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bibliographic listings • isis international • July 1988

O impacto da crise sobre a saude das mulheres pobres: o caso do Brasil
The impact of the crisis on the health of poor women: the case of Brazil
Barroso, Carmen
UNICEF; Fundacion Carlos Chagas
Brazil
Portuguese
1986
63 pp.
The economic crisis of the early 1980s in Brazil seriously affected the health of poor women. The author exposes the social inequality and unjust distribution of income which resulted from government policies and left women in precarious living conditions. The effort to break out of this situation created new areas of activity and organization for women, particularly in health programs where the role of women is of utmost importance.
ISIS No. 00398.00

Mujer en el sector informal urbano
Women in the informal, urban sector
Ardaya, Gloria
Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, FLACSO.
Bolivian Program
Spanish
26 pp.
Analysis of the participation of Bolivian women in the informal urban sector during the current period of crisis in the country. Women of rural, mining and poor urban families are the most affected and must join the informal sector to discover and develop subsistence activities in disadvantaged commercial and technical conditions. The author describes the economically active female population of Bolivia and the results of a Home Survey of Self-Employed Workers which analyzed the activities of street vendors in La Paz. In spite of the important contribution of the woman vendor to family survival, she continues to be considered inferior and to be undervalued by her family.
ISIS No. 00253.00

Informe de la Conferencia Mundial para el Examen y la Evaluacion de los logros del Decenio de las Naciones Unidas para la Mujer; Igualdad, Desarrollo y Paz
Report of the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace
United Nations
Presented at the World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women
Nairobi, 15-26 July 1985
Spanish
1986
331 pp.
Report of the Nairobi World Conference, 1985. The United Nations Decade for Women arose out of significant worldwide concern for the status of women and the desire to improve women's situation in labor, health and education. Much remains to be done and women are taking the lead in promoting national activities and encouraging governments to promote equality, development and peace. The principal worldwide obstacles to achieving these goals have been the arms race, racial discrimination and unjust economic relationships. Women are also the victims of discriminatory attitudes and cultural traditions. The report, together with evaluating women's past achievements and future strategies, includes resolutions and declarations from the Conference. Lists of documents, participants and representatives of nongovernmental organizations are included.
ISIS No. 00299.00

Organizaciones de mujeres: potencialidades y limites
Women's organizations: possibilities and limitations
Bianchi, Susana; Sanchis, N.
Paper presented at the International Conference on "Political Participation of Women in the Southern Cone" (Montevideo, 26-29 June, 1986)
Uruguay
Spanish
1986
7 pp.
Discussion about the nature of women's participation, based on an analysis of community organizations in Latin America. The authors question if this participation is "liberated" or functions within the context of sexual and class subordination and exploitation. Such organizations can become an obstacle to women's participation if they only relate to the domestic realm and do not facilitate women's entry into new places in the social system. Includes bibliography.
ISIS No. 00113.03

Experiencia de trabajo con mujeres de los sectores populares
Work experience with women from low-income sectors
Filippini, Mabel
Paper presented at the International Conference on Women's Political Participation in the Southern Cone
(Montevideo, 26-29 June 1986)
Uruguay
Spanish
1986
8 pp.
Reflection on community movements and women's participation based on the experiences of four working groups of women from low-income neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. The groups organized solidarity networks to solve serious everyday problems, including unemployment, lack of food and clothing, poor housing, daycare, etc. These demands were not class or gender based, and organizing around them can slowly help to change society. Professional support for these movements shows respect for them and an understanding of women.
ISIS No. 00113.05

Movimiento de Mujeres Pobladoras/ MOMUPO
Movement of Low-Income Women
Silva H., Clotilde
Paper presented at the International Conference on "Political Participation of Women in the Southern Cone"
(Montevideo 26-29 June 1986)
Uruguay
Spanish
1986
4 pp.
In this paper the author describes types of organizing carried out by groups of Chilean women seeking to meet basic living needs. This type of activity has had important effects on women, in spite of the obstacles they cross in organizing and pursuing their goals. These small grassroots groups are continually developing, according to the author, and generating a political force with new perspectives.
ISIS No. 00113.18

Mujer en el mercado de trabajo en Montevideo
Women in the job market in Montevideo
Aguirre, Rosario; Mendez, Estela
Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios sobre el Desarrollo, CIEDUR
Paper presented at the Workshop-Seminar "Participation of Women in Development"
(Montevideo, 28-29 May 1987)
Uruguay
Spanish
1987
64 pp.
The authors maintain that the persistence of high rates of female participation in the labor market—as a form of compensating for the decline in family income—can contribute to changing perceptions about women's work as "emergency" work. They show the existence of discrimination in the job market and the undervaluation of domestic work. Bibliography included.
lSIS No. 00579.00

Mujer participe: reflexiones sobre su papel en la familia y la sociedad
Women who participate: reflections on their role in the family and society
CEPAL (Economic Commission for Latin America)
Spanish
1983
59 pp.
Theoretical and practical analysis from CEPAL's perspective on the theme of women, the role assigned them culturally and their relation to development processes in the region. While new areas of participation for women have been created, women continue to fulfill traditional roles as well. Women are seen as important social actors in changing society to be more just and democratic, requiring different social values and a new definition of roles within the family. Statistical data included.
ISIS No. 00194.00

Familia rural en: Mujer rural en America Latina: Un actor social del ultimo decenio (1975-1984)
The rural family in: Rural women in Latin America: A social actor during the last decade (1975-1984)
CEPAL (Economic Commission for Latin America)
Spanish
1984
pp. 28-37
This chapter analyses predominant types of rural families and their regional variations. Themes discussed include female heads of household, changes (decreases) in birth rates, and the need for women to train and organize themselves to make demands.
ISIS No. 00200.02

Mujer en el sector popular urbano
Women in the popular urban sector
CEPAL (Economic Commission for Latin America)
Work presented at the Regional Meeting on Low-Income, Urban Women and Families in Latin America
(Santiago, 28 November - 2 December, 1983)
Spanish
1984
349 pp.
This book collects diverse studies about women from low-income urban sectors which were carried out in research-action projects, from an alternative perspective of development which incorporates social factors into the development process. Some issues raised include: What importance do women from these sectors attribute to issues of class and gender? Can community participation be used as a way to incorporate these sectors into democratic systems? Included is an annex with statistical and methodological data.
ISIS No. 00250.00

Mujeres latinoamericanas en el debate sobre estilos alternativos de desarrollo in: Repensar el futuro. Estilos de desarrollo
Latin American women debate about alternative styles of development In: Rethinking the future. Development styles
Krawczyc, Miriam
CEPAL (Economic Commission for Latin America)
Nueva Sociedad - UNITAR/PROFAL
Venezuela
Spanish
1986
pp. 63-71
The author argues that the status of Latin American women has been studied for more than a decade from different perspectives and that it is now important to analyze the relationship of women's groups to the rest of society, recognizing their potential to contribute to new options for development. Women's educational and work situation is analyzed and themes for discussion highlighted, including: the private vs. the public; the family system; the socialization of young people, etc. The author also describes the contribution which alternative social movements formed by women have made to these discussions.
ISIS no. 00349.01

Ponencias del taller mujer y proyectos productivos
Presentations from the workshop on women and productive projects
Fondo Ecuatoriano Populorum Progressio/FEPP; Centro Ecuatoriano para la Promocion y Accion de la Mujer, CEPAM; Servicio de Voluntariado Belga, COOPIPBO
Ecuador
Spanish
1985
59 pp.
At a workshop, 50 Ecuadorian women from rural and urban popular organizations analyze experiences with economic projects. After studying the achievements and problems of these projects and their causes, the women learn how to organize an income generating project, including its administration and its relation to other popular organizations, and problem-solving
ISIS No. 00302.00

