NEGOTIATING CULTURE IN THE PROMOTION OF GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN LATIN AMERICA

Abstract

My purpose in this paper is to dwell on the relevance of “culture” to the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment, with an emphasis on Latin America. In order to better carry out the proposed tasks, I begin with a discussion of what is understood by gender equality and women’s empowerment, and how “culture” has been factored in. Next, I will deal with the current debate on “culture”, delineating the perspective that underlies this work. I will argue that notions of gender are always social and cultural constructions and, as such, open to challenge and change. Finally, I will offer a view of some of the different feminist and women’s movements in the region, looking, in particular, at their struggles over “meaning” – that is, at the “cultural politics” of these movements (Alvarez, Dagnino and Escobar 1998) - and how they challenge and negotiate culture in promoting change towards gender equality. In special, I will dwell into cultural constructs of motherhood, domesticity, marital and sexual rights, and race and ethnicity as they have been built within a patriarchal paradigm that still remains strong throughout Latin America, pointing at how women have challenged them in ways that have contributed to struggles towards gender equality and women’s empowerment in different countries of the region.