WORU3

AFFAIRS
A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL PROBLEMS

Latin American Politics

and Society:
A Cultural Research Agenda
Contributors:
Eusebio Mujal-Leon
Mario Vargas Llosa
Enrique A. Baloyra
Daniel H. Levine
Asuncion Lavrin
Heraldo Muhoz
Roberto Gonzalez Echevam'a

Fall 1987 Volume 150 Number 2

Vol. 150, No. 2 Fall 1987
Women, the Family, and Social
Change in Latin America
By ASCUNCION LAVRIN
T he study of women and the family in
Latin American societies has been amply
cultivated in the past decade, yielding an im-
pressive crop of works that have con-
siderably enriched our knowledge of the
complexities of the role of women and
gender relations within and outside the
family, and in broader socio-economic con-
texts. Although we are still far from achiev-
ing a satisfactory level of knowledge in the
investigation and discussion of many of the
possible subjects of research, it is becoming
increasingly obvious that the role and status
of women in Latin America have experienced
a significant evolution in the second half of
the century. The awareness of this change
has triggered the investigations of the last
decade. Since the unfolding of all fields of
research cannot be chronicled in full detail in
this essay, I will survey three areas of in-
terest: the family, as an organic entity re-
flecting many personal and social issues, and
the role of women in labor and politics. Un-
der purview are not only those works dealing
with information about these subjects, but
also those conveying new interpretations of
their meaning in societies experiencing signi-
ficant social change.1
To a large extent, works on women and
the family have been spurred by an increased
interest in the problems of development, and
by the critique raised by female scholars that
most theoretical approaches to these topics
were male-centered and neglected to con-
sider the implications of social change for
women. Since the mid-1970s, the number of
women professionals has increased dramati-
cally, and gender has been a key element in
their analysis of the economic, social, politi-
cal, and cultural aspects of social change.
Given the fact that concern with develop-
109
ment gave the initial impetus to current Asuncion Lavrin is
research, it is not surprising that a preoc- associate professor of
history at Howard Univer-
cupation with economic themes and struc-
turalist analysis prevail in much of the
literature on women and the family. The
sity. She is the author of
numerous articles and
reviews about women's
history, including
most recent literature, however, underlines "Women in Spanish
the importance of cultural elements, such as America" in the Cam-
patriarchalism, as tools for the analysis of bridge History of Latin
America. She is also the
persistent socio-cultural patterns of gender co-author and co-editor of
subordination for women. Patriarchalism Latin American Women:
also provides the context within which the Historical Perspectives
(1978).
relations of power and authority between
men and women are defined. The ongoing
debate on issues of theoretical analysis,
although still in the process of resolution, is
perhaps one of the most important contribu-
tions to the study of women and the family.
THE FAMILY
Studies of the family prior to the 1960s
were relatively scarce. Historians were con-
cerned mostly with political institutions, and
there were not enough sociologists and an-
thropologists to bring the subject into
academic focus. A growing scholarly interest
in tracing the contours of social relations
among special ethnic groups and members of
the rural and urban poor has resulted in a
considerable body of material in the last
decade.2 Historians and social scientists have
developed two different perspectives in the
current investigations. Historians, assuming
a diachronic analysis, are intrigued by the
process of family formation, family net-
works, and the patterns of marriage estab-
lished during the colonial and post-indepen-
dence periods.3 Social scientists, on the other
hand, are especially concerned with the syn-
chronic definition of the nature and chang-
ing character of relations among family
members, and with the survival of the family
as an institution in the contemporary urban
and rural contexts.4 Their research focuses
110
on the poorer strata of society, while his-
torians are more concerned with notable or
elite families. Neither area of studies seems
at this point to be ready to shift foci to offer
histories of poorer families or inquiries into
contemporary elite families.5
One of the main reasons for the historian's
preferential treatment of the elites is the dif-
ficulty inherent in tracking the people who
owned no property and, therefore had no
concern for perpetuating interests, the two
factors that provide much of the data on
families in history. Documentation support-
ing marriage, such as dowries and wills, pur-
chase and sale, or litigation over property,
form the bases of current historical research.
These sources have already furnished signifi-
cant information on the economic and politi-
cal connections of families, and the mechan-
isms used to establish, strengthen, and trans-
mit them.6 Personal aspects of family forma-
tion and forms of bonding, such as marriage
and its historical patterns, the establishment
of gender role models, and the raising of
children, remain to be investigated more
fully. Only marriage is currently scrutinized
through quantitative analyses of marriage
patterns. The emphasis of these studies is on
the ethnic components of such patterns. Re-
sults so far have confirmed expected prefer-
ences for endogamic unions among the elites,
but researchers are still exploring and defin-
ing the main contours of social mobility
among non-elites. Ethnohistorians, looking
into the past of some indigenous groups, are
opening new vistas on the internal mechanics
of family and society, and the changes ex-
perienced in the processes of confrontation
and accommodation with Iberian civiliza-
tions.7 Since these approaches complement
each other, the future of family history looks
bright.
The new historical -research has already
challenged some of the traditional assump-
tions about the internal structure of the
Iberian family. It has been commonly ac-
cepted that the Latin family is a patriarchal
and hierarchial institution supported by
well-established legal and cultural founda-
tions.8 However, recent work with censual
data and parish baptismal records shows the
existence of female-headed households
parallel to the patriarchal family. This sub-
ject was neglected in most historical and
sociological literature until the last decade.9
The presence of such family patterns existed
World Affairs
in eighteenth century Lima as well as in nine-
teenth century Mexico and Brazil. This puts
into historical perspective a phenomenon
that had previously appeared as being a
twentieth century urban problem.10
The existence of this type of household
has been ascribed to changes in demographic
and economic patterns generated by the ex-
pansion of capitalism. However, the causes
are possibly more complex. We could look
back at the sixteenth century and see a pre-
capitalist new world in which the encounter
of several cultures produced important
cleavages in cultural concepts of family and
social order. New forms of familial and per-
sonal relationships developed in the fissures
created by the confrontation and eventual
adaptation of conquered and conqueror to
each other, creating important new contours
in the patriarchal system.11 Consensual un-
ions became a distinctive historic-cultural
pattern of male-female relationships stretch-
ing into the twentieth century, and defying
monogamous unions as a cultural superim-
position from the church, the state, and the
upper classes. Historians and social scientists
are now presented with a redefinition of
marriage, which may be seen as a status sym-
bol, as a gate to the formation of families. In
terms of typology, we can see that there has
been no such thing as a Latin family pattern.
There is no homogeneous institution with
just one orientation and one form of expres-
sion. Economic, ethnic, geographical, and
cultural factors lead to a variety of patterns
in the establishment of familial bonds in
Latin America, which remain to be fully ex-
plored in the research agenda of the future.12
Currently, family history is largely econ-
omic, perhaps as a response to the similarly
oriented research of the social sciences. The
interest in the family as a historical subject
was originally stimulated by studies on ha-
cienda and land-ownership in the 1960s.
They pointed to the vital role played by the
family in securing property and manipulat-
ing it to maintain social status, credit, and
connections with mercantile interests.13 Since
then, monographic studies seem to support
the assumption that one of the features of
colonial society, and colonialism in general,
has been the defense of privilege, wealth,
and status through the family. The key dif-
ference between the "haves" and the "have-
nots" was that the former were able to
establish successful mechanisms to preserve
Vol. 150, No. 2 Fall 1987
the attributes of their class through family
connections.14
Historians tell us that there was a discerni-
ble pattern of family behavior for the ac-
quisition and preservation of prestige and
power: marriage, compadrazgo, business
connections, control of local political posts,
etc., which operated even at non-elite levels.15
These "strategies" for survival and success
underwent a number of significant changes
throughout time, reflecting changes in the
economy, in the social composition, and in
the larger political organization of different
areas within Latin America. In the nine-
teenth century, credit, investment capital,
and politics were added to the formula of
power search and maintenance.16 Families
expanded credit ties, and their members fol-
lowed new professional careers to gain ac-
cess to the power conferred by technological
advances. They also found new forms of in-
vestments to meet the challenge of foreign
competition, and sought new talent beyond
their own circles through exogamic mar-
riages. However, the overpowering prepon-
derance of elite family networks in the socio-
economic life of Latin American nations
seems to be an ebbing social phenomena.
The few historians and political scientists
who have ventured into the analysis of
notable families networks in the twentieth
century agree that a multiplicity of eroding
factors have limited their preponderance in
national life, and that "interest-based
political organizations and increasing imper-
sonal bureaucratic structures presented
challenges that the families found more and
more difficult to dominate."
Studies of contemporary non-elite families
in the last decade have demonstrated that
they use bonding ties and survival strategies
in many ways similar to those used by the
elites, thus confirming the strength of the
cultural traditions supporting the institution
of the family, regardless of class. The func-
tions of the family—reproductive, nurtur-
ing, economic, and cultural—have been used
by sociologists and economists as departure
points to study family responds to the
challenges posed by socio-economic and
political exigencies. Such reactions may be
aggressive or defensive. The former seek to
change realities, or at least to manipulate
them to achieve objectives perceived as
beneficial to the family interests. The latter
are survival tactics adopted largely by poor
111
families under economic stress. In both in-
stances, the role of women as generators of
income for the family, whether rural or ur-
ban, is receiving increased attention as a fac-
tor of critical importance.18 Apart from the
economic significance of this situation, an
important social consequence is the chal-
lenge it poses to the traditional patriarchal
family in which authority is vested in the
man. Are women wage earners breaking
authority barriers within the families and
gaming a higher status vis-a-vis men, be they
fathers or husbands? The answer to this
question entails the evaluation of social and
personal attitudes, which in itself is a deli-
cate process requiring perhaps the metho-
dologies of several disciplines. Most sociolo-
gists have tentatively concluded that despite
having joined the work force, most women
retain a traditional gender relation with men
within the family.
Today, most of the women employed in
Latin America are young and single. Al-
though the decline in participation in the
labor market after marriage is not precipi-
tous, it is, nonetheless, quite significant.19
Whether single or married, women regard
their work as contributing to the family sur-
vival, but do not attempt to establish their
economic independence through it. Cultural
values of male predominance within the
family have for too long been reinforced by
education, by national development policies,
by the realities of unequal employment, and
by salary practices. Since only highly quali-
fied and exceptional women earn as much as
men in the same position, their lesser earning
power perpetuates their ancillary position as
wage-earners within the family.20 Nonethe-
less, subtle changes in attitudes and gender
role assumptions within the family are re-
sulting from women's employment, and
leading to an increased elasticity in the male-
female dialogue and a rise in the status and
authority of women. If, however, patterns
of female employment in less desirable occu-
pations persist, there may not be much mar-
gin to expect earth-shaking changes in the
power hierarchy of the family.