Que comen los pobres? Habitos alimenticios, estrategias de compra y mecanismos de sobrevivencia
What do the poor eat? Eating habits, buying strategies and survival mechanisms
Cereceda, Luz E.; Cifuentes, Max
Universidad Catolica de Chile, Instituto de Sociologia
Chile
Spanish
1987
180 pp.
A study from Chile which contributes to a better understanding of the nutrition problem in low-income urban sectors. The study provides information about eating habits among this population and the factors which influence some families—in similar economic conditions—to eat better than others. More than 300 women were interviewed about subsistence strategies, family income, working conditions, the cost of food, diet, etc. Policy recommendations are included as well as an annex containing the methodology employed and a bibliography.
ISIS No. 00505.00

Mujeres jefas de familia
Women heads of household
Especial Mujer, Unidad de Comunicacion Alternativa de la Mujer
Fempress/ILET
Chile
Spanish
40 pp.
The theme of women heads of household is presented through news clippings from Latin America. Extracts from articles are included along with an editorial outlining the principal problems of this group. In Latin America a growing percentage of women provide the principal income for their family, yet society ignores the separated or deserted women who must assume such responsibility. This crisis in the family is not a product of feminism but rather of the economic situation in Latin American countries.
ISIS No. 00473.00

Grupo de mujeres mapuches en la ciudad: una experiencia multiple
Mapuche women in the city: a multiple experience
Montecino, Sonia
Cuadernos de la Mujer del Campo. PEMCI
Chile
Spanish
1983
98 pp.
Analysis and presentation of the experience of an autonomous Mapuche women's collective. Life stories of the participants reveal the type of productive labor which unites them, their demands as women and as representatives of a repressed ethnic group, and some characteristics of the Mapuche culture. The objective of the group is to mobilize women to confront the reality of their subordination, to help them achieve equality while preserving their identity and to develop democratic working relationships between researchers and the "researched".
ISIS No. 00400.00

Tecnologias apropiadas: Solucion de necesidades humanas? in: Del macetero al potrero (o de lo micro a lo macro)
Appropriate technology: Solution to human needs? in From the flowerpot to the garden (or from the micro to the macro)
Velasco, Blanca; Leppe, Arodys
UNICEF - Universidad de Colombia
Chile
Spanish
1986
pp. 97-116
The authors analyze the role and objectives of appropriate technology in urban sectors of "critical poverty". They argue that given the social, economic and political exclusion suffered by this sector during the last decade, appropriate technologies aid in satisfying not only basic needs, but human needs in the broadest sense of the term. An example of an organizational experience is provided. Includes bibliography.
ISIS No. 00343.05

Condicion de la mujer rural en Chile in: Mujeres campesinas. America Latina
The condition of rural women in Chile in Rural Women. Latin America.
Valdes S., Ximena; Mack, Macarena
Isis International
Chile
Spanish
1986
pp. 49-80
Complete article which describes the situation of rural women in Chile in the context of historic changes in the rural economy and the participation of women's organizations. Includes bibliography.
ISIS No. 00327.04

Ser mujer en Nicaragua: Diez anos de lucha de AMNLAE
To be a woman in Nicaragua: Ten years of AMNLAE's struggle
Murguialday, Clara
Nueva Sociedad, n. 94
Venezuela
Spanish
March-April 1988
pp. 54-64
The author provides an in-depth analysis of the Nicaraguan women's movement from its beginning in 1983 to 1987. She clarifies the objectives and nature of women's participation before and after the triumph of the Sandinista revolution (1979) and shows the path followed by the movement and the changes it has undergone. What stands out is the movement's growing and explicit recognition of gender contradictions. Includes bibliographic references.
ISIS No. 00700.01

Mujer venezolana y la educacion
Venezuelan women and education
Arvelo, Lilia; Granados, Antonia; Mata de M., Zoraida; Guzman de M., Migdalia
Venezuela
Spanish
1987
6 p.
A group of professors analyze the contributions and "positive participation of women in the family, the school and the community". They point out the existence of a high percentage of single parent families, which may point to a crisis in the Venezuelan family. The authors make suggestions to improve the condition of women.
ISIS No. 00578.00

Cuando del poder se trata. La mujer en el Tercer Mundo
Speaking of power. Women in the Third World
Birgin, Haydee
Nueva Sociedad
Venezuela
Spanish
July-August 1985
pp. 100-111
Analysis of the historic oppression suffered by women through a study of power relationships. After considering the formal legal situation and employment status of women, the author concludes that women will only find equality in a new style of development, where economic and power structures are modified, and domination and exploitation are ended. In this type of participatory and egalitarian development women would be subjects and not only human resources.
ISIS No. 00363.01

Mulher frente a crisis economica dos anos 80 Algumas reflexoes com base en estadística oficiais
Women confront the economic crisis of the 80s. Some reflections based on official statistics
Spindel, Cheywa
Instituto de Estudos Economicos,
Sociais e Politicos de Sao Paulo, IDESP
Brazil
Portuguese
1987
51 pp.
Analysis of the impact of the economic crisis on fluctuations in employment and employment distribution by sex, in Brazil. Supported by statistics, the author analyzes the profile of the female worker, and concludes that women are discriminated against in the workplace and are the ones most affected by economic policies. The author tries to prove the theory of a "reserve force", the selectivity by sex in the job market and the fact that female workers are always the last to be incorporated into the job market when the economy improves. In conclusion, the author highlights the need to make a theoretical distinction between organized and informal markets.
ISIS No. 00450.00

Democracia emergente y movimiento de mujeres in: Movimientos sociales y democracia: la fundacion de un nuevo orden
Emerging democracy and the women's movement. In Social movements and democracy: the foundation of a new order
Barrig, Maruja
DESCO
Peru
Spanish
1986
pp. 147-183
Within the context of the Peruvian sociopolitical situation, the author analyzes the development of the feminist movement in that country. She points out that the movement, after identifying with other social struggles, became organizationally and ideologically autonomous and even isolated. The author also examines popular female organizations, their activities, relationships with institutions and the problems which they must confront, among them co-optation by the State. Includes bibliography.
ISIS No. 00689.01

Mujer chayahuita: un destino de marginacion?: anilisis de la condicion femenina en una sociedad indigena de la Amazonia
The Chayahuita women: destined to marginalization? An analysis of the female condition in an indigenous society of the Amazon
Dradi, Maria Pia
Instituto nacional de Planificacion,
INP. Peru
Spanish
1987
162 pp.
An anthropological analysis of the indigenous Chayahuita in the Peruvian Amazon which describes the evolution of the role of women in the Chayahuita community, the family, the production and social environments. The author studies the problem of women, the impact of the introduction of a market economy into native communities and the development of specific research and community participation methodologies within the Chayahuita community. The study concludes with specific proposals for production, for improved health education and for conditions to make these possible. Includes a Female and Infant Demographic Survey and bibliography.
ISIS No. 00755.00

Mujer y la economia mundial
Women and the world economy
Joekes, Susan
INSTRAW
Siglo Veintiuno Editores
Mexico
Spanish
1987
205 pp.
The micro and macroeconomic analyses of the world economy presented here are the basis for United Nations studies of the situation of women and their participation in and incorporation into the international economy. The changing panorama in business, finance, work organization (through new technology) and employment trends affects women more directly and differently than men. UN efforts are primarily directed towards making policy recommendations for governments, transnational corporations, financial agencies, public and private agencies and women themselves who must play a role in implementing them.
ISIS No. 00568.00

Efectos de la crisis economica sobre el trabajo de las mujeres
Effects of the economic crisis on the work of women
Salle, M. Angeles; Casas, Jose Ignacio
Serie Estudios, Instituto de la Mujer, Spain
Spanish
1986
126 pp.
Book dedicated to the study of the labor situation of Spanish women which analyzes working conditions of those who carry a double work load— unpaid domestic work and paid work in the labor market. The first part of the book includes a complete description of the economically active female population and is complemented by an analysis of women's attitudes about work which is based on discussions of various groups about the theme of women and work.
ISIS No. 00422.00

