LATI 50

1
WOMEN, GENDER, AND EMPOWERMENT

• LATI 50
• Introduction to Latin America

2
MIDTERM EXAM

• Coverage Weeks 1-6
• Grade share 33 (without optional paper)
• Format closed-book exam (no electronic devices)
• Date February 20 (Thursday, in class)
• Duration 80 minutes (330-450 pm)
• Bring blue books and writing materials

3
STEREOTYPES

• Powerless in a macho world
• Passivity, docility
• Focus on family, children
• Lack of interest in politics and public sphere
• Marianismo (a controversial concept)

4
WOMENS INTERESTS

• Practical interests position within gendered
  division of labor (e.g., as mothers and spouses)
• Strategic interests alternative social codes
  deriving from broad analysis of womens
  subordination (e.g., role in workforce, politics)
• Difference from U.S. interests in economic
  equality (e.g., glass ceiling) and sexual
  liberation emphasis on distinctiveness of
  womanhood
• Feminine or feminist?

5
WOMEN AND AUTHORITARIANISM

• Compliance courtship by dictators
• Opposition merger of practical and strategic
  interests
• Articulation of demands
• Mothers (and Grandmothers) of Plaza de Mayo in
  Argentina
• Arpilleras in Chile
• militant motherhood in Brazil
• Pro-democratic, left-of-center orientation

6
WOMEN AND DEMOCRACY

• Disintegration of solidarity
• Quotas in legislatures ( 30 percent)
• Female presidents prominent widows
• Isabel Martínez de Perón (Argentina)
• Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (Nicaragua)
• Mireya Moscoso (Panama)
• Female presidents successful politicians
• Michelle Bachelet (Chile)
• Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Argentina)
• Laura Chinchilla (Costa Rica)
• Dilma Rousseff (Brazil)

7

• Comparisons with the United States?