The discussion of the gender roles within
the family involves an exploration of the
ideology of male supremacy and female sub-
ordination. It is apparent that this subject
should be initially framed within the con-
fines of the family as the primary locus of
socialization. Other means of socialization,
112
such as education, should receive due con-
sideration in the future, since role models are
also generated and reinforced outside the
family. While some attention has been paid
to the influence of mass media in creating
and reinforcing gender roles, the analysis of
educational models has been neglected.21
Equally disregarded have been the defini-
tions of personal and social roles embodied
in civil, penal, and social legislation. The
law, as a double-edged expression of cultural
We need to go beyond the strictly economic
character of current family studies, to fully
assess all the obstacles now barring a large
number of women from a satisfactory personal
and social life.
and social assumptions, and as a tool for so-
cial control, has established very narrow
parameters for women as wives and moth-
ers, restricting their rights over their chil-
dren, and buttressing double standards of
morality.22 The fact that the legal equality of
wives within marriage is only a recent reality
in several countries of Latin America (Ar-
gentinian women received the right to share
patria potestad—the legal control of chil-
dren—only in 1985) suggests that more stud-
ies on the influence of the law in the social
options open to women and on shaping the
contours of family relations are relevant and
necessary.23 If we assume that female roles
are shaped within the family as part of the
education of children of both sexes, and are
later translated into practical forms of sub-
ordination in social life, we must understand
the nature of the cultural roots of gender
role models.24 In the early 1970s, the concept
of machismo, the undue stress of male
values and male roles in Latin American
societies, was widely discussed and identified
as a major cultural force behind behavioral
patterns which upheld the preeminence of
men in all aspects of decision-taking. To
amplify and complete the notion of mach-
ismo, Evelyn Stevens posited the existence of
marianismo, the idealization of female
values, which confer on women a special
form of authority within and outside the
home, not only avoiding a confrontation
with men, but establishing an understanding
World Affairs
of the boundaries of power of each sex.25
The acceptance of this value dyad strength-
ened traditional gender roles while diffusing
tensions in male-female relationships. Mari-
anismo and machismo have been accepted as
interpretive tools by most social scientists.
No attempts have been made to test their
validity among men and women of different
socio-cultural backgrounds, or to trace and
define their historical development. A reex-
amination of machismo and marianismo is a
timely agenda of research, especially since
neither of them should be identified as an
exclusively Latin American trait. Given the
fact that the term marianismo derives from
ecclesiastical imagery, it is also apparent that
the influence of religious values and the
church on the shaping of female gender roles
also need greater attention in the future.26 So
far, the connection between church, women,
and society has been largely explored in a
historical setting.27 It would be desirable to
extend this inquiry into the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries.
Other analysts of gender relations have
also seen the family as the natural locus of
socialization, and a fundamental structure in
the understanding of the ideological com-
ponents of social behavior.28 Assuming the
existence of a tradition of authoritarian
fathers and submissive mothers which con-
tributes to the continuity of female depen-
dent roles within the family, the significance
of that situation beyond the confines of the
home and its bearing on social behavior out-
side it becomes obvious. Politics, legislation,
education, and occupational patterns are af-
fected by whatever gender behavioral models
prevail in any given society. Women will ac-
cept less challenging careers, defer to men in
politics, or receive less education if they are
socialized to accept specific forms of behav-
ior believed to be appropriate to their sex.
Consequently, the promotion of social and
political change in Latin America could not
afford to exclude women from active partici-
pation if success is expected. Since effective
female social participation is predicated on
the anatomy and exercise of power within
the family, it is to that institution that we
must eventually return when the integration
of women in national or local change is
desired.
Susan Bourque and Kay Warren, working
among Peruvian Andean peasants to assess
the importance of cultural assumptions in
Vol. 150, No. 2 Fall 1987
the social daily interaction of men and
women and how they affected political pro-
grams and activities, also tied socioeconomic
to cultural factors. They observed that the
persistence of patterns of female sexual sub-
ordination—which deem women as depen-
dent and with a lesser social and personal
value than men—limited Peruvian peasant
women's participation in family and com-
munity activities. They also help to perpet-
uate stereotypes of the female sex as suffer-
ing and self-sacrificing, reducing their own
self-esteem.29
The unchallenged acceptance of such val-
ues casts a negative light on the perception of
women as potential agents of social transfor-
mation, and contributes to neglecting their
potential contribution to development pro-
grams. Although it is difficult to gauge the
intensity and extension of such individual
and social perceptions, there is no question
about their reality throughout Latin Amer-
ica, confirmed by the candid testimonial of
women themselves.30 Sensitivity to these
issues is developing, but perhaps not fast
enough to forecast any dramatic changes in
gender roles in the near future. The far-
reaching implications of the process of gen-
der role definition within the family support
the argument that we need to go beyond the
strictly economic character of current family
studies, to fully assess all the obstacles now
barring a large number of women from a sat-
isfactory personal and social life.31
The multiple demographic and economic
changes taking place in Latin America in the
last twenty years have spewed a number of
studies on the size and composition of the
family. Studies of fertility in the last decade
form a basis to measure the more physical
aspects of family structure and are encom-
passed within the boundaries of biological
anthropology.32 Of great relevance for the
social scientist assessing the impact of social
change on the family are the few studies
available on population policies.33 They are
posing new questions on abortion, family
planning, and the attitudes of governments
and different strata of society on the
management of population and economic
growth. This is an area of great relevance
and promise, insofar as it ties physical,
economic, political, and cultural issues to
the study of women and the family. Future
research attention to such issues may even
113
include a historical angle, about which we
know very little.
The fast pace of urbanization has trig-
gered new patterns of rural-urban migration
that bear direct relationship with changes in
the size and internal structure of the family.
While the nuclear family seems to remain the
predominant type, the extended and mixed
types have by no means disappeared from
either city or countryside. Furthermore, nu-
clear families, whether in the urban or the
rural settings, seem to rely on extensive fam-
ily connections that allow them to survive
straining economic pressures. Tying the
process of geographical and economic shifts
to their expected corollaries, social mobility,
and social stratification poses an arduous
task to sociologists and anthropologists
alike, and no clear pattern is discernible for
the area as a whole.34 The continuity of the
process of urbanization insures a state of
fluidity in the texture of the family which
makes any predictions difficult. Much de-
pends on the economic potential for growth
and development of each individual nation.
As such, the desirability of studies on family
composition, occupational categories of its
members, social and geographical mobility,
patterns of reproduction, and forms of so-
cialization will not diminish in the foresee-
able future, insofar as the future of the cities
and the economies are difficult to predict,
and will trigger concomitant adaptations in
the structure of families. A full assessment
of the institution of the family today, how-
ever, will be difficult without a more fully
developed knowledge of its contours in the
past. Historical demography is breaking
ground in Latin America, but it has not
focused clearly on family structure. This
area of study has important contributions to
make in the future.
In a special category in the research
agenda are women heads of households.
Whether they are consensual partners, wi-
dows, or divorcees, their numbers merit spe-
cial consideration. In six Latin American cit-
ies, urban households headed by women
ranged between 18 and 22 percent of the
total heads of household, and have been on
the increase since 1970. Among the lower in-
come population, the percentage of female-
headed households could rise to 37 percent
of the total.35 Their lesser economic earning
power condemns this group of women and
their families to a socio-economic marginal-
114 World Affairs

ization that weak welfare state services are rent in Latin America, namely, Marxist and
unable to ameliorate. This household cate- capitalist dependency, with a few studies ex-
gory needs to be further explored, given its ploring the issues of sexism among workers
long historical roots and frequent incidence and employers alike. At the center of the
in the urban areas, and the fact that it forms debate is the nature of women's economic
the core of underemployed and/or cheap role in society and whether development—
labor sustaining many services in Latin mostly represented as industrialization—has
American cities. There are important ques- affected women's labor negatively or
tions to be raised about the female-headed positively.
household, such as ethnicity, self- and social The majority of the studies have opted for
perception, bonding networks, and social either the Marxist formula or revised ver-
mobility. Household is a demographic con- sions of Marxist analysis. All agree that
cept which masks problems in the integra- female labor and laborers have been ex-
tion and disintegration of families, and sug- ploited, marginalized, or both, whether by
gests the need to learn more about these national or international capitalists. One of
mechanisms. Female-headed households the basic concepts in either theoretical ap-
point to dysfunctions in the patriarchal sys- proach is that women's role is both produc-
tem in need of further attention. tive and reproductive. Women are producers
either as wage-earners or as home workers,
WOMEN, LABOR AND THE ECONOMY in which roles their labor may be temporary
Historians of labor in Latin America have or permanent, unpaid or poorly remuner-
been mostly attracted to the struggles of ated. Whether their contribution is recog-
labor unions and male workers. Although nized or ignored is a relevant issue, since
the most recent literature on the subject has recognition or lack thereof affects their op-
a broader perspective, it is still largely the portunities of employment, their wages, and
history of men. This intellectural androcen- ultimately the level of poverty or well-being
trism is just beginning to be superseded. A of the family, the region, and the nation.
small body of research has begun to outline The reproductive role played by women is
the historical patterns of female work and its regarded as essential in the recreation of the
significance in the development of Latin labor force, and in what these theoreticians
America.36 The notion that the role of see as the perpetuation of social values and
women in the economy was of significance structures. Some studies posit that exploita-
for social and economic planning resulted tion takes place when both the reproductive
from the concern with poverty and economic and the productive labor of women being
development of the late 1960s. The essential to the economy is taken for
UNESCO Decade of Women, beginning in granted, and they do not receive a just per-
1975, also contributed to generating discus- sonal and social retribution for either. Most
sion, research, publication of new sources of contemporary economic and sociological
information on women in the labor force, analyses of women's labor in Latin America
and their role in the process of socio-eco- blame capitalism and dependency for the
nomic change. As a consequence, the social creation of such a situation.
perception of women as a non-productive It is also argued that capitalism has con-
or, at best, a marginal factor in the national tributed to displacing home or family-
production index is now becoming obsolete. centered economies with market-oriented
It is significant that the majority of the ones, in which wages are the only index of
works so far produced have been authored value.37 This process began with the incor-
by Latin American women themselves in an poration of women into the labor force.
extraordinary display of self-analysis. Classic Marxist theory posits that women in
The new literature is mostly economic and pre-industrial and predominantly agricul-
sociological in character, and seeks to find tural societies were an intrinsic part of the
theoretical models to inform policymakers, labor force, whether in the field or at home.
educators, politicians, and intellectuals on As societies industrialized under capitalism,
the situation of women, especially those of women's agricultural or home artisanal
the poorer strata of society. These studies work lost its value, and they were forced to
have used the intellectual premises of the join the industrial labor market as cheap
main theories of economic development cur- labor. However, they were, in essence, a
Vol. 150, No. 2 Fall 1987
reserve labor force that was used only when
needed, and discarded once industry became
more intensely technological. The example
of the high use and later decline of female
labor in the majority of the textile industries
in Latin America is often quoted as support-
ing this theory.38 A refined version of this in-
terpretation argues that women's participa-
tion in the labor force follows the shape of a
"U," where their high initial share declines
as industrial work becomes more technical.