Situacion de la mujer americana a 1985. Situacion socioeconomica y condicion de la mujer
The situation of women in the Americas, 1985. The socioeconomic status and condition of women.
Sanchez, Carlos Eduardo; Alasino, Carlos Maria
Organization of American States. Interamerican Commission on Women
Argentina
Spanish
1985
14 pp.
This report analyzes the economic condition of women, specifically, employment rates and types of employment women engage in and sex discrimination in the job market. The authors point out the causes of women's disadvantaged situation, i.e., prejudice, lack of training, greater costs of female employment and the level of economic development in the countries of the region. Includes recommendations.
ISIS No. 00590.00

Presencia de las mujeres en America Latina en una decada en crisis
The presence of women in Latin America in a decade of crisis
De Barbieri, Teresita; De Oliveira, Orlandina
Coleccion Teoria,CIPAF
Dominican Republic
Spanish
1987
The first part of this document examines the effects of the economic crisis on Latin American women. The second part considers ways in which women have organized in the region, highlighting the role played by the Latin American feminist movement. The authors contend that "what is at stake in the resolution of the crisis is the opportunity for a radical transformation of social relationships in this continent." Bibliography included.
ISIS No. 00624.00

¡Es preciso volar!
The need to fly
Corporacion Regional por el Desarrollo Integral de la Mujer y la Familia
Documents presented at the Regional Meeting on Women's Health (Boyaca, 28 May-2 June 1984)
Editorial Gazeta
Colombia
Spanish
214 pp.
An important collection of documents presented by women at the Regional Meeting on Women's Health, which include themes such as: sexuality, abortion, motherhood, female identity and ideology. Included are descriptions of alternative women's projects which have been carried out during the past few years in Latin America and the Caribbean. Includes a description of workshops carried out during the meeting, a resource list and bibliography.
ISIS No. 00138.00

Mujer y la politica agraria en America Latina
Women and agrarian policies in Latin America Leon Magdalena; Deere, Carmen Diana (editors)
Asociacion Colombiana para el Estudio de la Poblacion, ACEP
Presented at Seminar on Agrarian Development Policies in Latin America and their Effects on the Rural Woman: Synthesis of the United Nations Decade for Women
(Bogota, 1985)
Siglo Veintiuno Editores
Colombia
Spanish
290 pp.
Collection of articles which synthesize accumulated knowledge about the condition of rural women and their role in agricultural development. Through case studies, the effects of state intervention in agriculture are analyzed, as well as the influence of development projects which try to "integrate rural women", the effects of the crisis of the 1980s on the agricultural sector and women's responses to these problems.
ISIS No. 00261.00

Comedores populares
Soup kitchens
Serie Organizacion y Salud
Asociacion Peru-Mujer
Peru
Spanish
1985
14 pp.
The functioning of soup kitchens in low-income neighborhoods is explained through simple illustrations of daily life and conversations with two neighborhood women. The guide also describes how organization around health issues occurs, beginning with a description of principal health problems facing the population, health committees, popular health assemblies, the "plan unico" (principal plan) for health, and work with local clinics. The guide concludes by explaining how the experience of organizing around health issues encouraged and trained the community to resolve other problems.
ISIS No. 00048.00

Mujeres en los barrios: de los asuntos locales a los problemas de genero
Women in neighborhoods: from local problems to problems of gender
Feijoo, Maria del Carmen
Materials for Popular Communication/IPAL n.5
Peru
Spanish
1984
pp. 3-11
The author analyzes the role of low-income women in social movements. She illustrates this analysis by describing her experience working on a research-action project in a working class neighborhood of Buenos Aires. She contends that female participation in such movements, which traditionally has been channeled towards fulfilling basic family needs, often permits women to express the conflicts and contradictions of their subordination and causes them to question male domination of the home and politics. Includes bibliography.
ISIS No. 00120.01

Presencia de la mujer en las barriadas
The presence of women in neighborhoods
Serie Las Barriadas
Centro de Informacion Estudios y Documentacion, CIED
Peru
Spanish
1981
99 pp.
This document describes the exploitation which low-income Peruvian women experience. In addition to suffering the same discrimination based on sex as upper class women, capitalist society also exploits poor women on the basis of their class. This reality is revealed through the accounts of five women who live in poor neighborhoods, who describe their problems, working conditions, organizations and political participation, male attitudes, etc.
ISIS No. 00232.00

Obreras
Working class women
Barrig, Maruja
Mosca Azul Editores
Peru
Spanish
1986
124 pp.
Research-action project about women and work, from the perspective of women's exploitation and subordination (class and gender) in a society in crisis (Peru). Through interviews and workshop experiences, this book discusses the work experience of participants and their participation in union organizations. The study focuses on workers in the pharmaceutical and clothing industries. Includes bibliography.
ISIS No. 0233.00

Alimentadoras del pueblo: Vendedoras ambulantes de alimentos preparados
Feeding the people: Women street vendors selling prepared food
Picasso, Estrella
Servicios Urbanos y Mujeres de Bajos Ingresos
SUMBI
Peru
Spanish
1986
56 pp.
Analysis of a type of informal urban work in Peru during the economic crisis—women street vendors selling prepared food. Research for the project was carried out through direct observation, surveys and structured interviews. The struggle for survival forces poor women to become part of the informal sector of the economy and to create family micro-enterprises. The majority of these women are migrants who manage to maintain solidarity networks under difficult working conditions. This paid work is carried out in addition to domestic work and the earnings are used to feed the family. Organization of these workers is limited and consists of finding a site for selling products and avoiding problems with the Municipality.
ISIS No. 00254.00

Mujer y desarrollo
Women and development
Galer, Nora; Guzman, Virginia; M. Gabriela (editors)
Centro de la Mujer Peruana "Flora Tristan"; Centro de Estudios y Promocion del Desarrollo,
DESCO
Peru
Spanish
1985
246 pp.
A collection of papers which analyzes the work experiences of a group of women, focusing on three themes: the assumptions underlying projects directed towards women; social participation of women in low-income urban neighborhoods; and participation of women from these sectors in the workforce. Annexes contain the conclusions of workshop discussions about the papers.
ISIS No. 00290.00

Repensando la mujer y el desarrollo: un caso para el feminismo
Rethinking women and development: a case for feminism
Anand, Anita
Centro de la Mujer Peruana "Flora Tristan"
Paper presented in the Course "Teoria Feminista y Estrategias para el Movimiento de Mujeres"
(Lima, 20 February - 30 March 1984)
Peru
Spanish
15 pp.
Critical reflection about the situation of women in the development process. The author questions the concept of "integration", which does not consider the patriarchal characteristics of the systems into which women are to be integrated. The concepts of "development", "growth" and others which hide the roots of subordination and exploitation, are analyzed.
ISIS No. 00293.15

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Confronting the crisis in Latin America: women organizing for change seeks to examine the effects on that continent of the profound economic, social and political crisis of the past several years, particularly the effects of the crisis on the lives of women in the region.

A series of articles prepared by women researchers organized by DAWN explores how the crisis and the policies enacted by governments to confront it have changed the living conditions of women. In particular, the authors show how women's fulfillment of their traditional role as provider of basic family needs has left them overworked and poor. They also examine how women's subordination has aggravated the effects of the crisis in their lives. These issues are analyzed as they occur in different facets of women's lives, in distinct countries and among women of different social classes.

The analysis presented here, however, shows not only the effects of the crisis and government policies on women, but also reveals how Latin American women have responded by creating new forms of participation in many types of organizations, among them subsistence organizations and the feminist movement. Through these movements women are learning not only to survive, but to overcome discrimination and repression, and to better know and understand themselves and the possibilities for change in their lives.

• Latin America
• Ethnicity
• Indigenous Groups
• Social Movements
• Feminism
• Racism
• Patriarchy
• Brazil

Lelia Gonzalez¹

In 1988, Brazil, the country with the largest black population in the Americas, commemorates the centennial of the law which ended slavery in the country. The festivities will extend throughout the nation, promoted by innumerable public and private institutions, celebrating "100 years of abolition".

