Machistas. But now we women know what our rights are."

[MaggieH]

Thanks, Elfeminista, for your answers. Your reply helps. That's so kind of you.