After reaching a low point of participation,
women's labor slowly grows in other econ-
omic sectors.39 The strictly Marxist interpre-
tation has been questioned by other re-
searchers who claim that it does not take into
consideration qualitative changes in the
work of women, especially the changes in
sectoral occupation. Thus, women's labor
does not decline, but simply shifts to non-in-
dustrial work.40
The latter argument is supported by data
on the changes experienced in the contours
of the female labor force in the twentieth
century. One of the most important has been
the continuous expansion and the changing
character of women's work within the serv-
ice sector. This sector comprises a variety of
disparate occupations, such as domestic serv-
ice, social work, technical work, and bureau-
cratic employment. In 1970, over sixty per-
cent of all women employed in Latin Amer-
ica were in the service sector. Although do-
mestic work still employs nearly half of the
women in this sector, the growth of other
forms of service has altered its nature signifi-
cantly. As of today, women have displaced
men in the sector as a whole, as well as in the
technical category. Since "all major advance
countries . . . are experiencing a major shift
towards a service economy . . ," the preemi-
nence of women is a fact that cannot remain
ignored by scholars or by decisionmakers in
the area.41
Is this a positive or a negative trend? A
growing concern among women since the
1970s on the impact of development pro-
grams on women and families has elicited
many critical comments. The most impor-
tant is that they have relied on traditional
assumptions about the patriarchal character
of Latin American societies that precluded
any consideration of the special role played
by women within their families and their
communities. Chaney and Schmink, for ex-
ample, have argued that women have had
115
limited access to the tools of modern
technology (requiring training or education)
and have remained confined to the tertiary
sector of the economy and to lesser paid
jobs. They believed that the so-called mo-
dernization process did not necessarily mean
that women's status improved; quite the
contrary, due to their exclusion from the
sophisticated technological tools, women
have been marginalized in the schemes.42
The analysis of female work within the
context of industrialization and development
has so far rendered important reassessments.
The consensus is that industrialization in
Latin America has been uneven, and has
displaced neither traditional artisanal
manufacture nor the work of rural women.
Home industries, truck-gardening, and the
raising of animals, in addition to part-time
or temporal employment, are strategies used
by women to bring critical income to the
family. In the rural areas, these tasks have
become of cardinal importance, allowing the
expansion of capitalist agriculture at a
minimal cost in labor. Women everywhere
may not be "employed," but are working
and providing essential services within the
home, and taking care of some tasks pre-
viously performed by the men. The exclusion
of either women's domestic production or
their temporary jobs in the economic assess-
ment of regional or national productivity
creates distortions in the perception of the
value of such work and its complementarity
to the more developed sectors of the
economy. The most recent works on the sub-
ject further this reevaluation by positing that
women's work is not a question of personal
choice, but the result of family survival
strategies, and it cannot be dealt with as an
individual option.43 Although this inter-
pretation assumes deterministic nuances
leaving little room for personal choices, it
suggests the intense preoccupation with the
elucidation of the significance of female
work characteristic of recent research.
The concept of occupational sex-typing in
the labor force is another useful tool of
analysis appearing in some current works.
Through a process of socialization and im-
plicit bias in the educational systems, people
are led to believe that certain occupations are
specifically feminine. This results in the crea-
tion of "feminine" labor enclaves. Sex-typ-
ing applies to several occupational categor-
ies, including professional ones. A feminized
116
occupation loses its appeal to men and be-
comes wage-depressed. Feminization is partly
reinforced by male intolerance of women's
assumption of leadership roles in situations
where the sexes work in close association.
Feminization becomes evident in the numeri-
cal imbalance of women in managerial posi-
tions, which remain the domain of men, while
most women are found at the lower levels of
employment.44 Although cultural in nature,
feminization reinforces stereotypes and ad-
versely influences the economic situation of
many women.45 If we follow the arguments
sustaining that women's work is essential for
the survival of the family, and especially im-
portant in the cases of female-headed house-
holds, the insidious repercussions of the per-
sistent discrimination of female work be-
come painfully obvious.
The new social science scholarship has not
only posed these new questions, but has also
challenged the use of traditional analytical
tools and techniques. The national censuses,
for example, have come under the attack of
female scholars, who claim that official no-
tions of women's work and employment
tend to underestimate or devalue the labor of
peasant women, street vendors, part-time
female employees, and others that do not fit
rigidly conceived economic categories. Un-
employment, under-employment, and mar-
ginality are terms often associated with
female work within an industrial context,
which Latin America is not. As such, the
transposition and use of such concepts are
misleading.46 The purpose of the aforemen-
tioned revisions is to end stereotyping of
women's roles in society, to redirect national
policies to a better use of the assets of the
population as a whole, and to end the privi-
leged attention to the needs of the male
working population.
Refocusing research on population move-
ments from male to female has also yielded
important demographic data on women,
which allow the establishment of links
among migration, the domestic economy,
and social stratification. Internal migration
from the rural to the urban zones, or from
provincial to capital areas, has been shown
to be one of the most important socio-econo-
mic phenomenons of contemporary Latin
American societies. Displacement of women
from rural or small urban complexes is now
shown to be as common as that of men and
responding to similar economic pressure
World Affairs
within the family. In the Meso-American
and Caribbean areas, the possibility of
migration to the United States, or to areas
where transnational industries (maquila-
doras) give preferential employment to
women, injects new parameters to the phe-
nomenon of female migration.47
Rural-urban migration is not a new phe-
nomenon, however. Indeed, it seems to be
centuries old, although it has become ex-
tremely acute in the second half of the twen-
tieth century. Several recent historic-demo-
graphic studies of the seventeenth and the
nineteenth centuries show that some colonial
cities, such as Lima, attracted a significant
number of rural women in search of employ-
ment.48 Given their lack of skills and educa-
tion, migrant women became domestics or
self-employed as street or market sellers, or
in cottage industries. By putting present
realities in a historical perspective, not only
do we become aware of the roots of certain
social problems affecting women, but we are
able to balance distortions caused by theo-
retical oversimplifications.49 Rural migrant
women provide basic cheap labor to the
middle-class urban family and to the women
who are incorporating themselves into the
professional levels of the service sector of the
economy. This symbiotic relationship ex-
plains why professional and poor women are
those who have the highest index of labor
participation in the Latin American market
place.
The intensity of the study of women in the
labor force, with special focus on the labor
of peasant women and those in the urban in-
formal sector (domestics, street and market
vendors, self-employed women), and the em-
phasis recently developed on the household
as the cardinal economic unit, seem to re-
spond to an increasing feeling of anxiety
about the economic future of Latin America
and the special role that women could play in
it. Traditional economic theories have not
yielded the expected results of development
and social change. Thus, Nash and Safa
argue, in a period of crisis it is imperative to
know how women's contributions may be
used as leverage for change.50 This position
seems to account for the spirit of revision at
the core of the new socioeconomic studies on
women and the family. The almost single-
minded preoccupation of current research
with labor and productivity seems to be a
compensatory effort for years of neglect or
Vol. 150, No. 2 Fall 1987
disdain towards women's work by econo-
mists, and by national and international
planners. Women wish their work to be care-
fully assessed and totally acknowledged, not
simply as an expression of academic interest,
but as a tool for future political and eco-
nomic policymaking.
WOMEN AND POLITICS
Studies of the political behavior of women
in the past have been scarce, given the as-
sumption that women had little to say in tra-
ditional politics. The definition of politics as
the pursuit of power to rule in one form or
another, carried through parties or other
male-dominated institutions such as armies,
left little room for the inclusion of women in
this area of study. Exceptions were made for
the activities of women during the wars of
independence or in revolutionary situations,
or for the endeavors of "great" women.51
Although it has been suggested that the con-
cept of political participation has to become
more flexible to accommodate other forms
of female activities, the bibliographical yield
is still small. We still lack enough informa-
tion on the past to define patterns of
behavior and to allow fruitful comparisons
with the present, while for the contemporary
scene there is a significant gap in the country
and thematic coverage.52
The limited number of historical works
now available suggest that women in Latin
America began to learn the process of
mobilization at the work place early in the
twentieth century. Socialism, anarchism,
and feminism taught women the first lessons
in organization, prior to their having any ex-
perience in the world of "men's" politics.
However, while these ideologies gave the
first impulse to female associations and the
formation of pressure groups prior to World
War II, their political impact was almost
obliterated after that period.
Taking the historical experience into con-
sideration, it is desirable to examine the ex-
tent to which current research has dealt with
key themes such as what ideological trends
or political parties have been attractive to
women, included them in their agenda, or in-
vited their active support. Most of the analy-
ses of women and politics have been carried
out by political scientists, and much of it is
addressed to discerning patterns in the
political behavior of women since they began
voting in significant numbers in the 1950s.53
Only a few countries can be subject to in-
quiry based on voting patterns or political
affiliation, however, since few can boast of
uninterrupted constitutional regimes. The
crumbling of several well-established con-
stitutional regimes and the emergence of
either revolutionary systems or activities
since the 1960s have posed men and women
alike with new options of political behavior.
The course of that behavior and some ex-
planation about its nature have also been ex-
plored in the most recent literature.
Let's examine first the results of the in-
quiries directed to the analysis of vote pat-
terns. Such studies have been carried out in
only a few countries (Argentina, Peru,
Chile, Brazil, and Colombia), and they con-
clude that after receiving the right to vote,
the effective incorporation of women into
the political process at the most elementary
level of vote-casting has been slow. Al-
though the number of women voters con-
tinues to increase, they have not yet reached
numerical equality with men in the exercise
of this right. As a consequence, women's
votes have been critical only in the election
of a few political figures (Peron, Alessandri,
and Frei). It may also be pointed out that
their opposition to some candidates, such as
Allende and Goulart, has also been signifi-
cant.
Since the mid-1970s, many parties and
political regimes in Latin America have
made efforts to include women as candidates
or as members of the government. Their ob-
jective has been to enhance the parties' im-
age and insure the loyalty of the female elec-
torate. Recent surveys of female candidates
show a slowly increasing number of women
elected to congress, but their percentage is
still low: between five and eight percent of
the total. On the other hand, the appoint-
ment of a number of women to well-publi-
cized cabinet posts has been relatively easy
and popular. The conclusion is that women
are having fewer problems in being ap-
pointed to governmental posts than in being
elected.54
Two important questions that need urgent
attention are whether the characterization of
women's political activities and choices in
Latin America are gender-specific, and
whether political issues raised on such a basis
have chances of succeeding. Historical in-
quiry into the activities of urban women in
the 1920s and 1930s, when female suffrage
118
was first discussed in Latin America, shows
that women organized a number of parties
and associations for channelling these first
civic exercises. Those all-women groups were
effective in mobilizing the first generation of
women activists, but did not prove to be ca-
pable of sustaining political participation
once suffrage was achieved.55 Since exclu-
sively female parties were not successful, the
alternative option was the incorporation of
women into established parties. To achieve
The future belongs to those who will have the
intellectual and moral fiber to address
themselves to the needs of both genders, and
stop devising social Utopias for the needs of one
sex alone.
this end, the attitude of the men who control
politics has been critical. The traditional
perception of women belonging to the home
rather than the public arena has been slow to
change. An accommodation has been sought
in the creation of women's auxiliaries, but
most political parties have made, at best,
lukewarm efforts to raise issues or devise ac-
tivities with women's interests in mind.
