Virginia Vargas Valente¹

Women's presence on the Latin American social stage is a growing phenomenon of recent years. Numerous studies analyzing this phenomenon's theoretical and political significance and its historical context have been carried out; most of these studies place this growing participation of women within the context of what have been called the "new social movements".

There is a consensus among different researchers and analysts about the importance and significance of women's social movements, and, in general, of the new social movements. The mere existence of these movements, which represent social groups that traditionally have been excluded from political discourse and action, profoundly challenge the premises on which society is based. The women's movement, together with other new social movements, has contributed to the breakdown of old political and social paradigms and revealed the complexity of the social dynamic. It has demonstrated that social relations are multidimensional and hierarchical in character and has placed in debate themes that until now were not considered to be legitimate themes for reflection and political action. This is particularly true of issues related to women's everyday lives. In short, the movement has generated new forms of collective action and consolidated new social groups which are undertaking new ways of doing politics.

In this process, the social movements broaden the traditional political arena and question the monopoly of political parties on "doing politics" (Vargas, 1986). For these reasons, they are considered to be movements which portend a new social order (Evers, Jellin, among others), one which is not predetermined, but which grows out of the everyday lives of a multitude of social subjects.

The growth and consolidation of the women's movement in Latin America, within the context of both authoritarian and democratic regimes, has influenced not only modernization processes, but also the growth of educational opportunities for women, the provision of public services, the growing entrance of women into labor markets (in spite of discrimination), the sharpening of social and political contradictions, and most recently, the profound economic crisis which is occurring in the region. Some authors believe that the crisis is not only economic, but also moral, political and cultural in nature. Although the crisis has contributed to the growth of women's organizations around subsistence issues, it did not start this process but rather accelerated it.

While the economic crisis has impelled new and creative forms of action by women, it has also placed enormous limits on their actions, by generating double and triple workloads which many times prevent women from taking advantage of other opportunities for personal development. Nevertheless, this search for immediate solutions to confront the crisis has permitted women to break out of their domestic isolation, particularly in urban areas, and to establish new types of relationships and solidarity within families and with other women (De Barbieri, Oliveira, 1986). The crisis has also caused women to question the real basis of the roles of "male provider", and "female housewife", and has, thus, diminished the likelihood that the traditional family model will continue to be reproduced (Serrano, 1987). All of this has generated personal and collective changes which began because of material need but result in the fulfillment of other needs associated with a search for a social-cultural identity (Doimo, 1986).

This situation has resulted in the formation of a specific type of organization among the poor, one which is one of the most visible and, until now, most permanent expressions of the women's movement in numerous countries of Latin America: women's subsistence organizations. Many case studies of these organizations have been carried out analyzing their effects on lives and on awareness of gender. These studies show how the organizations have, in many cases, gone beyond the original purpose for which they were created and enabled women not only to respond with solidarity to the most urgent problems of subsistence, but to question their own subordination and to engage in democratic actions of solidarity which have given them a real presence and importance in public life.

But while this manifestation of the women's movement has attracted the most attention and analysis, the movement is much broader. Other forms of organization exist in addition to subsistence organizations and the organized feminist movement. These include organizations of poor women working together on problems as fundamental as health, housing, violence; women in unions who are making collective demands as workers; peasant women beginning to organize themselves within rural federations; domestic workers fighting for their rights through unions and associations; women in political parties who question the role of women in such organizations; and women struggling around human rights issues.

Many analysts have pointed out that one of the characteristics of social movements is that they are not phenomena that end, with defined characteristics, but rather are processes which are modified as they come into contact with everyday life and confront the public and the State, and which generate new social practices as they define and redefine themselves (Cardoso, 1986).

All of this gives the women's movement one of its fundamental characteristics, which is its great heterogeneity. The movement is nourished from many sources, expressed in different forms, and makes different demands and claims, at times contradictory, at times spontaneous, but always directed. It combines objectives which range from family protection to longer term objectives of ending women's subordination, and which result in diverse forms of mobilization and action through which women forge a sexual identity.

One of the most interesting aspects of the discussion in Latin America at this moment is how a gender identity can be derived from within this heterogeneous women's movement. One of the most important contributions to the debate on this issue continues to be that of Julieta Kirkwood who, when talking about women's politics, begins by talking about social practices women have designed to confront the particular form of power exercised over women. This viewpoint needs enriching, modifying and categorizing to identify the specifics of this process. One of the difficulties of doing this, however, noted by Cardoso, Caldeira, and Vargas, among others, is developing the proper use of analytical categories, because of the difficulty in bypassing traditional categories used by the social sciences. These categories are usually very rigid, and tend to value social movements from a single and homogeneous viewpoint and not from the real dynamic of social practices (Vargas, 1987).