For the Black Movement, however, the moment is much more one of reflection than of celebration. Reflection, because the text of the law of May 13, 1888, known as the Golden Law, simply declared slavery to be over, revoking all prior laws to the contrary and... no more. For black women and men, the struggle for liberation began much earlier than that legal act and continues to this day. Our struggle is to make Brazilian society reflect on the status of blacks within it, and to think about its internal contradictions as well as the profound racial inequalities which are a part of it. This need for reflection also extends to other countries in the region.

This article— an analysis of the internal contradictions of Latin American feminism— represents a modest contribution from a black feminist to the advancement of the feminist movement. By highlighting the racial dimension of the feminist movement, it attempts to show that within the movement, black and Indian women are living testimony to their exclusion from it. The article will also try to show, however, on the basis of the author's experiences as a black woman, the solidarity, closeness and respect for differences demonstrated by white colleagues who are committed to the feminist cause. These exceptional women I call sisters.

When I speak of my own experience, I am talking about a long process of learning which occurred in my search for an identity as a black woman, within a society which oppresses me and discriminates against me because I am black. But a question of an ethical and political nature arises immediately. I cannot speak in the first person singular of something which is painfully common to millions of women who live in the region, those "Amerindians" and "Amerafricans" (Gonzalez) who are oppressed by a "latinness" which legitimizes their "inferiority".

feminism and racism

It is undeniable that feminism, both in theory and in practice, has played a fundamental role in the struggles of women. It has presented new questions, stimulated the formation of groups and networks, and encouraged the search for a new way of being a woman. By centering their analysis on patriarchal capitalism (or capitalist patriarchy), feminists revealed the material and symbolic basis of women's oppression. Their analysis is a contribution of crucial importance for guiding the struggles of a movement. In describing, for example, the political nature of the private world, they unleashed a public debate about sexuality, violence, reproductive rights, etc., which unmasked traditional relationships of domination and submission. By promoting a discussion about sexuality, feminism gave great encouragement to homosexuals of both sexes, discriminated against because of their sexual orientation (Vargas). Feminism made the search for an alternative model of society irreversible. Thanks to its theoretical production and its action as a movement, the world will never be the same.

In spite of the fundamental contribution of the feminist movement to the discussion of discrimination based on sexual orientation, the same has not occurred with respect to another type of discrimination, racial discrimination. Interestingly, we are told that in the North American feminist movement the relationship was inverse that feminism was the consequence of the black movement, and not vice versa. "Without black sisterhood, there would not have been sisterhood; without black power and black pride, there would not have been gay power and gay pride" (David Edgar). And the feminist Leslie Cagan affirms: "The fact that the Civil Rights Movement broke down presuppositions about equality and liberty in America, opened the way for us to question our freedom as women".

But a reading of feminist texts and an analysis of feminist practice reveals a kind of forgetfulness about the racial question. Take as an example the definition of feminism: "resistance of women to accepting social, economic, political, ideological and psychological roles, situations and characteristics which are based on a hierarchy of men over women in which the woman is the subject of discrimination" (Astelarra). If the term black (or Indian) were substituted for women, this definition would describe the struggles of women of color against racism. This is so because both sexism and racism are based on the concept that biological differences justify domination of one group by another.

How can this forgetfulness of feminism be explained? The response, in our judgment, lies in what some social scientists call racism by omission, the roots of which are found in a "eurocentric" and neocolonialist vision of the world.

Two categories of Laconian thinking can help our understanding here—the categories of infant and subject-supposed-to know. The first category, that of the infant, describes someone who is not the subject of her own conversation, because others speak for her. The concept of infant is based on an analysis of the psychological formation of the child, who, when spoken about by adults in the third person, is consequently excluded, ignored, made absent, in spite of her physical presence; she reproduces this discourse, speaking of herself in the third person, until the moment when she learns to use personal pronouns.

In the same way, women and non-whites have been spoken of, defined and classified by an ideological system of domination which makes infants of us. By being placed in an inferior position within a hierarchy, our humanity is erased because we are denied the right to be subjects, not only of our own discourse, but of our own history. This is characteristic of a patriarchal-racist system. Feminists, in speaking of the racial issue, accept and reproduce the infantilisation of the patriarchal-racist system by making blacks the object of discussion.

The category of subject-supposed-to know refers to the imaginary identification we often have with certain figures who are attributed with a knowledge that they do not possess (mother, father, psychoanalyst, professor, etc.) The analyses of Frantz Fannon and Alberto Memmi which describe the psychology of the colonized fit well here. The colonized (i.e., indigenous groups) attribute superiority to the colonizer. In this way, Eurocentrism and its neo-colonial effects contribute to racism.

Latin American feminism loses much of its force by making abstract a fact of great importance: the pluricultural and multi-racial character of the societies of the region. Feminism speaks, for example, of the sexual division of work without articulating the corresponding racial division of work. To speak of the oppression of the Latin American woman is to speak of a generality which hides the hard reality lived by millions of black and indigenous women. Jenny Bourne is absolutely correct when she states: "I see anti-racism as something which is not outside the Women's Movement but something which is intrinsic to the best feminist principles."

the racial question in Latin America

 An analysis which fails to see the racial dimension, or which "forgets" it, is not only characteristic of Latin American feminism. Racism is at the very core of the region's hierarchal societies. It is worthwhile, therefore, to reflect historically about racism in the region, above all in the countries colonized by the Spanish.

First, one cannot forget that the historical formation of Spain and Portugal began with centuries of struggle against the Moors, who invaded the Iberian Peninsula in the year 711. The war between the Moors and the Christians (still remembered in our popular festivals) was not only religious in nature. Although not spoken about, the racial dimension played an important ideological role in the struggles of the Reconquest (the struggle to end Moorish rule in Spain). The Moorish invaders were predominantly black. In addition, the last two dynasties of its kingdom—that of the Almoravides and the Almohades (which ruled during the late 11th and 12th century in Spain) were from West Africa (Chandler). The Spanish and Portuguese thus had experience with multi-racial societies.

Second, the Iberian societies were structured in a highly hierarchical way, with many different and complementary social layers. The strength of the hierarchy was such that it was even evident in the forms of address, transformed into law by the King of Portugal and Spain in 1597. Needless to say in such a system, where each and everyone had a set place, there was no room for equality, especially for different ethnic groups like the Moors and the Jews, who were subject to violent social and political control (Da Matta).

As historical heirs of the ideologies of social, racial and sexual classification, as well as of the legal and administrative techniques of the Iberian metropolis, Latin American societies could not help but be characterized as hierarchical. Racially stratified, they are a virtual rainbow of color; in Brazil, for example, there are more than 100 different names for skin colors. Within this context, the segregation of mestizos, Indians and blacks was unnecessary because the hierarchy guaranteed the superiority of the whites as the dominant group.

Thus, the affirmation that all are equal before the law is a formalistic statement in our societies. Latin American racism is sufficiently sophisticated to maintain blacks and Indians as subordinated parts of more exploited classes. This is in spite of the fact that in some Latin American countries the Indian has been rehabilitated as a "mystical symbol" of the resistance against colonial and neocolonial aggression. The ideology of blanqueamiento (whitening), so well analyzed by Brazilian scientists, is transmitted by the mass media which successfully perpetuates the belief that the classifications and values of white Western culture are the only true and universal values.

Once established, the myth of white superiority proves its efficiency by the fragmentation of ethnic identity it produces, i.e., the desire to become white and deny one's own race and culture (to "clean the blood" as they say in Brazil) is internalized.

Not a few Latin American countries, for example, have abolished the use of racial indicators in their censuses and in other documents, thus making differences invisible. Although many studies exist about the condition of blacks during the regime of slavery, historians and sociologists are silent about the situation of blacks from abolition to today, thus making them invisible. The argument utilized by some social scientists for justifying the absence of a racial variable in their analysis is that blacks were absorbed within the population in conditions of relative equality with other racial groups (Andrews).

It is not difficult to conclude from what has been said that there are great obstacles to the study of racial relations in Latin America, both in its regional forms and its internal variations. The truth is that this loud silence about race is based on one of the most efficient myths of ideological domination: that of racial democracy.