In recent history, only the Women's
Peronist party attempted a massive incor-
poration of women not only into its ranks
but into political posts, by setting up a quota
of women candidates for national elections.56
That dramatic—and unexpected—course
was, to a large extent, made possible by the
power and political savvy of Eva Peron. The
mesmerizing details of her career have pro-
duced a large body of descriptive and ana-
lytical literature, comparable only to that
devoted to the colonial Mexican literary
figure, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.57 The
more serious studies of Eva Peron's ac-
tivities offer important insights into the
character of Argentinian politics after World
War II, and the mechanisms utilized by her
and her husbarid" to introduce and anchor a
woman in a male-dominated arena. They in-
dicate that she used female-related imagery
in her political speeches and that she did not
challenge certain basic stereotypes of female
behavior. That her gender was useful for
some purposes and unacceptable for others
(such as the post of vice-presidency), are
World Affairs
facts closely related to the character of
Argentinian politics at the time. While Eva
Peron was a political figure of extraordinary
appeal and importance, it is questionable
that she may provide a model for under-
standing the contours of female political
leadership in Latin America. Since there
have been so few national political figures of
her stature, we must ponder on her excep-
tionality and on the possibility of generaliza-
tions applicable to other less exalted women
elsewhere. The desirability of learning about
a feminine discourse in politics—whether of
leadership or participation—will have to be
satisfied by means other than the study of
Eva Peron. The problems involved in the
analysis of the behavior, power base, and
mythology surrounding female political
leaders are considerable, given the paucity of
available cases in the past and the slow un-
folding of leadership among women. Pro-
sopographic studies will perhaps be the most
useful form of approach, as proved by the
few so far published.58
What issues are likely to trigger women's
political activity in either support or rejec-
tion of a party or a candidate? Do women
extend into politics the roles they have been
culturally ascribed in society? Such key ele-
ments of political analysis have not been well
explored and remain uncertain, given the
fact that current studies of women in politics
have been circumscribed to measuring sev-
eral variables of their voting behavior (num-
bers, increase or decrease, regional charac-
teristics, or party affiliation). Doubtless, we
need to venture into the analysis of the moti-
vations or purposes of women's votes and
other forms of para-political behavior in or-
der to reach some preliminary interpretation
of their political behavior. While such search
for generalizations involves a high degree of
speculation, its heuristic values merit the at-
tempt. Apart from the aforementioned con-
cept of marianismo developed by Stevens—
which, although not exclusively political, has
its application to politics—one of the most
intriguing interpretive efforts has been that
of Elsa Chaney, who developed a cultural-
psychological concept to explain Latin
American women's political behavior. She
posited that Latin American women define
"their public activity as an extension of their
traditional family role. . . . " The reinforce-
ment of the traditional role of mother cre-
ates a supermadre syndrome that is carried
Vol. 150, No. 2 Fall 1987
as a label by most women wishing to project
a positive public image. In general, women
reject any form of behavior that may gener-
ate conflicts or confrontation. Instead, they
resort to mother imagery or maternal meta-
phors to validate their political activities and
goals. Chaney does not support this form of
social strategy, but neither does she assume
that there is no value in promoting female
values in society, since "without the values
for which women stand it may quite simply
be impossible to preserve a viable society. "'
Testing the validity of the concept of
supermadre in politics should be a desirable
goal of future research, whether historical,
sociological, or political. Several historical
studies of the feminist and socialist women
before mid-century indicate that the use of
the mother role made acceptable their initial
activities. The argument then was that
women, as a gender and in their special
capacity of mothers, had special sensitivities
that could and should be extended to social
activities.60 It seems, therefore, that we may
have here, at least, a working tool to con-
tinue exploration of the connections between
gender roles and women's public and private
activities, whether in politics or in the work
place.
Applying some of the concepts discussed
above to the participation of women in
revolutionary political processes, such as
those in Cuba and Nicaragua, or the Mex-
ican and Bolivian revolutions in the past, of-
fers the possibilities of either confirming
some of the hypotheses developed to explain
political participation in general, or delineat-
ing differences under the light of compari-
son. From the few available studies of
women in the Mexican and Bolivian revolu-
tions we gather that, not surprisingly given
the traditional male and female attitudes on
women's political participation, men had
misgivings about women's activities, but al-
lowed them to offer unconditional support
throughout the confrontation periods. After
consolidation of power and stabilization of
the country, the Mexican male hierarchy re-
mained distrustful of women's political incli-
nations and withheld suffrage to avoid a po-
tential electoral upset. To compensate for
this situation, they began to develop services
and educational facilities that would benefit
women and the family. Not until after World
War II did Mexicans feel confident enough to
incorporate women into the political sce-
119
nario. Given the characteristics of the Mexi-
can political system, the female vote simply
adds numbers to a well-established system,
in which women, as of the 1980s, still do not
participate in any significant manner in the
truly important political decisions affecting
the nation.61 The Bolivian experience offers
no better record of interest on women's
issues prior or after the Movimiento Na-
tional Revolucionario (MNR) took power in
1952. Peasant and working women mobilized
on behalf of the MNR through the 1960s,
but, in the opinion of a recent analysis, "both
the party and the [miner's] union subor-
dinated the women's struggle to the interests
of their institutions . . . at no time did they
address demands specific to women as an ex-
ploited and discriminated sector."62
The leaders of the Cuban revolution did
not develop a plan for female mobilization
until after the revolution succeeded, but the
potential worth of women in the task of
changing the existing social structure was not
overlooked in this case. The literature on
women in the Cuban revolution makes clear
that the mobilization was strictly under the
control of the government and that it re-
sponded to a directive from the political
elite, not from the women themselves.63 The
ideological underpinnings of the revolution
did not allow the isolation of gender from
class consciousness, and assumed that social
change would automatically raise women's
status. Rejecting a feminist position as
bourgeois, the Cuban revolution interpreted
"liberation" as service. The gains that
women made in terms of greater educational
facilities, equal access to the labor pool, and
welfare services, however, coexist with older
and more traditional attitudes and practices,
such as their exclusion from certain occupa-
tions, and the more pervasive lack of female
interest in national affairs. In an attempt to
overcome sexism, a Family Code was en-
acted in 1975 to elicit a change in men's par-
ticipation in family activities. In the late
1970s, the efforts to incorporate more women
into the political process betrayed the per-
sistence of deeply ingrained reservations
about activities not labeled as "feminine."
The study of gender-related policies and
political attitudes in the Cuban revolution is
an important subject awaiting serious and
objective research.
The differences between the role of
women in the inception and development of
120
the revolution in Cuba and Nicaragua also
remain to be studied. In Nicaragua, women
had a much greater degree of physical par-
ticipation in the making of the revolution
itself than was the case during the initial
stages of the Cuban revolution. Despite the
lack of a strong, cohesive body, such as the
Federation of Cuban Women, and given the
degree of instability that the country is ex-
periencing, women have maintained a sig-
nificant profile of participation in the
political process.64 The twenty years between
1960 and 1980 were of cardinal importance
in the transformation of women's activities
and legal status in Latin America as a whole,
and though the character of such changes are
not in themselves revolutionary, they pro-
pitiated a more vigorous participation of
women in the Nicaraguan situation. The
combativeness encouraged by the Nicarag-
uan revolution among its female supporters
is wrapped in the rhetoric of service to the
cause above all. Participants hope that this
service will serve as stepping stone not only
to change society but to change the status of
women as well, assuming that the need for
human support has broken down inhibitions
about accepting female leadership at most
levels. This situation makes women confi-
dent so that in the future other forms of
equality will be achieved, although some re-
searchers have expressed doubts on the speed
of transformation.
Could a mystique of social service be de-
vised for the incorporation of women into
politics in non-revolutionary regimes? What
non-violent options could be created to
achieve such ends? Since revolutions per se
do not guarantee an end to sexual stereotyp-
ing or subordination, we perhaps must re-
turn to the questions posed by enduring tra-
ditional social values to further our under-
standing of the potential for change under
any form of political system.
FEMININE OR FEMINIST*?)
QUESTIONS OF THE 1970s
AND THE 1980s
All the literature produced on women and
the family in the last decade has made an ex-
plicit or implicit choice between feminist and
feminine values. The academic works pro-
duced on Latin American women is largely
woman-oriented, feminine, and has dis-
counted or criticized what is understood as
feminist. Most Latin American academic
World Affairs
authors see the need for integrating women's
problems into the larger problems of society,
and departing from the assumption that the
center of women's lives is the family and its
economic concerns.66 Problems specific to
women, although carefully considered, have
been more often than not explained as de-
rived from the nature of economic systems,
such as capitalism. Patriarchalism has been
incorporated in the analysis when a search
for a cultural basis of analysis became ob-
vious. The personal equality that feminists
pursue is seen—correctly or not—as an ir-
relevant solution for problems that tran-
scend the boundaries of sex.
The differences between these points of
view and those regarded as more specifically
feminist is sometimes difficult to define,
since feminism is also concerned with eco-
nomic issues, gender relations, power net-
works, politics, etc.67 Feminist analysis exists
in Latin America currently, largely within
small groups of intellectual and social ac-
tivists. For them, gender is the most impor-
tant factor in defining the individual and
his/her role in society, and, as such, is the
starting point for the consideration of the
relationship between the person and society.
The group Vamos Mujer in Bogota is a
typical feminist organization. It organizes
women in discussion groups and provides
social and supportive services for women in
need. Its list of desired social changes is as
follows: (1) true exercise of political and civil
rights for Colombian women in order to
develop an independent and participatory
personality; (2) freedom of election and deci-
sion in personal affective matters related to
love, sexuality, and fecundity; (3) construc-
tion of a new image of women transcending
the traditional roles of personal dependence,
abnegation, passivity, and subjection; (4)
equitable working conditions with suppor-
tive services. Housework is included in the
definition of work.
This typical feminist program, with some
variations, has been tried in several centers
in other capital cities of Latin America. One
of the main purposes of the feminist agenda
is to have women become engaged in a proc-
ess of self-knowledge. Eventually, it is hoped
that women will learn their worth as persons
and as social beings.68 An academic variation
of feminism considers both class and gender
intimately bound and essential to under-
standing women's social and personal subor-
Vol. 150, No. 2 Fail 1987
dination. The questioning of the traditional
ideological assumption of gender within the
premises of Marxism has been one of the
most interesting developments within that
ideological bend.69
What is important about all the discus-
sions considered above is that they seek the
insertion of women, either as individuals or
as members of the family unit, in the
established structures of knowledge and
socio-political behavior. Their purpose is
that of creating different forms of social,
economic, and cultural relations between
men and women, between the state and the
individual, and among nations themselves,
by stressing the role played by women and
the family in Latin American societies. The
literature reiterates, above all, the economic
importance of women in society. The theme
of work is almost obsessive in the production
of the last ten years. It also speaks of a proc-
ess of self-assessment and self-assertiveness
that did not exist twenty years ago. In doing
so, it points to the conflictive situation
created by (1) new economic opportunities
created by shifts in the labor market; (2) in-
creased educational levels among the female
population, and the advent of an educated
cadre of professional women who are carry-
ing out an intensive examination of women's
status in society; (3) the persistence of
cultural and legal constraints. Among the
works considered here, there is little ad-
vocacy for a revolutionary or total break
with the past. Most authors seem to seek an
accommodation that will permit women a
share in the process of social change and an
increased sense of their own self-value.
Those aspirations need to be recognized and
respected by men, especially those who con-
trol the mechanisms of decisionmaking in
Latin American societies.