Thus, although the heterogeneity of the women's movement is recognized, it is the homogeneity of the movement that is valued together with its similarities to other types of struggles. The effects of actions and demonstrations carried out by the women's movement, for example, are analyzed more in quantitative than qualitative terms, that is, they are evaluated in terms of their contribution to the transformation of society, their direct questioning of economic systems, their direct confrontation with the State, rather than in terms of what appears to be their real contribution: what Guattari calls their "rupture of existing and dominant controls". In other words, although the impact of the women's movement on the outside is analyzed, the everyday, personal changes it causes is not, even though these types of changes are at times profoundly social because they imply new forms of relationship.

A perspective which tries to take women's reality into consideration, however, also presents difficulties if it tries to simplify the issue of gender. It is fundamental to address gender in all of its complexity in order to understand the heterogeneity of the women's movement and the differences among women from different classes, races, regions, and cultures. The risk of transforming women into an abstraction, or of disconnecting women from their concrete social circumstances must be avoided. A woman's gender identity reflects the multidimensionality of the oppression she confronts in specific situations in everyday life as an individual and as part of a group. This oppression comes from a life history anchored in a marginal way of life which includes other types of oppression and discrimination, based on class, race, age or region, that begin to acquire their real significance when considered together with the common expression of sexual oppression.

Thinking about the gender identity of Latin American women requires returning to the conquest and colonization and, specifically, to the subordination of the peasant woman, the slavery of black women, the historical isolation of middle class women, the effects of a century of capitalism, the effects of other crises in the life of women, and the historical weight of the traditional church. All of these experiences leave marks on the bodies and minds of this heterogeneous group of women.

From this perspective, one of the aspects of women's reality which has been systematically obscured in the analysis of women's social movements is that of racial subordination (to the same degree that many analyses have ignored gender-based oppression). Racism, like sexism, originates with biological differences (sex, skin color) which are assumed to represent social inequality, and which thus support the ideology of domination in our continent. "There has been a failure make visible the connections between race and sex discrimination (Leila Gonzalez, 1988). The multiracial and pluri-cultural character of the societies of the region are often ignored, obscuring the history and presence of thousands of women. The silence which has been maintained about this aspect of our reality constitutes a form of "racism by omission", a "de-coloring" or "de-racializing" of the women's movement.

One of the focuses of discussion about the women's movement in Latin America is that of its relationship to the State. Numerous analyses have shown the political content of the women's movement, whether it be to politicize and give public meaning to the traditional female role (mothers fighting for human rights, such as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo; housewives organized around subsistence issues) or to participate in struggles and mobilize around specific issues. These analyses point out two fundamental aspects of social movements—to produce different ideas and values about political life and to transform everyday life (Caldeira). Many authors also recognize that one of the characteristics of social movements is their tendency to confront the public directly rather than mediate through other political institutions or organizations. This is done in order to preserve the movements' force, novelty and autonomy.

Although these are valid descriptions in general, in practice, the relationship of the women's movement to politics is more complex. On the one hand, the autonomy of the women's movement is one of its most important characteristics and achievements, enabling the movement to confront the issue of oppression. Nevertheless, gaining autonomy is not a linear process; an organization can be institutionally but not ideologically autonomous and vice versa. It can have a creative autonomy, which gives it capacity for pressuring and negotiating for movement demands, but it also can have a defensive autonomy which fears confrontation with the public or which has a tendency to stifle different ways of thinking and to lead to an authoritarian homogeneity and conformism.

But on the other hand, many leaders in the women's movement are at the same time militants of political parties or members of a church. Many times these women are manipulated in order to influence the dynamic of the women's movement. Other women struggle to avoid being manipulated by parties in general and by their own political parties as well. Many individuals within the movement are mobilized to confront local power, to bring petitions to Congress, and to make demands of the government, all of which appear to be part of the function of the movement. And in fact, in many countries, governments have begun to implement programs designed to promote the equality of women and have invited the movement to participate. Confronted with these governmental initiatives, one of the most analyzed issues is the extent of risk which this participation entails, because of the danger that the movement and individuals will be co-opted and their fundamental demands changed (E. Souza Lobos, 1985).

Without overlooking the risks which these relationships entail, it is important to remember that social movements are not only objects, capable of being coopted, but are also dynamic subjects, with a set of concrete demands. As Evers points out, social movements confront the dilemma of either achieving some power within society while remaining subordinate, or of maintaining an autonomous identity at the price of remaining powerless. While the State has the capacity to give visibility to the demands of the women's movement, to promote them throughout society, and to contribute to the change of perceptions about women's status, it does not offer utopia. That is to say, government policies dealing with women, while important, cannot meet all of women's long-term demands, needs and proposals (nor, in many instances, the short term ones, given the character of the State in Latin America), because the realization of these demands would require a profound and irreversible transformation of society. Nevertheless, pressuring the State, political parties, institutions, and the Church for measures favoring equality is a fundamental part of a strategy which takes place within the struggle against subordination.

Finally, within the diversity of the women's movement it is important to understand the particular dynamics and demands of the feminist movement.