The myth of equality for all before the law presupposes the existence of great racial harmony...which is always found under the shield of the white dominant group, the ideology of blanqueamiento. Perhaps the best summation of this type of racial domination was made by a Brazilian humorist who said: "In Brazil racism does not exist because Blacks know their place" (Millor Fernandes). It is worthwhile noting that the Left still believes the thesis of "racial democracy", insofar as their analyses about society never glimpse anything more than class contradictions. Methodological mechanics, they ended by becoming accomplices of a domination they tried to combat. In Brazil, this perspective began to change with the return of exiles who had fought the military dictatorship in the early 1980s, because many of them (thought of as white in Brazil) were the object of racial discrimination abroad.

In spite of this, in only one country of the continent do we find concrete actions to abolish racial, ethnic and cultural inequality. This is a geographically small country, but a giant in the search for itself: Nicaragua. In September, 1987, the National Assembly approved and promulgated the Estatuto de Autonomia de las Regiones de la Costa Atlantica de Nicaragua (the Statute of Autonomy for Regions of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua). In these regions there is a population of 300,000, divided into six ethnic groups by language differences: 182,000 Mestizos, 75,000 Misquitos, 26,000 Creoles (Blacks), 9,000 Sumus, 1,750 Garifunas (Blacks) and 850 Ramas.

Made up of six titles and five articles, the Statute of Autonomy implies a new political, economic, social and cultural reordering which responds to the claims of the coastal communities. More than guaranteeing the election of local and regional authorities, the Statute assures that the community can participate in the creation of projects which benefit the region and recognizes their property right to communal lands. It not only guarantees absolute equality of ethnic groups, but also recognizes their religious and language rights, repudiating all forms of discrimination. One of its great impacts was the repatriation of 19,000 Indians that had left the country. Crowning the long process in which both errors and successes had occurred, the Statute of Autonomy is one of the great victories of a people which fights "to construct a new nation, multi-ethnic, pluricultural and multilingual, based on democracy, pluralism, anti-imperialism and the elimination of social exploitation and oppression in all of its forms."

It is important to point out that, within the context of profound racial inequalities which exist in the continent, sexual inequality is also strong. Non-white women of the region—the "Amerafricans" and the "Amerindians"—suffer a double discrimination. They are the most oppressed and exploited women in a region of patriarchal-racist capitalism. The Amerindians and Amerafricans are also discriminated against on the basis of their class; they are part of the immense afro-latinamerican proletariat.

for an afro-latinamerican feminism

Virginia Vargas V. tells us: "The presence of women on the public scene is an unquestionable fact of the past few years. They are seeking new solutions to confront problems which the social, political and economic order places on them. The economic, political, social and cultural crisis ... has accelerated processes which had already begun. While the crisis has accentuated the failure of the "dependent capitalist" development model, it is still to be discovered how the crisis affects different social sectors. In the area of social relations, one effect of the crisis has been to give us a more complex and heterogeneous vision of the social, economic and political dynamic. Within this complexity there are new social movements, among them the women's movement, which profoundly question the structural logic of society (Castells) and offer, potentially, an alternative vision of society."

Within the women's movement there are three distinct models: grassroots, political and feminist. It is within the grassroots movement that we find the greatest participation of Amerafricans and Amerindians who are organizing themselves around issues of family survival. Their presence in the informal work market also causes them to make new demands. Given their social position and the racial and sexual discrimination they suffer, they experience the effects of the crisis in the most brutal way. If one thinks about the type of economic model which has been adopted and the types of "modernization" which flow from it, which concentrates income and social benefits in the hands of a few, it is not difficult to deduce the situation of these women, as in the Brazilian case, in a time of crisis (Oliveira, Porcaro and Araujo).

The important role of the Ethnic Movements as social movements cannot be overlooked. The Indigenous Movement, which is becoming stronger in South America (Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador) and Central America (Guatemala, Panama and Nicaragua), not only proposes new discussions about traditional social structures but seeks the restoration of the Amerindian identity and the recovery of Amerindian history. The Black Movement, at least in Brazil, clarifies the relationship between the categories of race, class, sex and power, and unmasks the dominant structures of a society and a State which see as "natural" the fact that four fifths of the black work force is imprisoned in a type of socio-economic trap which "offers the opportunity" of manual labor. It is well known that when whites perform the same work as blacks, they are paid more than blacks in any professional category (above all in the highest qualification categories). Meanwhile, the lucrative appropriation of Afro-Brazilian culture which has become the "national" Brazilian culture, also is seen as "natural".

An important point needs to be made here about historical reality: for us, Amerafrican and Amerindian women of Brazil and of other countries of the region, our awareness of oppression occurs first in its racial dimension. Class exploitation and racial discrimination are common experiences of both men and women belonging to a subordinated ethnic group. The historical experience of black slavery, for example, was terrible for men and women, children, adults and the elderly. And it was within the slave community that political-cultural forms of resistance were developed which today permit us to continue a pluri-secular liberation struggle. This same analysis is valid for indigenous communities. Thus, the presence of women in the Ethnic Movement is very visible; we Amerafrican and Amerindian women, are active participants and protagonists of the movement.

But it is exactly this participation which brought us to an awareness of sex discrimination. Our male partners in the movement reproduce patriarchal sexist practices and try to exclude us from the decision-making process. And it is precisely for that reason that we seek to participate in a women's movement, believing that there we can find solidarity with our sisters which is as important as racial solidarity. But what we find, instead, are racist exclusionary practices cited in the first section of this paper. We are "de-colored" and "de-raced", relegated to the grassroots category of the movement. Furthermore, because black families invariably earn less than white families for the same work (Oliveira, Porcaro and Araujo), blacks have a much smaller presence in the other two streams of the feminist movement, the political and the feminist. We simply don't have the time to participate. Thus, we are invisible in the three streams of the women's movement, including that in which our participation is the greatest.

It is not difficult to understand, then, that our alternative to the women's movement was the ethnic movement. And, as we struggle on these two fronts, we contribute to the advance of both movements. In Brazil, as early as 1975, on the occasion of the first historic meeting of Latin American women, which marked the beginning of the women's movement in Rio de Janeiro, Amerafricans were present and distributed a manifesto which called attention to the economic, racial and sexual exploitation and the "degrading, dirty and disrespectful" treatment to which we are subject. Its content is not very different from that of the Manifesto of Black Peruvian Women signed on International Women's Day in 1987 by two organizations of the black movement in that country: Linea de Accion Femenina del Instituto de Investigaciones Afroperuano (Female Action Line of the Institute of Afro-Peruvian Studies) and the Grupo de Mujeres del Movimiento Negro "Francisco Congo" (Women's Group of the "Francisco Congo" Black Movement). Denouncing their situation as the discriminated within the discriminated, they affirmed: "We have been molded into a perfect image of domestic, artistic, and servile functions; we are considered 'experts in sex'. This is how the prejudice that black women are useful only for these purposes has grown."

It is worthwhile noting that the twelve years difference between the Brazilian and Peruvian documents mean nothing in comparison to the almost five centuries of exploitation which both denounce. The situation of Amerafricans and their thinking is practically the same in the two countries. A popular Brazilian saying sums up the situation: "A white woman to marry, a brown one to fornicate, and a black to work". The roles permitted to Amerafricans (black and mulatto) were strictly defined; their humanity was denied; Amerafricans were seen as animalized bodies; they were the sexual "beasts of burden" (for which Brazilian mulattas are a model). Thus, socioeconomic super exploitation of women has become allied with the sexual super exploitation of Amerafrican women.

The two Amerafrican groups of Peru illustrate that black women first began to organize within the black movement, not within the women's movement. When a group is dissolved, the tendency is to stay active in the black movement, where, in spite of women's misgivings, women's rebellion and critical spirit are more welcome from a cultural and historical viewpoint. Within the women's movement, the demands of black women, many times, have been characterized as anti-feminist and even as "racism in reverse" (which presupposes that there is a legitimate racism); and from there resentment and separation resulted. But in spite of this, groups of Amerafrican women have been organizing themselves in the countries of the continent in the 1980s, in any way they can. We have held our own regional meetings and this year will hold the First National Meeting of Black Women in Brazil. Meanwhile our Amerindian sisters are also organizing themselves within the Union of Indigenous Nations, the greatest expression of the indigenous movement in Brazil.