Research runs the risk of becoming a
sterile exercise if it does not lead to some
creative thought about the present and hopes
for the future. We must consider what direc-
tions our efforts could take to make prac-
tical use of the facts gathered by the works
examined here, and the aspirations they
represent. Above all, the integration of
women at all levels of social policy and civic
participation is an idea ripe for implementa-
tion, and an objective worth working for.
This necessitates a reassessment of social and
ethical values aimed at a just recognition of
women's participatory activities in society.
Ideally, this would help bring about a change
in personal and cultural attitudes toward
gender relations, and a lessening of the
underrating of women's roles, their work,
and their potential contribution to social
change. The persistent forms of sexual
subordination in contemporary Latin
America do not leave much room for com-
fort, but changes can and must take place.70
The future belongs to those who will have
the intellectual and moral fiber to address
themselves to the needs of both genders, and
stop devising social Utopias for the needs of
one sex alone.
NOTES
1. This essay is based on a selection of the
literature dealing with women produced by sociol-
ogists, historians, and political scientists, roughly
from 1975 to the present. Inclusion of several
titles published prior to 1975 has been necessary at
times for comparative purposes. In this discus-
sion, I have restricted myself to Portuguese and
Spanish Latin America, the two areas I know
best. Given the large number of works on women,
the bibliographic selection in this work is repre-
sentative, but far from being exhaustive.
2. Meri Knaster, Women in Spanish America:
An Annotated Bibliography from Pre-Conquest
to Contemporary Times (Boston: G. K. Hall,
1977). See the section on the family. The strong
anthropological nature of works written in the
late 1960s and early 1970s is borne out by a
perusal of this useful bibliography. Today,
sociologists and anthropologists continue to pro-
duce the largest number of works on the subject.
3. John F. Schwaller, "Tres familias mex-
icanas del siglo XVI," Historia Mexicana, 31:2
(1981), pp. 171-96; Paul Ganster, "La familia
Gomez de Cervantes: Linaje y sociedad en el
Mexico colonial," Historia Mexicana, 31:2
(1981), pp. 197-232; Cathy Duke, "The family in
Eighteenth-Century Plantation Society in
Mexico," Comparative Perspectives on Slavery in
New World Plantation Societies (New York: New
York Academy of Sciences, 1977); Mary L.
Felstiner, "Kinship Politics in the Chilean In-
dependence Movement," Hispanic American
Historical Review, 56 (February 1976), pp. 58-80;
Diana Balmori, Stuart Voss, and Miles Wortman,
Notable Family Networks in Latin America
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1984).
4. As an example of the broad lines of interest
of contemporary social scientists, see Man Singh
Das and Clinton J. Jesser (eds.), The Family in
Latin America (Sahibabad, India: Vikas, 1980). A
pathbreaking study of the family in Colombia by
anthropologist Virginia Gutierrez de Pineda still
stands as a heuristic model for research. See
Virginia Gutierrez de Pineda, Familia y Cultura
en Colombia (Bogota: Tercer Mundo, 1968).
5. Exceptions to this situation are: Larissa
Adler Lomnitz and Marisol Perez Lisaur, "The
History of a Mexican Elite Family," Journal of
122 World Affairs

Family History, 3:4 (1978), pp. 392-409; John Networks in Latin America. For a thorough study
Tutino, "Family Economies in Agrarian Mexico, of marriage in colonial Brazil, see Maria Beatriz
1750-1910," Journal of Family History, 10:3 Nizza da Silva, Sistema de Casamento no Brasil
(1985), pp. 258-71. Colonial (Sao Paulo: Editora da Universidade de
6. See Asuncion Lavrin and Edith Couturier, Sao Paulo, 1984).
"Dowries and Wills: A View of Women's Socio- 9. A female-headed household is one in which
economic Role in Colonial Guadalajara and the woman acts as the head of the home,
Puebla, 1640-1790," Hispanic American represents it, and sustains it. Elizabeth Kuznesof,
Historical Review, 59 (May 1979), pp. 280-304; "The Role of the Female-Headed Household in
Edith Couturier, "Women in a Noble Family: Brazilian Modernization," Journal of Social
The Mexican Counts of Regla, 1750-1830," in History, 13:4, pp. 589-613; "Household Com-
Asuncion Lavrin (ed.), Latin American Women: position and Headship Related to Changes in
Historical Perspectives (Westport, CT: Green- Mode of Production: Sao Paulo 1765 to 1836."
wood Press, 1978), pp. 129-49; Doris Ladd, The Comparative Studies in Society and History, 22:1,
Mexican Nobility at Independence, 1780-1826 pp. 78-108.
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1976); Patricia 10. Maria Luisa Marcilio, La Ville de Sao
Seed, "A Mexican Noble Family: The Counts of Paulo, Peuplement et population, 1750-1850
the Orizaba Valley, 1560-1867" (M.A. Thesis, (Paris, 1973); Claude Mazet, "Population et
University of Texas, Austin, 1975): John E. Kic- societe a Lima aux XVIe et XVIIe siecles: La
za, Colonial Entrepreneurs: Families and Business paroisse San Sebastian (1562-1689)," Cahiers des
in Bourbon Mexico (Albuquerque: University of Ameriques Latines 13-14 (1976), pp. 53-100;
New Mexico Press, 1983); Dian Balmori, "Family Thomas Calvo, "Concubinato y mestizaje en el
and Politics: Three Generations (1790-1890)," medio urbano: el caso de Guadalajara en el siglo
Journal of Family History, 10:3 (Fall 1985), pp. XVII," Revista de Indias, 44:173 (1984), pp.
247-57; Bill J. Chandler, The Feitosas and the 203-12.
Sertao des Inhamuni: The History of a Family 11. Thomas Calvo, "La chaleur du foyer:
and a Community in Northeast Brazil, 1700-1930, families de Guadalajara au XVIIe siecle," mimeo;
(Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1972); Asuncion Lavrin, "Sexuality in Colonial
Linda Lewin, "Some Historical Implications of Mexico," paper presented at the Berkshire Con-
Kinship for Family-Based Politics in the Brazilian ference on Women's History, Smith College,
Northeast," Comparative Studies in Society and 1984; Kathy Waldron, "Sinners and the Bishop in
History, 21 (1979), pp. 262-92. Colonial Venezuela: The Visita of Bishop Marti,
7. For examples of historical research on the 1771-1784," paper presented at the meeting of the
hispanized sectors of society, see Susan Socolow, American Historical Association, New York,
"Marriage, Birth and Inheritance: The Merchants 1985; Ann Twinam, "Patterns of Illegitimacy
of Eighteenth Century Buenos Aires," Hispanic among Spanish American Colonial Elites," paper
American Historical Review, 60:3 (August 1980), presented at the meeting of the American Histori-
pp. 387-406; Patricia Seed, "Parents vs. cal Association, New York, December 1985.
Children: Marriage Opposition in Colonial Mex- These papers will be published in a forthcoming
ico, 1610-1779." Ph.D. Diss. University of volume on sexuality and marriage in colonial
Wisconsin, 1980; John Tutino, "Power, Class Latin America edited by Asuncion Lavrin. On the
and Family: Men and Women in the Mexican continuity of patterns of illegitimacy, in 1980, 52
Elite, 1750-1810," The Americas, 39 (1983), pp. percent of all children born in Venezuela were the
359-81; Robert McCaa, "Calidad, Close and product of consensual unions. See Marita Iza-
Marriage in Colonial Mexico: The Case of Parral, guirre et al., "De la Venezuela agraria a la
1788-90," Hispanic American Historical Review, Venezuela postpetrolera," in Venezuela: Bio-
64:3 (August 1984), pp. 477-502. For the post- grafld inacabada. Evolucion social, 1936-1983
independent period, see Samuel L. Baily, "Mar- (Caracas: Banco Central de Venezuela, 1983), p.
riage Patterns and Immigrant Assimilation in 79.
Buenos Aires, 1882-1923," Hispanic American 12. Most of the historical studies of marriage
Historical Review 60:1 (February 1980), pp. which we have on hand today have been carried
32-48; Silvia Arrom, The Women of Mexico City, out by historical demographers. Their interest is
1790-1857 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, more on the subject of mestizaje than on the proc-
1985). As examples of ethnohistorical research, ess of marriage itself. See Michael Swann, "The
see Nancy Farriss, Maya Society under Colonial Spatial Dimensions of a Social Process: Marriage
Rule: The Collective Enterprise of Survival and Mobility in Late Colonial Northern Mexico,"
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984). in David Robinson (ed.), Social Fabric and
8. Daisy Ripodaz, El matrimonio en Indias Spatial Structure in Colonial Latin America (Ann
(Buenos Aires: Conicet, 1977); John Tutino, Arbor: University Microfilms International,
"Power, Class and Family." Very complete 1979); Woodrow Borah and Sherburne F. Cook,
bibliographies of the history of the family are "Marriage and Legitimacy in Mexican Culture,
available in the special issue on the Latin Mexico and California," California Law Review
American Family in the Nineteenth Century of 54 (1966), pp. 946-1008; Silvia Arrom, "Marriage
Family History, 10-3 (Fall 1985), edited by Betsi Patterns in Mexico City, 1811," Journal of Fam-
Kuznesof and Robert Oppenheimer. See also the ily History 3 (1978), pp. 376-91; David A.
excellent bibliographical review in Diana Balmori, Brading, "Grupos etnicos; clases y estructura
Stuart Voss, and Miles Wortman, Notable Family ocupacional en Guanajuato," Historia Mexicana
Vol. 150, No. 2 Fall 1987
30 (1972), pp. 460-80; Marcelo Carmagnani,
"Demografia y sociedad: La estructura social de
los centros mineros del norte de Mexico,
1600-1720," Historia Mexicana, 11 (1970), pp.
419-59. Few contemporary studies address the
problem of consensual unions per se, although
they consider it as a factor in the research of
domestic units. Virginia Gutierrez de Pineda, La
familia en Colombia, first pointed to this prob-
lem. A recent essay suggests a methodology for
the study of this subject. See Ligia Echeverry de
Ferrufino, "La familia de hecho en Colombia:
Una metodologia para su estudio," in Elssy
Bonilla C., comp. Mujer y familia en Colombia
(Bogota: Plaza Janes Editores, 1985), pp. 65-80.
See also, Ana Rico de Alonso, "La familia en
Colombia: Tipologias, crisis y el papel de la mu-
jer," pp. 35-63. For a sample of the an-
thropological literature dealing with the family,
see Ralph Bolton and Enrique Mayer, Andean
Kinship and Marriage (Washington, D.C.:
American Anthropological Association, 1972);
Hugo Nutini, Pedro Carrasco and James M. Tag-
gart (eds.), Essays on Mexican Kinship (Pitts-
burgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1976);
Christine A. Loveland and Franklin A. Loveland
(eds.), Sex Roles and Change in Native Lower
Central American Societies (Urbana: University
of Illinois Press, 1981).
13. See Francois Chevalier, Land and Society
in Mexico: The Great Hacienda (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1963); Edith B.
Couturier, La Hacienda de Hueyapan, 1550-1936
(Mexico City: SepSetentas, 1976); Herbert Klein,
"The Structure of the Hacendado Class in Late
Eighteenth Century Alto Peru: The Indendencia
de la Paz," Hispanic American Historical Review
60 (1980), pp. 191-212; David A. Brading, Ha-
ciendas and Ranchos in the Mexican Bajio: Leon,
1700-1810 (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1978); Charles Harris, A Mexican Family
Empire: The Latifundio of the Sanchez Navarros,
1765-1867 (Austin: University of Texas Press,
1975).
