POS BC 3400
Colloquium on Women, Gender and Latin American Politics
Fall 1998
Elisabeth Friedman 

Course Description:

As regime change and political movements have swept across the Latin American region in the last few decades, women have participated in increasing numbers – with increasingly diverse goals. The growing research focused on such participation offers a wealth of theoretical and empirical challenges to assumptions about both about gender and politics. Drawing on the experiences of women in countries from El Salvador to Brazil, this colloquium examines a series of related issues. What does gender mean, and how does it motivate different women to become politically involved? How are the three principal political regime types of Latin America informed by gender ideology? What have been their impacts on women, and what have been women’s responses? How do class, ethnicity/race, regional solidarity, national politics, and international opportunities influence current women's organizing? What does Latin American feminism look like?

Class time will be spent discussing and analyzing works focused on these questions. However, students will also have the opportunity to do in-depth research on related topics of their choosing, to be presented at the end of the semester.

Assignments:

Because this is a seminar and not a lecture course, student evaluations will be divided evenly between participation and research efforts. Regular attendance is mandatory and will only be excused in cases of documented illness.

1. Participation (50% of grade):
   1. Regular oral participation in weekly discussions. (20%)
   2. Regular written preparation for weekly discussions: 1-2 page reading notes based on week’s reading. These are to be handed in each week at the end of class, and should use the different readings to reflect on the central issues for that week. (20%)
   3. One short (5-10 minute) class presentation on one week’s reading. These presentations should identify key points from the readings and pose topics/questions to be discussed by the class as a whole. (5%)
   4. Oral presentation of final paper. These presentations should include the student’s initial research question, how it fits into the larger issues of the field, and what was found through research. (5%)

2. Research Paper (50% of grade):
   This paper must focus on an aspect of the study of women and gender in Latin American politics. It can be an overview of women’s political participation in a country NOT covered in detail in class (thus excluding Brazil, Chile, Peru, Nicaragua, and Cuba), the study of a particular issue of women’s organizing in Latin America using comparative cases, or another topic developed in consultation with the instructor.

   Completion of the final paper involves several steps, as outlined below:

   1. Chose topic and clear with instructor.
      DUE: (Week 5)

   2. Submit research design and annotated bibliography. (10%) The research design should include the following elements:
      1) the research question to answer or hypothesis to prove.
      2) situating the topic in the literature. Why does this topic matter? What is the salience of the research to the field as a whole? Where is it located in broader empirical or theoretical debates? What contribution will it make?
      3) how the research will be carried out. What elements of the subject matter will be covered? What types of evidence will be used?
      4) preliminary outline of major subheadings of paper.
      5) annotated bibliography. It must include at least twelve sources, with a brief paragraph explaining how each source contributes to the research. These sources should include both primary and secondary research. Primary sources are “undigested” – no other scholar has analyzed them. These often include newspaper reports, legislation, court decisions, statements from groups or political figures, government decrees/documents, etc. (the Cuban government documents used in the course are examples of primary sources). Secondary sources are scholarly analyses, and generally include both books and scholarly articles (for example, almost all of what is assigned for reading in this course).
      DUE: (Week 8)

   3. Final paper. (40%). These papers should be 25 pages/6,250 words long and include the following elements:
      1) short introduction that includes the central question or hypothesis, existing debates on the subject, and brief paragraph introducing the body of the paper.
      2) several subsections that develop the argument. Each subsection should be linked to the research question as well as the following sections. Each paragraph within the subsections should clearly articulate one idea central to the subsection.
      3) a conclusion that clearly states the answer to the research question, either in the affirmative or the negative, based on the research set out in the body of the paper.
      DUE: (last day of class)

   NB: All written work should be typed and double spaced. Written work will be graded on content, structure, and style. Please consult Turabian’s Manual of Style if you have questions on citation, etc.

Books for Purchase:

Alvarez, Sonia E. Engendering Democracy in Brazil. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990.

Andreas, Carol. When Women Rebel: The Rise of Popular Feminism in Peru. Westport, CN: Lawrence Hill & Company, 1985.

Chaney, Elsa. 1979. Supermadre: Women in Politics in Latin America. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Dandavati, Annie G. The Women's Movement and the Transition to Democracy in Chile. NY: Peter Lang Publishing, 1996.

Randall, Margaret. 1994. Sandino’s Daughters Revisited: Feminism in Nicaragua. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Smith, Lois M. and Alfred Padula. Sex and Revolution: Women in Socialist Cuba. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Stephen, Lynn. Women and Social Movements in Latin America: Power From Below. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1997. Entire.

Course Reader (readings on the syllabus from the reader are indicated by [READER])

Course Outline:

Week 1: Introduction

Video Showing: Las Madres

Week 2: Gender Analysis in Latin America. What is gender? What does it look like in Latin America? How does it affect women’s interests?

Scott, Joan. “Gender: A Useful Category of Analysis,” in J. Scott, Gender and the Politics of History. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988. [READER]

Franco, Jean. “The Gender Wars.” NACLA, Vol XXIX, No. 4. (Jan/Feb 1996). [READER]

Stephens, Evelyn P. “Marianismo: The Other Face of Machismo,” in G. M. Yeager, ed., Confronting Change, Challenging Tradition: Women in Latin American History. Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 1994. [READER]

Ehlers, Tracy Bachrach. “Debunking marianism: economic vulnerability and survival strategies among Guatemalan wives.” Ethnology Vol. XXX No. 1 (January 1991). [READER]

Molyneux, Maxine. “Mobilization Without Emancipation? Women's Interests, State and Revolution,” in R. R. Fagen, et al. eds., Transition and Development: Problems of Third World Socialism. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1985. [READER]

Alvarez, Ch. 1

Week 3: Gender and Politics in Latin America. How does gender influence how women and men participate in politics?