It is important to emphasize that relations within the women's movement do not consist solely of resentment and fights between Latin and black women. Already in the 1970s, a few Latin women approached us, helped us and learned with us, in an effective exchange of experiences. This was a result of their egalitarian spirit. Their understanding and solidarity grew in the 1980s, thanks to changes in ideology and action within the women's movement: a new feminism was being created which increased our hope that their ideas would change. The creation of new networks like the Taller de Mujeres de las Americas (which gives priority to the struggle against racism and patriarchy from an anti-imperialist perspective) and DAWN are examples of new forms of feminist thought, both illuminating and illuminated by being inclusive and open to the participation of women who are ethnically and culturally different. Nairobi was also an example of this change, of feminism coming to know itself.

Within the women's movement we have shared two very strong experiences. The first occurred in November, 1987, at the Second Meeting of the Taller de Mujeres de las Americas in the city of Panaya; there, the analyses and discussions ended by breaking barriers, through the recognition of racism by feminists and of anti-feminist prejudices by Amerindians and Amerafricans. The second experience occurred the following month in La Paz at the Regional Meeting of DAWN/MUDAR where the most representative women from Latin American feminism both in terms of their theoretical production and effective practice came together. I, the single Amerafrican present, made all of the arguments contained in this work. It was, really, an extraordinary experience for me to hear the frank and honest accounts of the Latin women present there, who were confronting the racial question. I left revived, confident that a new era was being opened for all women of the region. More than ever my feminism was strengthened. The title of this work was inspired by that experience. I dedicate this article to Neuma, Leo, Carmen, Virginia, Irma, Tais, Margarita, Socorro, Magdalena, Stella, Rocio, Gloria and the Amerindias, Lucila and Marta. Good luck, women!

 

 

bibliography

ANDREWS, George R. (1980). The Afro-Argentines of Buenos Aires: 1800-1900. Madison, The University of Wisconsin Press.

ASTELARRA, Judith (1982). "El Feminismo como perspectiva y como practica politica" (text reproduced by the Centro de la Mujer Peruana Flora Tristan).

BOURNE, Jenny (1983). "Towards an Anti-Racist Feminism", in Race & Class XXV, 1, Summer.

CAGAN , Leslie (1970). "Something New Emerges: The Growth of a Socialist Feminism" in D. Cluster (Ed.), They Should Have Served That Cup of Coffee. Boston. (Cited by Bourne).

CHANDLER, Wayne B. (1987). 'The Moor: Light of Europe's Dark Age" in Ivan van Sertina (Ed.), African Presence in Early Europe. New Brunswick-Oxford, Transaction Books (3rd ed.).

DA MATTA, Roberto (1984). Relativizando: uma Introducao a Antropologia. Petropolis, Vozes (4th ed.).

EDGAR, David (1981). "Reagan's Hidden Agenda" in Race & Class, XXII, 3, Winter.

GONZALEZ, Lelia (1983). "Racismo e Sexismo na Cultura Brasileira" in Movimentos Sociais, Minorias Etnicas e Outros Estudos. Brasilia, ANPOCS (Ciencias Sociais Hoje, No. 2).

MOREIRA ALVES, Branca (1980). Feminismo e Ideologia. Petropolis, Vozes.

OLIVEIRA, Lucia PORRO, Rosa M.; ARAUJO, Teresa C.N. (1987). "Efeitos da Crise no Mercado de Trabalho Urbano e a reproducao das Desigualdades Raciais", in Estudos Afro-Asiaticos, No. 14.

VARGAS, Virginia, "Feminismo y Movimiento Social de Mujeres", mimeo.

• Women Workers
• Latin America
• Colombia
• Domestic Work
• Labour Force
• Participatory Research
• Women Struggles

Magdalena Leon¹

Although Colombian law has required since 1977 that social security be provided to domestic workers, compliance with this requirement has been non-existent. The struggle to secure this protection for domestic workers is now occurring in a sociopolitical context which has been greatly affected by the crisis of the 80s. That crisis has caused a reduction in the collective and individual bargaining power of the working class, a shrinking demand for employees from the low-income population, and an increase in domestic work positions. It is within this context that the invisible and socially undervalued group of domestic workers is fighting for its rights. This paper discusses that struggle and the research-action project (hereafter referred to as "the Project").²

In order to trace the dimensions of the problem, these questions had to be raised: How many domestic workers are there? What is their relationship to the female labor force? Is the number of domestic workers increasing or decreasing? Is there a tendency for domestic service to disappear as a function of the development and modernization of society?

There is no doubt that domestic work accounts for a very large percentage of the work performed by females. According to official statistics, during the last three decades, the number of live-in domestic workers diminished drastically³. Some have interpreted this statistic as evidence of the "modernization" of the occupational structure. The world of numbers, however, contains many traps for the unaware. It is safe to say, for example, that not all women who work as domestic workers have been counted in official statistics as such⁴. Moreover, the decline can be better explained by the transformation occurring within the occupation of domestic worker, than by a decrease in numbers of domestic workers. Whereas, before, most domestic workers lived in the employer's home, increasingly, the domestic worker now works on a day-to-day basis in her employer's home. These workers may not always be included in official statistics.

In fact, the economic crisis of the 80s caused many poor women to offer their services as domestic workers, especially by the day, as a way to survive. Further, the decline in wages of the middle classes has obliged many middle class women to return to the work force and to seek domestic help. Between 1978 and 1985, in the largest cities of the country, the number of domestic workers actually remained stable.⁵ As of 1985, one of four working women worked as a maid. Thus, domestic workers represent a large percentage of poor urban women.

To bring about change, what role should the State play? What role does lobbying play? What role does public opinion play in making the problem visible and pressing for change? The answers to these questions are not simple.

There are many structural difficulties in creating a political will for change. The State serves a limited social function, and has an hierarchical and rigid institutional and patriarchal apparatus. How is political will created in the face of such obstacles? Organizing women is, without doubt, one way in which a change can be promoted. The power of women's organizations can be used to create a larger political movement which can bring about change.

Public opinion can also be galvanized to effect this change. Favorable public opinion facilitates social movements which can change attitudes and behaviors, and can further change public opinion so that it becomes a force in formulating and implementing policies.

The experience analyzed here demonstrates how domestic workers were able to organize around the issue of adequate health care, and force the State to respond to their demands.

a struggle which emerged from everyday life

In the beginning, domestic workers were motivated to organize and pressure government entities, because of the poor health conditions which accompanied their work. As a general rule, domestic workers had no health insurance, maternity coverage, disability insurance or pension system. Workers were not granted sick leave nor did they have money with which to pay doctors or buy medicines. Becoming ill or pregnant was synonymous with being out of a job. As one older domestic worker said "I am old and sick and I can't work and I have no protection". It is not unusual to hear women beggars and those who wander the streets with mental problems tell stories of their past work as domestic workers.

When domestic workers do receive medical benefits from their employer, the employer considers that she is doing the maid a favor, or paying her "in kind". Thus, the right to health care is converted into one more tool which is used to reinforce the dependency of domestic workers on their employers.

The research-action project undertaken to challenge this system used participatory methodology to study and support the struggle of women domestic workers who were trying to gain the right to social security. The organizing experience followed neither a paradigm of "top down" or "bottom up" organizing, but rather followed a middle route and was supported by feminist ideology.

a brief history of the struggle

The first time social security for domestic workers was publicly discussed was in 1977, when a group of maids demonstrated in the streets and parks of Bogota, outside of an academic meeting. Their demonstration didn't make much news. It wasn't until 1983, in fact, during the National Meeting of Domestic Workers, that the issue was again discussed.⁶ That same year, for the first time, domestic workers were included in the country's social security system. This provision passed unnoticed, however, and the government entity responsible for enforcing it tried to conceal it. This explains why workers didn't discover their rights, nor employers their obligations, and why the State failed to sanction non-compliance by employers.