14. Susan Socolow, The Merchants of Buenos
Aires, 1778-1810 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1978); Diana Balmori, Stuart F. Voss,
and Miles Wortman, Notable Family Networks in
Latin America', John Kicza, "The Great Families
of Mexico: Elite Maintenance and Business Prac-
tices in Late Colonial Mexico City," Hispanic
American Historical Review 62 (May 1982), pp.
429-57.
15. Edith Couturier, "Micaela Angela Car-
rillo: Widow and Pulque Dealer," in David G.
Sweet and Gary B. Nash, Struggle and Survival in
Colonial America (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1981), pp. 362-75.
16. See, for example, Mary L. Felstiner, "Kin-
ship Politics in the Chilean Independence Move-
ment"; Allan Wells, "Family Elites in a Boom-
and-Bust Economy: the Molinas and Peons of
Porfirian Yucatan," Hispanic American Histori-
cal Review, 62 (May 1982), pp. 224-53; Darrell
Levi, A Familia Prado (Sao Paulo: Editora
Brasilense, 1977).
17. Balmori et al., Notable Family, p. 228.
123
Balmori concludes that "notable family networks
in the twentieth century no longer dominate Latin
American society." However, she acknowledges
the retention of political influence, social prestige,
and economic influence by prestigious families.
18. Florence A. Babb, "Andean Market-
women in the Economy," in June Nash and
Helen Safa (eds.), Women and Change in Latin
America (South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey
Publishers, 1986), pp. 53-64; Helen I. Safa,
"Female Employment in the Puerto Rican Work-
ing Class," pp. 84-105; Elssie Bonilla, "La madre
trabajadora: <,Una contradiccion?," in Elssy
Bonilla, comp. Mujer y familia en Colombia
(Bogota: Plaza Janes Editores, 1985), pp. 97-128;
Beatriz Lovesio, "Las penelopes olvidadas:
^Artesanas o asalariadas.?" Mimeo. Paper
presented in the Conference "Investigacion Sobre
la Mujer e Investigacion Feminista," Montevideo,
Uruguay, 1984.
19. Las mujeres y los cam bios socio-
ocupancionales, 1970-1980 (Santiago de Chile:
CEPAL, 1986); Elsa Chaney, Women of the
World: Latin America and the Caribbean
(Washington: U.S. Department of Commerce,
Bureau of the Census, 1984), pp. 71-72, 92-95.
Female participation in the labor force has its
peak between ages 20 and 24, for both rural and
urban women. Recent CEPAL statistics show a
consistent pattern of decline in the participation
of women in the labor force after marriage, with
the more industrialized societies, such as Argen-
tina, showing the greatest decline.
20. See Situacion de la mujer americana a
1985. L Situacion socioeconomica y condicion de
la mujer (Washington: Comision Interamericana
de Mujeres, 1985), Series: Estudios, No. 15.
21. For mass media analyses, see Marta Col-
omina de Rivera, La Celestina mecdnica: estudio
sobre la mitologia de lo femenino, la mujer y su
manipulacion a traves de la industria cultural
(Caracas: Monte Avila Editores, 1976); Marta
Diaz de Landa and Carlos Alberto Lista, La
imdgen de la mujer y los medios de comunicacion
de masas (Washington: Comision Interamericana
de Mujeres, 1983), Serie: Estudios, No. 9.
22. See Arrom's chapter on women and the law
in her Women of Mexico City. A comprehensive
account of the legal status of women in Latin
America in the mid-1970s is given by Maria
Gabriela Leret de Matheus, La mujer, una in-
capaz como el demente y el nino (Mexico: B.
Costa-Amic Editor, 1975). However, since impor-
tant legal reforms on the status of women have
taken place in the last five years, caution should
be used in the use of any source published prior to
1980; Romy Medeiros da Fonseca, "Law and the
Condition of Women in Brazil," in Law and the
Status of Women (New York: Columbia Human
Rights Law Review, 1977), pp. 11-34.
23. Silvia Arrom, "Changes in Mexican Family
Law in the Nineteenth Century: The Civil Codes
of 1870 and 1884," Journal of Family History,
10:3 (1985), pp. 305-17; Edith Couturier,
"Women and the Family in Eighteenth-Century
Mexico: Law and Practice," ibid., pp. 294-304;
Donna Guy, "Lower-Class Families, Women,
124
and the Law in Nineteenth-Century Argentina,"
ibid., pp. 318-31. For a bibliography on the sub-
ject, see Bibliografia: Participation de la Mujer en
el desarrollo Rural de America Latina y el Caribe
(San Jose: CIDA. 1980), pp. 42-46. Studies of the
juridical condition of women have often preceded
periods of agitation for legal changes.
24. Recently, Nash and Safa have suggested
that "a focus that takes women into account must
analyze the cultural sources of power and
privilege as well as the relations in production that
give expression to them." See Women and
Change in Latin America, p. 15.
25. Evelyn P. Stevens, "Marianismo: The
Other Face of Machismo in Latin America." In
Ann Pescatello (ed.), Female and Male in Latin
America (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh
Press, 1973), pp. 89-101. For other works discuss-
ing gender roles, see the section on psychology in
Mary Knaster, Women in Spanish America: An
Annotated Bibliography from Pre-Conquest to
Contemporary Times (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1977).
26. The total neglect of the study of the in-
fluence of religious values in the shaping of a
gender-relations ideology and role definition is
regrettable. See Patricia Pessar, ''Religious
Modes and Roles for Brazilian Women." Paper
given at the Wellesley Conference on Women and
Development, 2-6 June 1976.
27. For bibliographical references, see Asun-
cion Lavrin, "Female Religious," in Louisa S.
Hoberman and Susan M. Socolow (eds.), Cities
and Societies in Colonial Latin America (Albu-
querque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986),
pp. 165-97.
28. Jorge Gissi Bustos, "Mythology about
Women with Special Reference to Chile," in June
Nash and Helen Safa, Sex and Class in Latin
America, pp. 30-45. Gissi Bustos applied his
analysis to the specific situation of Chile during
the Allende years, and generalized on the political
significance of gender roles.
29. Susan Bourque and Kay B. Warren,
Women of the Andes: Patriarchy and Social
Change in Two Peruvian Towns (Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press, 1981). Their
perceptive conclusions are validated by the more
impressionistic, but equally real circumstances
described by women of other geographical areas
in candid accounts of their problems and in-
terests. See June H. Turner, Latin American
Woman: The Meek Speak Out (Silver Spring,
MD: International Educational Development,
Inc., 1980).
30. June H. Turner (ed.), Latin American
Woman: The Meek Speak Out; Elizabeth Jelin
and Maria del Carmen Feijoo, "Trabajo y familia
en el ciclo de vida femenino: el caso de los sectores
populares de Buenos Aires," Estudios Cedes,
3:8-9 (1980).
31. As an example of the new critique now
voiced by international agencies on the need to
break down traditional gender roles and foster a
new perception of women's problems and female
potential contributions to social change, see Par-
ticipation Economica y Social de la Mujer
Peruana (Lima: UNICEF, 1981). The avowed
World Affairs
purpose of this publication was "to overcome
traditional concepts that limit the role of mothers
and housewives, and that transform them into
passive beneficiaries of programs, excluding them
from activities that should include them as think-
ing beings." See, also, Rosa Bernal, "Self, Family
and Work in the Lives of Colombian Professional
Women," Doctoral Dissertation, Harvard
University, 1984.
32. See definition of the field and current
bibliography under "Biological Anthropology"
or "Human Biology," in The Handbook of Latin
American Studies, 41 (1979) and 45 (1983).
33. Peter McDonough and Amaury de Souza,
The Politics of Population in Brazil: Elite Am-
bivalence and Public Demand (Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1981); leda Siqueira Wiarda,
Women, Population Policy, and International
Development (Amherst: International Area
Studies Programs, 1981).
34. See Man Singh Das and Clinton J. Jesser
(eds.), The Family in Latin America', Ana Rico de
Alonso, "La familia en Colombia: Tipologias,
crisis y el papel de la mujer," in Elssy Bonilla
(ed.), Mujer y familia en Colombia, pp. 35-64. A
historical treatment is found in Diana Balmori
and Robert Oppenheimer, "Family Clusters: The
Generational Nucleation of Families in Nine-
teenth Century Argentina and Chile," Com-
parative Studies in Society and History 21 (1979),
pp. 231-61; Linda Greenow, "Family, Household
and Home: A Micro-Geographic Analysis of Car-
tagena (New Granada) in 1777," Syracuse Univer-
sity, Department of Geography Discussion
Papers, No. 18, 1976.
35. Las mujeres y los cambios socio-
ocupacionales (Cepal, 1986). The phenomenon is
more acute in the urban context. Lima-Callao,
Panama, and Caracas were among the cities with
the highest percentage of women-headed house-
holds in the lowest economic strata.
36. As examples of recent historical research,
see Silvia M. Arrom, The Women of Mexico City,
1790-1857 (Stanford: Stanford University Press,
1985); Norma S. Chinchilla, "Industrialization,
Monopoly Capitalism and Women's Work in
Guatemala," in Ximena Bunster et al., Women
and National Development. The Complexities of
Change (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1977); June Hahner, "Women and Work in
Brazil, 1850-1920; A Preliminary Investigation,"
in Dauril Alden and Warren Dean (eds.), Essays
Concerning the Socioeconomic History of Brazil
and Portuguese India (Gainesville: University
Presses of Florida, 1977), pp. 87-117; Donna
Guy, "Women, Peonage and Industrialization:
Argentina, 1810-1914," Latin American Re-
search Review, 15:1 (1980), pp. 65-111; Margaret
Towner, "Monopoly Capitalism and Women's
Work During the Porfiriato," Latin American
Perspectives, 4:1-2 (Winter-Spring 1977), pp.
90-105; Nancy Caro Hollander, "Women's Work
and the Class Struggle: The Case of Argentina,"
Latin American Perspectives, 4:1-2 (Winter-
Spring 1977), pp. 180-93.
37. Sampling the vast literature on women's
labor and their role in the economy is a challeng-
Vol. 150, No. 2 Fall 1987

ing task. What follows serves to illustrate the Felicia R. Madeira and Paul I. Singer, "Structure
varieties of approaches and interpretations. One of Female Employment and Work in Brazil,
of the earliest analysis was that of Heleith Saf- 1920-1970," Journal of Interamerican Studies
fioti, A mulher na Sociedade de Classes. Mito e and World Affairs, 17: 4 (November 1975),
Realidade (Sao Paulo: Quatro Artes, 1969). Saf- 490-96; Heleith Saffioti, in her many works, sus-
fioti's study was not devoted to the analysis of tains this interpretation. See also A mulher na
women's work exclusively, but it had a large im- sociedade de classes: Mito e realidade. A recent
pact on subsequent studies of women in the labor study of the female labor force in the transna-
force. See, also, Glaura Vasquez de Miranda, tional industries of northern Mexico also uses the
"Women's Labor Force Participation in a "reserve labor army" concept to characterize
Developing Society: the Case of Brazil," in female workers, although it does not suggest any
Women and National Development. The Com- possibility of decline or discardment. Obviously,
plexities of Change (Chicago: Wellesley Editorial this new industrial phenomenon does not adjust
Committee, 1977), pp. 261-74; Lourdes Arizpe, itself easily to the traditional interpretation. See
"Women in the Informal Labor Sector: The Case Jorge Carrillo and Alberto Hernandez, Mujeres
of Mexico City," Signs, 3:1 (Autumn 1977), pp. fronterizas en la industria maquiladora (Mexico:
25-37; Norma Chinchilla, "Industrialization, Secretaria de Educacion Publica, 1985).