The feminist movement is an expression of the women's movement which makes the elimination of sexual hierarchies its fundamental objective. It is clear that during the past ten years or so of its existence, feminism has heightened the visibility of the women's movement, by highlighting women's contributions and publicizing their demands. Women's spaces, small action and reflection groups, workshops, meetings, seminars, and local, national and regional campaigns have provided opportunities for affirmation and for the recognition of similarities and differences. They have also produced a new type of knowledge, incorporating the subjective and the everyday into the social, rescuing the individuality and uniqueness of women, and profoundly questioning social structures. Because of this questioning by the feminist movement, other groups that suffer discrimination because of their sexual preference, homosexuals and lesbians, have also begun to express their demands. Feminism in Latin America has clashed profoundly with social structures constructed to legitimize sex discrimination and to sustain oppression in society. Feminism has been a political process, with a profound subjective and personal content. Each one of its personal and collective achievements has come at the cost of serious internal clashes upon the shattering of norms learned from time immemorial. Personal and social silence, the image of the woman solely as mother, of sexuality as only reproductive, the denial of pleasure to women, and women's second-class consciousness have all been broken.

In spite of the undeniable contributions of the feminist movement, there are, nevertheless, as Julieta Kirkwood says, some obstacles which confront the feminist movement in its development and consolidation. Some have already been noted earlier since they are the same problems which confront the women's movement in general. Others refer to the relationship of the feminist movement to the rest of the women's movement. It has not been easy to maintain an equilibrium between the need for more immediate and visible achievements and the feminist proposal for subversion of traditional values over the long term. Rather, the movement has oscillated between the risk of becoming abstract or of being subsumed by immediate and urgent needs. Feminists have not always succeeded in elaborating a coherent discourse which reinterprets the life of women; the vision of the world which feminism is begun developing, that is to say, utopia, has not always translated easily into concrete demands.

Here, nevertheless, it is worth noting two other more specific problems of the feminist movement in Latin America which are related to its political character—the problem of growth and the problem of the distance between the political ideal and real practice.

With respect to the growth of the feminist movement, the fundamental questions that need to be asked are, who are we? and where are the feminists? Are we organized autonomously and permanently? In circles, collectives, or self-awareness groups? Initially, perhaps, it was fundamental that the movement grew in this way; a moment of "excision" (Gramscy) was necessary so that the movement could discover its identity and specific demands. Now that its autonomous space in society has been consolidated and its proposals clarified, however, the contents of the feminist struggle have been defined and broadened. The Fourth Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Meeting, held in Mexico in October, 1987, was perhaps the most visible example of this process: feminists from autonomous groups, feminists from political parties, from Christian base communities, from popular organizations and rural organizations, feminists from countries in a perpetual state of war (Central America), pacifist feminists, etc., were all present representing the different sources of Latin American feminism.

The meeting proved that the political strength of the movement is expressed in the diversity and number of organizations and areas in which women are questioning, demanding, proposing. The contribution of the organized feminist movement was to create this space, to open up the discussion, and to reveal the rationale of the "irrational" feminist movement. The result of all of this activity no longer belongs exclusively to the feminist movement. Every day more women contribute to the changes in their own situations, showing that there is more than one way to be a feminist and to construct a movement. The fundamental contribution of feminism is its capacity to elaborate multiple strategies to challenge traditional female roles. Some feminists seek to reinforce their actions by participating in consciousness-raising groups; others seek to do it by working on specific themes; others try to contribute to neighborhood and union feminism; others seek to intervene and/or pressure at the state level to achieve the elimination of the most evident patterns of subordination; still others try to change the form of women's participation in political parties. All of these activities are part of a movement which is greater than organizations; they are expressions of the complexity of the struggle of women in our continent.

The gap between political ideal and practice has provoked a series of myths about what we are and the contents of our proposals which make it enormously difficult to consolidate a coherent policy and long-term strategy.²

The challenge is not to deny these contradictions, which are inherent in our work, but to recognize and analyze them; how and in what circumstances do we reproduce a power which victimizes and manipulates?; do we use power rather to transform our subordination and contribute to a more democratic society?; how and in what circumstances does our work become rigid when it fails to take note of our differences and the richness of our diversity?; how and in what circumstances do we return to the "ghetto", developing practices of self complacency and losing sight of the revolutionary content of feminism, not only for women, but for all of society?; how does the meaning of the personal and subjective become arbitrary upon being confused with individual lifestyles and opinions?; how at times do we forget that we need all women, with our different opinions, races, classes, "to affirm our sex, to have strength"?

To conclude, the document from Taxco states:

"THE POWER OF ONE WOMAN IS THE POWER OF ALL WOMEN. Thus we reject the apparent security in feeling that we are all equal. We do not seek the reflection of equal to equal to confirm something that, in fact, is of no value. We endeavor end self-complacency, to end the conversation of victims.

We desire to do things, to create, to find power in relation to the desires of others. We do not deny conflicts, contradictions and differences. We are capable of establishing the rules of feminism, to make a pact among ourselves, which permits us to advance our own utopia of developing, extending and deepening feminism in Latin America".

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