About this time, officials of the Institute of Social Security, who regularly assisted workers with health problems, "discovered" the law and applied pressure privately for compliance with it. This had no effect whatever. It was at this point that a campaign to revive the law was begun, to make the government, the public and the unions aware of it.

On May 1, 1985, to celebrate Labor Day, a meeting was organized in Bogota by the Project and the domestic workers union⁷ for the purpose of discussing health conditions, disseminating information about the existing laws and stimulating collective action to press for enforcement of them. Participants in the meeting decided to exercise pressure by carrying out a public rally on August 25 of the same year. For the first time in the history of the country, more than 200 domestic workers met in a public space. For the first time, also, news of the demonstration was covered on television and in a newspaper with wide national circulation.

The rally became a street party. In the midst of music, dance and food, workers' rights were enunciated with enthusiasm and emotion. Workers spontaneously spoke by microphone telling their thoughts and individual experiences, and their collective demands. Union representatives spread the word about the legislation and the Project disseminated information about its limited and discriminatory character. One enthusiastic participant proposed to continue the campaign by bringing the women's demands before the President of the Republic through a demonstration in Bolivar Plaza (the political center of the country). The Project accepted the challenge to support the audacious initiative with three strategies: 1. coordination of public education committees which had been formed during the rally; 2. campaigns for public support; and 3. formulation of demands together with union leaders.

The event took place on Sunday, October 27, 1985 with ample participation by domestic workers, even though the weather was poor. A letter to the President denouncing health conditions of domestic workers and the non-compliance of the state and employers with existing social security laws was presented. The letter also demanded that the necessary regulations to enforce compliance with the law be enacted. Leaders made informal speeches, the Project explained its role and the union became known.

The political situation of the country was a special one at that time. The government of President Betancur, which had called itself the government of "Democratic Expansion" and which had opened a space for popular participation, had entered into its final phase amidst unpopularity. The government decreed a "social year" to recuperate ground lost to public opinion and to finish its term on a better note. Thus, the political situation pointed to success. Nevertheless, the response of the state was silence. The public was initially surprised by the demands and within the union, only a superficial enthusiasm was generated. The union had acquired more visibility, however, both publicly and among its own membership.

In 1985, the Project was ready to be initiated in various neighborhoods of Bogota. Small "base groups" were formed to discuss labor laws and to permit domestic workers to meet socially and share their experiences. This approach was replicated throughout other regions. Small mobilization and organization efforts began from these base groups, and, as they grew, the need for inter-regional communication also grew.

The city of Baranquilla serves as an example of the local advances that were made. In this city, in November, 1986, a base group carried out a "March of the Aprons" for the right to social security and vacations. The event brought together 180 domestic workers who marched through the central streets of the city, then met in a park. Given the parochial nature of the city and the social invisibility of domestic workers, the march, which was widely covered in the news media, represented a veritable bombshell. Furthermore, preparing for the march, carrying it out and following it up were fundamental for the group's integration. The result was a sense of cohesion and the emergence of group leaders.

The Project continued with the campaign. During 1986 it worked behind closed doors on a program of basic training and educational activities⁸. When health conditions were discussed, Project participants learned that laws existed but not the political will to implement them. This was the culture in which the fight for social security was to continue.

In August, 1986, the national government changed. With the new president, the politics of "Democratic Expansion" changed to the politics of the "Struggle Against Absolute Poverty", and within this new context the 1987 campaign was launched.

In Bogota, the Project did not continue working with the committees which had worked on the 1985 demonstration, nor did it work to guide the awakening grassroots movement; these activities were considered to be the union's work. Unfortunately, the union did not take up the task and the relationship between the union and the Project came to a standstill⁹.

In April, 1987, however, the Project sponsored two events which were of singular importance for the advancement of the campaign's objectives: the National Colloquium and the March of April 5. The National Colloquium was organized as a response to the request from the small base groups which had been working with the Project for interregional communication and sought to facilitate the sharing of experiences among different groups throughout the country. Using a participatory methodology, participants discussed their lives as women, as domestic workers and as agents of change¹⁰. Other regional groups not linked to the Project attended along with union representatives and workers from government-run employment programs.

The event gave participants the opportunity to inform themselves about the national situation, the advances and setbacks in their organizing and the different types of discrimination they experienced. Also the women were able to join forces, formulate collective demands and form bonds of friendship. The Colloquium stood out as a significant motivating event for the regional groups of the Project, and the commitment generated there was later reflected in their work.

On April 5, the groups that had attended the Colloquium joined in a march for social security in Bogota, organized by the Project and sponsored by the domestic workers of Bogota, who later formed a "Committee of Home Workers". The march was a new strategy to pressure the administration, which, in its first days, had announced that within its "Fight Against Absolute Poverty Program" social security coverage for domestic workers would be created. This announcement, although important, suffered from legal inconsistencies which actually hurt the interests of the workers. The Project took on the task of revealing these inconsistencies to the government, the public and the base groups. Discussions between the State, the Committee of Housewives and grassroots groups centered on the fact that social security already existed and the government could not thereby announce that it was going to create it. What was needed, and demanded, was the political will of the government to comply with and enforce the existing law.

The public education committees, which had been formed during the 1985 demonstration, in addition to carrying out activities similar to those of that demonstration, undertook greater responsibility and leadership¹¹ and in this way the preparation for the April 5 march helped to consolidate the base groups.

The march went through the central streets of the city and once again ended in Bolivar Plaza. This time too, a letter to the new President of the Republic was signed. The letter said: "We are united, not to ask for favors, but to demand our rights and to inform you that we will persist in the search for solutions to our problems"¹². The coverage of the event in the news media was enormous (11 radio programs, the two principal Bogota newspapers and other minor ones, the regional press, and two notices on television).

The State did not accept the challenge to speak directly with the union. The Project thus took the initiative to pressure officials who were actually in charge of developing social security policies. Three months after the march, the government announced that among the projects it was going to present to the legislature was a reform package to make social security viable for domestic workers.

The Committee of Housewives continued to meet. Attendance during planning and organization sessions of the Committee reflected the discipline and commitment of its members. Participants learned to cooperate and gained self confidence by expressing their opinions. Nevertheless, the Committee's efforts did not generate large numbers of participants in the event. The Committee had wanted to see the whole membership in the street. It was necessary to discuss the difficulties of mobilizing domestic workers, and in this way help the Committee understand the complexity of collective action and its growing responsibility as a leader.

Regional representation at the march helped to strengthen the national campaign, because when the groups went home, they continued to work on the grassroots level in their own communities¹³. The theme of the march, "Domestic workers are also Colombia", while meant to denounce the discrimination suffered by domestic workers, also had a positive message. It meant that "we are also citizens", "we are also human beings", "we are also workers of this country" and "we also have rights and obligations".¹⁴

The State responded. The Minister of Labor proposed a bill to Congress. After a difficult journey through the legislative branch, and after six months of work, the bill became a Law of the Republic. One more time, during this process, a dynamic lobbying campaign was carried out with the participation of the Bogota Committee and the groups from the other cities.

No doubt the government's presentation of the bill was a direct result of the pressures exercised by the union and supported by the Project since 1985 through demonstrations, marches and other activities, such as making and selling calendars and Christmas cards, carrying out press campaigns, writing letters to members of Congress, etc. All of these efforts together made success ultimately possible.

questions for the future

The year 1988 began with the legislative project approved, public opinion mobilized and the Committee in Bogota proud of its victory. Although the Committee's structure is weak, it is determined not to lose ground. Regional groups continue moving forward as well and at the end of 1987 and beginning of 1988 carried out "Regional Colloquia" to stimulate their work.

Nevertheless, on the legal level the triumph is not complete. Rules and regulations must be enacted to enforce the law and political will must be stimulated to implement it. We must ask ourselves if this new legal instrument is going to become obsolete because of non-compliance as happened with the law enacted in 1977.