Monopoly Capitalism, and Women's Work in 39. Zulma Recchini de Lattes, La participation
Guatemala," Signs, 3:1 (Autumn 1977), pp. economica femenina en la Argentina desde la
38-56; Primer Encuentro Continental La Mujer segunda posquerra hasta 1970 (Bueno Aires:
en el Trabajo (Medellin, 1977). See, also, Par- CENEP, 1980).
ticipation Economica y Social de la Mujer 40. See reference to work by Suzana Prates and
Peruana\a Gutierrez de Pineda, "Status Graciela Taglioretti in Maria del Carmen Feijoo,
de la mujer en la familia," in Magdalena Leon de "La mujer, el desarrollo y las tendencias de
Leal (ed.), La mujer y el desarrollo en Colombia poblacion en America Latina," Estudios Cedes,
(Bogota: Asociacion Colombiana para el estudio 3:1 (Buenos Aires, 1980), p. 27.
de a Poblacion, 1977), pp. 317-88; Lucia Ribeiro 41. Joachim Singelmann and Marta Tienda,
and Teresita de Barbieri, "La mujer chilena: una "Changes in Industry Structure and Female
aproximacion a su estudio," in Paz Covarrubias employment in Latin America: 1950-1970,"
and Rolando Franco., comps., Chile, Mujer y Sociology and Social Research, 63:4 (July 1979),
Sociedad (Santiago de Chile: UNICEF, 1978;) pp. 745-69; Elsa Chaney, Women of the World:
Rural Women's Participation in Development Latin American and the Caribbean, (Washington,
(New York: United Nations Development Pro- D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, Census
gram, 1980); Ruth Sautu, "El trabajo femenino Bureau, 1984), p. 98.
en el sector agricola: Analisis comparative de 42. See, Elsa M. Chaney and Marianne
Argentina, Bolivia y Paraguay," in Magdalena Schmink, "Women and Modernization: Access to
Leon (ed.), Magdalena Leon de Leal, et al., Mu- Tools," in Nash and Safa, Sex and Class in Latin
jer y capitalismo agrario: Estudio de cuatro America, pp. 160-82. Bourque and Warren have
regiones colombianas (Bogota: Asociacion Col- also commented on the exclusion of women from
ombiana para el Estudio de la Poblacion, 1980); agrarian reform plans in Peru. For a comparative
Las trabajadoras del agro (Bogota: Asociacion assessment, see Carmen Diana Deere, "Rural
Colombiana para el Estudio de la Poblacion, Women and Agrarian Reform in Peru, Chile, and
1982), pp. 201-26; Kate Young, "Formas de Cuba," in Nash and Safa, Women and Change in
apropiacion y la division sexual del trabajo: Un Latin America, pp. 189-207.
estudio de caso de Oaxaca," in Magdalena Leon 43. Carmen D. Deere, "Changing social rela-
(ed.), Las trabajadoras del agro, pp. 55-74. See tions of production and Peruvian's peasant
also works by Helen Safa, Patricia Fernandez, women's work," Latin American Perspectives, 4:
and Saffioti, in Magdalena Leon (ed.), Sociedad, 1-2 (1977); Elizabeth Jelin, "The Bahiana in the
Subordination y Feminismo (Bogota: ACEP, Labor Force in Salvador, Brazil," in Nash and
1982); Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, For We are Sold, Safa (eds.), Sex and Class in Latin America. For a
I and My People: Women and Industry in Mex- critique of the concept of family strategies, see
ico's Frontier (Albany: State University of New Susana Torrado, "Sobre los conceptos de
York Press, 1983); Elsa M. Chaney (ed.), Women 'estrategias familiares de vida' y 'proceso de
of the World: Latin America and the Caribbean. reproduccion de la fuerza de trabajo:' Notas
A highly industrialized area, such as that of Sao teorico-metodologicas," Demografia y Eco-
Paulo, is one of the few areas in Latin America nomia, 15:2 (1981), pp. 204-33.
where female industrial labor can be studied in 44. Alison MacEwen Scott, "Desarrollo
fruitful detail. See, Eva Altermaa Blay, Trabalho dependiente y la segregation ocupacional por
Domesticado: A Mulher na Industria Paulista sexo," Desarrollo y Sociedad, 13 (January 1984),
(Sao Paulo: Editora Atica, 1978); Maria Valeria pp. 99-136.
Juno Pena, Mulheres e Trabalhadoras. Presencia 45. Although shortcomings in female educa-
Feminina na Constitucao do Sistema Fabril (Rio tion, and women's own preferences for jobs that
de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1981); Lida Gitahy, et allow them to take care of the home and the
al., "Luttes ouvrieres et luttes des ouvrieres a Sao children, are cited as partly responsible for their
Bernardo do Campo," Cahiers des Ameriques stagnant position in the workplace, most authors
Latines 26 (July-December 1982), pp. 11-38. stress that these conditions are in themselves
38. As examples of this interpretation, see generated by gender stereotypes produced by the
126
overall cultural assumption of subordination. The
concept of the double-day or double set of
duties—outside and within the home—is another
important contribution of the recent literature to
the understanding of the multiple ramifications of
female social subordination. For review of some
of these points, see Susan C. Bourque and Kay B.
Warren, Women of the Andes.
46. Catlina Wainerman, El trabajo femenino
en el banquillo de los acusados: la medicion censal
en America Latina (Mexico: Terra Nova, 1981).
Carmen Diana Deere, Magdalena Leon de Leal,
and the CENEP group in Colombia argue that
many official studies and statistics on the produc-
tivity of rural families and rural women's par-
ticipation in the labor market are unreliable and
incomplete. They suggest the use of household
and occupational censuses, which, by finely tun-
ing their questionnaires, reveal a much higher par-
ticipation of women in "productive" economic
activities. See Magdalena de Leon and Carmen
Diana Deere (eds.), Mujer y capitalismo agrario
(Bogota: ACEP, 1982); Neuma Aguiar, "La mu-
jer en la fuerza de trabajo en la America Latina:
Un resumen introductorio," Desarrollo y
Sociedad, 13 (January 1984), pp. 57-80;
Magdalena Leon, "La medicion del trabajo
femenino en America Latina: Problemas teoricos
y metodologicos," in Elssy Bonilla C., comp. Mu-
jer y familia en Colombia, pp. 205-22. On the
other hand, Elsa Chaney makes a case for the use
of censual data to balance the information fur-
nished by censuses, and implies the desirability of
the combined use of both household and labor
force surveys.
47. Lourdes Arizpe, Indigenas en la ciudad de
Mexico. El caso de las Marias (Mexico: SepSeten-
tas, 1975); Elsa Chaney, Women in International
Migration: issues in development planning
(Washington, D.C.: US AID, 1980); Dora Orlan-
ski and Silvia Dubrovsky, The Effects of Rural-
Urban Migration on Women's Roles and Status in
Latin America (Paris: UNESCO, 1978); Ruth
Sautu, "El trabajo femenino en el sector
agricola," p. 212; Arlene C. Rengert, "Some
Sociocultural Aspects of Rural Out-Migration in
Latin America," in Papers in Latin American
Geography in Honor of Lucia C. Harrison (Mun-
cie, IN: Conference of Latin American Geograph-
ers, 1981), pp. 15-27; Janice Monk, "Social
Change and Sexual Differences in Puerto Rican
Rural Migration," in Papers, pp. 28-43;
Elizabeth Jelin, "Migration and Labor Force Par-
ticipation of Latin American Women: The Do-
mestic Servants in the Cities," Signs, 3:1 (Autumn
1977), pp. 129-41.
48. Claude Mazet, "Population et societe a
Lima aux XVLe- et XVIIe siecles: la paroisse San
Sebastian (1562-1689)," Cahiers des Ameriques
Latines, 13-14 (1976), pp. 53-100.
49. Flor Suarez Rodriguez and Vilma Vargas
de Balmaceda, "Incorporation de las mujeres a
los mercados de trabajo urbano en periodos de ex-
pansion y crisis," in Nora Galer et al., Mujer y
desarrollo (Lima: Flora Tristan, Centro de la Mu-
jer Peruana, 1985), pp. 151-68; Ximena Bunster
and Elsa Chaney, Sellers and Servants. Working
World Affairs
Women in Lima, Peru (New York: Praeger,
1985); Judith-Maria Beuchler, "Women in Petty
Commodity Production in La Paz, Bolivia," in
Nash and Safa (eds.), Women and Change in
Latin America, pp. 165-88; Patricia Pessar, "The
Role of Gender in Dominican Settlement in the
United States," ibid, pp. 273-94. Margaret
Berlin, "Migrant Female Labor in the Venezuelan
Garment Industry, " ibid., pp. 260-72. Given the
continuous deterioration of the economies,
women, and especially women of the lower in-
come strata, have begun to play "an essential role
in the survival strategy of these families." Their
income "becomes more indispensable to cover the
deficiencies of income of the family unit." See
Jasmine Casafranca, "Actividades economicas de
mujeres de sectores urbano-marginales. Un
estudio de caso," in Nora Galer et al., Mujer y
desarrollo (Lima: CEPD, 1985), pp. 169-98.
50. See Introduction in Nash and Safa (eds.),
Women and Change in Latin America.
51. Evelyn Cherpak, "The Participation of
Women in the Independence Movement in Gran
Colombia, 1780-1930," in Asuncion Lavrin (ed.),
Latin American Women: Historical Perspectives
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1978), pp.
219-34; Morris Blackman, "Selective Omissions
and Theoretical Distortions in Studying the
Political Activity of Women in Brazil," in Nash
and Safa (eds.), Sex and Class, pp. 245-56. The
book bibliography on Eva Peron is well over fifty
titles.
52. See June E. Hahner, A mulher brasileira e
suas lutas socials e politicas, 1850-1937 (Sao
Paulo: Editora Brasiliense, 1981); Silvia
Rodriguez Villamil and Graciela Sapriza, Mujer,
estado y politica en el Uruguay del Siglo XX
(Montevideo: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental,
1984). The few studies of historical feminism now
available contain important elements of informa-
tion and analysis on women's political activities.
See Paz Covarrubias, "El movimiento feminista
chileno," in Paz Covarrubias and Rolando
Franco, comp. Chile. Mujer y Sociedad (San-
tiago: UNESCO, 1978), pp. 615-48; Lynn Stoner,
From the House to the Streets: Women's Move-
ment for Legal Change in Cuba, 1898-1959,"
Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1983;
Anna Macias, Against All Odds. Feminism in
Mexico (Westport, CT: Greenwod Press, 1983);
Asuncion Lavrin, "The Ideology of Feminism in
the Southern Cone, 1900-1940," The Wilson
Center Latin American Program, Paper 169
(Washington, DC, 1986).