Chaney, entire.

Krohn-Hansen, Christian. “Masculinity and the Political among Dominicans: ‘The Dominican Tiger’,” in M. Melhuus & K.A. Stolen, eds., Machos, Mistresses, Madonnas: Contesting the Power of Latin American Gender Imagery. London: Verso Press, 1996. [READER]

Weeks 4&5: Women, Gender, and Authoritarianism.How have women mobilized against – and for – authoritarian regimes? How are such regimes gendered?

Week 4: Chile&Argentina

Crummett, Maria de los Angeles. “El Poder Feminino: The Mobilization of Women Against Socialism in Chile.” Latin American Perspectives. Vol. IV, No. 4 (Fall 1977) [READER]

Dandavati, Introduction, Ch. I, II, III.

Bunster-Burotto, Ximena. “Surviving Beyond Fear: Women and Torture in Latin America,” in J.C. Nash& H.I. Safa, eds., Women and Change in Latin America. South Hadley, MA: Bergin&Garvey Publishers, 1986. [READER]

Feijoó, Maria del Carmen and Marcela María Alejandra Nari. “The Challenge of Constructing Civilian Peace: Women and Democracy in Argentina” in J. Jaquette, ed. The Women's Movement in Latin America: Participation and Democracy. (2nd Edition) Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994. [READER]

Week 5: Brazil

Alvarez, Ch. 2-9 Topics to be selected

Weeks 6,7,&8: Women, Gender, and Revolution. What roles have women played in revolutionary movements? How have women been incorporated in revolutionary regimes? To what extent has there been a “revolution within the revolution” in Cuba and Nicaragua?

Week 6: Women and Revolution

Lobao, Linda. “Women in Revolutionary Movements: Changing Patterns of Latin American Guerrilla Struggle,” in G. West and R.L. Blumberg, eds., Women and Social Protest. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. [READER]

Fisher, Lillian Estelle. “The Influence of the Present Mexican Revolution upon the Status of Mexican Women,” in G.A. Yeager, ed., [READER]

Stone, Elizabeth, ed. Women and the Cuban Revolution. NY: Pathfinder Press, 1981. (excerpts) [READER]

Week 7: Cuba

Smith & Padula, entire.

Week 8: Nicaragua

Randall, Margaret. Sandino’s Daughters. 1981. (excerpts) [READER] Randall, entire. Research Design Due

Weeks 9&10: Women, Gender, and Democratization. What has democratization brought for women? To what extent have they been incorporated? What challenges remain, what strategies have been employed? How gendered are democratic regimes?

Week 9: Gendered Transitions

Friedman, Elisabeth. “The Paradoxes of Gendered Political Opportunity in the Venezuelan Transition to Democracy.” Latin American Research Review Vol. 33, No. 3 (Fall 1998). [READER]

Alvarez, Ch. 10-11.

Dandavati, Ch. IV.

Video Showing: In Women’s Hands

Week 10: Women and Democracy

Dandavati, Ch. V, Conclusion.

Schild, Verónica. “New Subjects of Rights? Women's Movements and the Construction of Citizenship in the ‘New Democracies’,” in S.E. Alvarez, E. Dagnino, A. Escobar, eds., Cultures of Politics/Politics of Cultures: Revisioning Latin American Social Movements. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997. [READER]

Chinchilla, Norma Stoltz. “Feminism, Revolution, and Democratic Transitions in Nicaragua,” in J. Jaquette, ed. The Women's Movement in Latin America: Participation and Democracy. (2nd Edition) Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994. [READER]

Jones, Mark. 1996. “Increasing Women’s Representation Via Gender Quotas: The Argentine Ley de Cupos.” Women & Politics 16:4:75-99. [READER]

Weeks 11&12: Local Women’s Movements. What types of women’s organizing are developing in Latin America at the local level? Who is involved, what is addressed, how is change sought?

Week 11: Grassroots groups

Stephen, entire.

Week 12: Peru

Andreas, entire.

Blondet, Cecilia. “Out of the Kitchens and Onto the Streets: Women’s Activism in Peru,” in A. Basu, ed., The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Women’s Movements in Global Perspective. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995. [READER]

Week 13: Organizing at the Regional and Global Level. How have Latin American feminisms changed over the last decades? What are the sources of cooperation and tension among activists? What is the role of the church?

Saporta Sternbach, Nancy, Marysa Navarro-Aranguren, Patricia Chuchryk, and Sonia E. Alvarez. “Feminisms in Latin America: From Bogotá to San Bernardo,” in A. Escobar and S. E. Alvarez, eds., The Making of Social Movements in Latin America. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992. [READER]

Alvarez, Sonia E. “Latin American Feminisms ‘Go Global’: Trends of the 1990s and Challenges for the New Millennium,” in S.E. Alvarez, E. Dagnino, A. Escobar, eds., Cultures of Politics/Politics of Cultures: Revisioning Latin American Social Movements. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997. [READER]

Franco, Jean. “Defrocking the Vatican: Feminism’s Secular Project,” in S.E. Alvarez, E. Dagnino, A. Escobar, eds., Cultures of Politics/Politics of Cultures: Revisioning Latin American Social Movements. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997. [READER]

Weeks 14, 15: Student presentations.