Public opinion can be a dynamic factor for changes in attitudes and behavior to prevent the law's failure. More importantly, the union, although weak, can also be a strong factor in the short and medium term to bring the legal victory to a practical level.

Other questions remain: What will happen as a result of the conflicts which exist within the base groups? On the one hand these groups depend on the Project, but on the other, they are acting independently as new social actors. What conditions and strategies are required for this contradiction to be resolved in favor of building solid organizations?

Dynamic organizing efforts continue today and reflect the everyday experiences of individuals. As long as these efforts emphasize grassroots participation they will continue to represent and promote the interests of the domestic workers.

• Women's Organisations
• Latin America
• Women's Movement
• Economic Crisis
• Revolution
• Nicaragua
• AMNLAE (Asociacion de Mujeres* Nicaraguenses Luis Amanda Espinosa)
• ATC (Asociation de Trabajadores del Campo)

Ana Criquillon and Olga Maria Espinosa¹

In recognition of March 8th, International Women's Day, we want to salute the effort to build our Nicaraguan women's movement, AMNLAE (Asociacion de Mujeres Nicaraguenses Luis Amanda Espinosa), and pause to share the lessons we learned from both our setbacks and our successes.

On the occasion of the II National Assembly of Agricultural Workers, Commandante Victor Tirado told us that we were starting something that is, perhaps, not yet apparent, not fully visualized. The truth is that despite our capacity to make theoretical contributions to the revolution... helping to build our developing socialism, we ought to realize that our work as women is often guided by pure intuition. There is a need to develop an historic memory of the road we have traveled and reflect more on our work to better define our strategies and course of action for the future.

Keeping this in mind, in light of the last five years of organizing women in the Asociacion de Trabajadores del Campo (ATC), our principle gain may be to have integrated concepts that are usually thought of separately: economic production/female reproduction, economics/ideology, private life/public life, and class struggle/women's emancipation.

ideology and work will guide the course of the revolution

Noting the economic growth produced by the Revolution, our goal is to continue increasing productivity. To achieve this will require more than just physical effort, since we have already reached the limit of our strength. We are searching for new ways to increase our productive potential and to assume the lead in the workers' response to the economic crisis and aggression.

We women are interested, perhaps more than anyone, in improving the organization of work. We are aware that the double day limits our individual productivity. Instead of accepting this limitation as a natural incontrovertible fact and resigning ourselves to being less productive, or even asking for lower production goals, we began to redistribute household tasks. We organized collective daycare services and fought for a basic social infrastructure (running water, laundries, collective corn mills, prepared foods and eating places, etc.) to relieve the domestic workload and have it shared by all family members. In this way we integrated family work with economic work. Better social organization of the first affords us greater productivity in the second.

At the same time, raising productivity is the best way to cultivate happiness within our relationships and our family. Our needs as workers are not limited to vital ones like housing, decent wages, education and health. We also need affection, eroticism, personal relationships, solidarity and mutual respect among couples and their children, and much more. By linking the private sphere to the public, and production to policy, we can integrate all aspects of daily life. The gains of one sex are not exclusive but are related to the overall aims of the Revolution.

both men and women must defend the revolution

Unity among groups or social sectors is possible when all are aware of the common objective and when existing conflicts are appropriately handled. The first issue we had to address was the inequality of rights and opportunities between men and women— inequality in the home, in the workplace and in political organizations. It was not enough to just recognize our subordination as women and the chauvinism of many of our companions. We had to objectively study the causes of our situation, and determine how to overcome it. In doing this analysis, we asked ourselves about issues that we had never dealt with before as members of a labor union. Women and men developed a more self-critical awareness and greater sensitivity to women's oppression. The dreaded male-female confrontation that supposedly divides the class never occurred. To the contrary, we are beginning to overcome the true division that existed as a result of customary inequality of the sexes. We promoted the participation of women in the formulation of basic labor demands and economic management, not just to add a specific point to the collective agreements or to be on the production councils, but to support the collective effort. We believe that labor production and the unions still bear a heavy male stamp, since they have historically been the domains of men. We do note, however, the presence of more women in organizations and in labor unions, and hope to transform both through a greater representation of women.

Among our achievements was that of doing away with the concept of "women's work" and overcoming social divisions by gender. We also strengthened the role of the union. It no longer plays the traditional role it held in the last century and early part of this one. It also assumes defense tasks, supply tasks, adult education, health care, and influences the management of the country. By connecting personal life to union life, the union plays a broader and more decisive role in the construction of the new society.

we have confidence in our revolution

To discuss the obstacles to the greater incorporation of women in the revolutionary process is not to admit that we are the weaker sex, but simply to describe the challenges that still face us. The way we present the problems is what counts. If we really consider ourselves to be part of the working class, the fundamental base of the Revolution, then to whom are we to direct our problems, if not to ourselves? When we complain that we feel discriminated against, abandoned by the Revolution, victimized by men, we forget that we also have to struggle against our own behavior which perpetuates such treatment. We take an important step when we rely on ourselves and recognize our own successes and failures, and in such a way earn (not ask for) our place in the Revolution. We should be assertive and creative and consider our participation to be as constructive as that of men.

the role of AMNLAE as a women's movement

These years of revolution have taught us that the "popular" individual is a heterogeneous one. Every person participates in a series of diverse social relationships which are based on multiple characteristics (religion, ethnicity, gender, age, etc.). We cannot suppose that one single characteristic determines the make-up of the individual or a political action.

Thus, there is no one unique and exclusive model for the whole population. That is why the Revolution emphasizes the importance of democracy and pluralism for social harmony. We believe that correct politics requires a global vision which includes the inter-relationships of different social actors and the articulation of their interests.

the movement's central task

In order to integrate all women into the revolutionary process, AMNLAE's main task is to link women to the other forums of popular power and to promote their interaction. For example, women join the labor movement to the degree that the labor movement responds to their particular interests. At the same time, women's active participation contributes to strengthening the organization and allows women to confront their own limitations and those imposed upon them by the union.

Eliminating women's subordination becomes both a necessary condition and a result of women's participation in the Revolution. The saying that the best way to struggle for women's emancipation is to struggle for the defense of the Revolution, is only a half-truth, however. For when the time came to put this saying into practice, women's participation was stagnant, as happened in the first years of the Revolution.

Just as it is not the sole responsibility of the Women's Secretariat of the ATC to integrate women into union life, it is not the exclusive task of AMNLAE to integrate women into the revolutionary process. Nevertheless, it is a specific task of the women's movement to encourage women's participation in all of these processes.

the strategy

There is no women's concern that is not relevant to any other sector of society. Even "personal" problems such as physical abuse, rape, family planning, abortion, prostitution and paternal desertion are problems that can be dealt with among the Sandinista Defense Committees, for example.

In fact, such problems require a community solution. The Institute of Welfare and Social Security, the Office of Women's Legal Affairs, the Ministry of Health (MINSA), and the Sandinista Police are all involved in finding solutions to these problems. But the role of the women's movement in such areas is critical because the neighborhood and the home are the traditional domains of women. AMNLAE's function is not to compete with the Sandinista Defense Committees but to broaden involvement in these affairs. In general, we believe that the political and ideological work of the women's movement should extend to all sectors. This leads us to mobilize women within each organization to strengthen all organizations. At the same time, we have to ensure that the values, the needs and the interests of women are not sacrificed to other priorities. This means that we have to raise women's demands to a strong position. Our experience in the ATC shows that it is not enough to have a special committee at the directorial level. The women members themselves have to be active in solving their own problems.

It is important in this process that women have a place to freely discuss certain topics without male censure. Women's meetings allow them to think about their subordination, to speak out, to articulate needs and demands, and to develop new values.

The aim of this massive political and ideological work is to increase the number of women in positions of authority who are conscious of both their class and gender interests. A gradual process of integrating women will guarantee the equality of the sexes within the exercise of popular power and internal democracy.