53. The first country to grant suffrage to
women was Ecuador (1929), and the last one was
Paraguay (1961). Most of the countries extended
universal suffrage to women after World War II,
and most women began participating in national
elections in the 1950s. As examples of research on
women and politics, see Eva Alterman Blay, "The
Political Participation of Women in Brazil:
Female Mayors," Signs (Autumn 1979), pp.
42-59; Patricia Pinzon de Lewin and Dora
Rothlisberger, "Participation politica de la mu-
jer," in Magdalena Leon de Leal (ed.), La mujer
y el desarrollo en Colombia (Bogota: ACEP,
Vol. 150, No. 2 Fall 1987 127

1977), pp. 29-70; Elsa Chaney, Supermadre. Myths of a Woman (Chicago: University of
Women in Politics in Latin America (Austin: Chicago Press, 1979); Carmen Llorca, Llamddme
University of Texas Press, 1979); Fanny Tabak, Evita. Un destino unico de mujer (Madrid:
coordinator, A mulher como objeto de estudo Editorial Planeta, 1980).
(Rio de Janeiro: Pontificia Universidad Catolica 58. See, for example, Maria Teresa Ramirez de
do Rio de Janeiro, 1982). This compilation of Leonardi, "El movimiento femenino, 1932-
several articles deals with political behavior, 1983," in Venezuela. Biografia Inacabada, pp.
women's movements, political parties, and the 383-482; Fanny Tabak, "Exercicio do voto e
parliamentary behavior of women in Brazil during atuacao parliamentar da mulher no Brasil," in A
the military regime. Sandra F. McGee (ed.), mulher como objeto de estudo, pp. 60-108; Eva
Women and Politics in Twentieth-Century Latin Alterman Blay, "The Political Participation of
America, Studies in Third World Societies, No. Women in Brazil: Female Mayors," Signs
15, March 1981; Nash and Safa, (eds.), Women (Autumn 1979), pp. 42-59. Considering the char-
and Change in Latin America, papers in section acter of the titles so far published on Isabel Peron,
V, Political Action and the State. we are still far from academic objectivity in regard
54. Robert E. Biles, "Breaking into the Elite: to this figure. See Jose A. Deheza, ^Quienes der-
Women in Colombian Politics," paper delivered rocaron a Isabel Martinez de Peron? (Buenos
at the 45th International Congress of Panameri- Aires: Ediciones Cuenca del Plata, 1981); Pablo
canists, Bogota, Colombia, 1985. See also Kandel y Mario Monteverde, Entorno y caida
"Women and Political Participation in Latin (Buenos Aires: Editorial Planeta, 1976).
America: Urban Uruguay and Colombia," paper 59. Chaney, Supermadre, pp. 161-66. Al-
delivered at the Tenth National Meeting of the though not using the same nomenclature, other
Latin American Studies Association, Washing- social scientists have discussed the use of
ton, D.C., 1982; Fanny Tabak, "Exercicio do motherhood by Latin American female lead-
voto e atuacao parlamentar da mulher no Brasil," ers—political or otherwise. See, also, Julie M.
in A mulher como objeto de estudo, pp. 60-108; Taylor, Eva Peron. The Myths of a Woman
Silvia Pimentel, "A necessaria participacao (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979),
poliica da mulher," in A mulher como objeto de p. 92; Michelle Mattelart, "Chile: The Feminine
estudo, pp. 3-18; Juan Carlos Rey, "La mujer Version of the Coup d'Etat," in Nash and Safa,
venezolana y las estructuras de poder politico," Sex and Class, pp. 279-301.
Venezuela. Biografia Inacabada, pp. 383-482; 60. See Lavrin, The Ideology, Stoner, "From
Roderic Ai Camp, "Women and Political Leader- the House to the Streets"; Vivian M. Mota,
ship in Mexico: A Comparative Study of Female "Politics and Feminism in the Dominican Re-
and Male Political Elites," The Journal of public: 1931-45 and 1966-74," in Nash and Safa,
Politics, 41:2 (May 1979), pp. 417-441; Jane Ja- Sex and Class, pp. 265-78," Asuncion Lavrin,
quette, "Female Political Participation in Latin "Socialist, Anarchists and Working Women in
America," in Nash and Safa, Sex and Class, pp. Argentina, 1890-1930," paper presented at the
221-44. XIII International Congress of the Latin
55. Asuncion Lavrin, The Ideology of American Studies Association, Boston, 1986.
Feminism. The "apolitical" and ethics-oriented 61. Anna Macias, Against All Odds, passim.
assumptions that some of those groups adopted as See also Roderic Camp, "Women and Political
their blueprints for social activities placed Leadership in Mexico."
women's organizations in a special niche. It was 62. Gloria Ardaya Salinas, "The Barzolas and
difficult for them to be assimilated into political the Housewives Committee," in Nash and Safa,
parties. (eds.), Women and Change, p. 341. Of related in-
56. Estala dos Santos, Las mujeres peronistas terest is an older work by another participant in
(Buenos Aires: Centro Editor de America Latina, the revolution; see Lidia Gueiler Tejada, La mu-
1983); Maryssa Navarro, Evita (Buenos Aires: jer y la revolucion: Autobiografia politica (La
Ediciones Corregidor, 1981); "Evita's Charis- Paz, 1959). See also the powerful testimony of a
matic Leadership," in Michael L. Conniff (ed.), miner's wife who became disenchanted with the
Latin American Populism in Comparative system and underwent a profound personal
Perspective (Albuquerque: University of New transformation. Domitila Barrios de Chungara
Mexico Press, 1982), pp. 47-66. A rather small and Moema Viezzer, Let Me Speak! Testimony of
sample carried out in Bogota in 1974 after the Domitila, a Woman of the Bolivian Mines (New
defeat of Maria Eugenia Rojas' presidential can- York: Monthly Review Press, 1978). Sources
didacy showed that, in principle, the respondents seeking to convey the personal political experience
of both sexes objected to the idea of women as of women are still scarce. See, Rigoberta Menchu,
presidents. However, in practice, they attributed Me llamo Rigoberta Menchu (Havana: Casa de
her defeat to political problems, riot her sex. See las Americas, 1983).
Patricia Pinzon de Lewin and Dora Rothlisberger, 63. Unfortunately, much of the literature deal-
"Participation politica de la mujer," pp. 47-48. ing with women in the Cuban revolution is marred
57. The literature on the latter is abundant, by lack of objectivity and rather limited analytical
but, barring a few selected titles, poor in quality, efforts. Among the most recent printed works
and politically biased. There are over fifty book dealing with Cuban women are: Oscar Lewis, et
titles at the Library of Congress, not counting ar- al., Four Women Living the Revolution (Urbana:
ticles in various journals. In addition to the titles University of Illinois Press, 1977); Laurette Se-
already cited, see Julie M. Taylor, Eva Peron. The journe, La mujer cubana en el quehacer de la
128 World Affairs

historia (Mexico: Siglo XXI, 1980); Elizabeth populares de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires,
Stone (ed.), Women and the Cuban Revolution: CEDES, 1980), pp. 73, 79.
Speeches and Documents by Fidel Castro and 67. Sources for an understanding of the variety
Vilma Espin (New York: Pathfinder, 1981); of feminist standings in Latin America are certain
Margaret Randall, Women in Cuba: Twenty women's journals, private printings of small ac-
Years Later (New York: Smyrna Press, 1981); tivist groups, and the publications of some
Lourdes Casal, "Revolution and Conciencia: women's centers. Most of them are difficult to
Women in Cuba," in Carol R. Berkin and Clara find in the United States. As examples of such
M. Lovett, Women, War, and Revolution (New literature, see FEM (Publication Feminista) in
York: Holmes and Meier, 1980); Max Azicri, Mexico, Vamos Mujer, (publication of Casa de la
"Women's Development Through Revolutionary Mujer, Bogota, Colombia), Brujas (Medellin,
Mobilization: A Study of the Federation of Colombia), and the publications of the Centro
Cuban Women," International Journal of Flora Tristan, in Lima, Peru.
Women's Studies, 2 (1979), pp. 27-50; Isabel 68. See, for example, the information package
Larguia and John Demoulin, "Women's Equality published by the Centro Flora Tristan, Las Mu-
and the Cuban Revolution," in Nash and Safa, jeres en el Peru, edited by Marfil Francke (Lima:
Women and Change, pp. 344-68. See my com- Grafica "Aurea," n.d.). The publications of this
ments in "Recent Studies on Women in Latin center may be considered emblematic of contem-
America," Latin American Research Review, porary feminism in Latin America. See, also,
19:1 (1984), pp. 181-89. Sepa Mujer, published by the Casa de la Mujer, in
64. Margaret Randall, Todas estamos despier- Quito. This organization has branches in several
tas (Mexico: Siglo XXI, 1980); Elizabeth Maier, other Ecuadorean cities. For a more intellectual
Nicaragua: la mujer en la Revolucion (Mexico: form of feminism, see FEM, published in Mexico
Ediciones de Cultura Popular, 1980); Doris Ti- City, and now in its eighth year of existence. ' <? 7
jerino, Inside the Nicaraguan Revolution (Van- 69. See, for example, the following statement
couver, Canada: New Star Book, 1978). by Elssie Bonilla: "En este sentido se configura
65. "Entrevista a Norma Irias, dirigente una doble dimension del poder que determina la
juvenil de Nicaragua," FEM, 8:40 (1985), pp. position social de la mujer, a saber: su position de
45-46; Maxine Molyneux, "Mobilization Without clase y su pertenencia de genero. Clase y genero
Emancipation? Women's Interests, the State and determinan a la mujer y constituyen a su vez dos
Revolution in Nicaragua," Feminist Studies, 11:2 espacios diferentes a los cuales debe atender con-
(Summer 1985), pp. 227-54; Carmen Diana comitemente para poder superar las diferentes
Deere, "La mujer en las cooperativas agrope- dimensiones de subordination que la defmen
cuarias en Nicaragua," (Managua: Centro de In- como ser social secundario." In, Mujer y familia
vestigaciones y Estudios de la Reforma Agraria, en Colombia, p. 29. See, also, Norma S. Chin-
1984). chilla, "Mobilizing Women: Revolution in the
66. This is not the assumption of all Latin Revolution," in Latin American Perspectives, 4:4
American social scientists, but it is the most (1977), pp. 83-102.
widespread. See, for example, the works of Maria 70. To the classic question posed by Freud:
del Carmen Feijoo, Elizabeth Jelin, Glaura V. de "What is what women want?" we could answer
Miranda. In a recent publication, Feijoo and Jelin without much hesitation that a very popular senti-
stated, "La vida de las mujeres estan siempre ment among women calls for capacitacion, or im-
enraizada en el contexto de unidades familiares y provement in their own education, to be able to
grupos domesticos, Las posiciones que las mu- help their families more effectively. We cannot
jeres ocupan en esos grupos establecen las deman- forget that in several countries between one-
das de su trabajo . . . " See Trabajo y familia en quarter and one-third of low-income families in
el ciclo de vida femenino: el caso de los sectores urban areas are headed by women.