This chapter of Civil Society and Social Movements: Building Sustainable Democracies in Latin America examines women’s social movements that emerged in the 1970s—during the dictatorships and economic crises in South America and guerrilla movements opposed to authoritarian regimes in Central America.
The number of women represented in political leadership in the Americas has increased dramatically over the past thirty years. In 2006, Chile elected its first female president, Michelle Bachelet, and Jamaica its first female prime minister, Portia Simpson-Miller.
In 1975, female politicians and women’s groups from around the world met in Mexico City for the UN’s First World Conference on Women. They discussed the plight of women, from their absence in politics to the unique social and economic problems women face, and devised a set of recommendations for improving women’s status.
Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, women’s policy agencies (WPAs) have been created in the context of democratization and state modernization, a context which has exerted considerable influence over the trajectory of these agencies throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
In 1999, the United Nations proclaimed Nov. 25 ”International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.” Latin America has been a world leader in promulgating conventions on women’s rights.
Women in Latin America and the Caribbean are making political strides. Though long impenetrable, glass ceilings over the halls of power have begun to crack.
Women in Latin America have come a long way but aren’t there yet. The legacy of Iberian colonialism, male-centered Catholicism and an undemocratic past all contributed to societies that subjugated women to men.
Over the past 15 years, Latin American women have made notable political strides. Four have been heads of state and 19 vice presidents.
Women’s political and economic participation strengthens democracy, equality and the economy.
Women are breaking the highest of glass ceilings in politics. On Oct. 28, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner became Argentina’s president-elect. Since March 2006, Michele Bachelet has been president of neighboring Chile.
The Inter-American Dialogue hosted a conversation with Louise Cord and João Pedro Azevedo of the World Bank to discuss their brief, “The Effects of Women’s Economic Power in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
In 2012, the Western Hemisphere continued to make headlines in terms of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights.
Una de las realidades inminentes en América Latina es la escasa o nula representación política de grandes y mayoritarios sectores de la población, entre ellos los y las 150 millones de afrodescendientes que son una tercera parte de la población de la región.
Migration in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) region has become a key engine for economic growth and development and is of significance and importance.
Video
El 8 de mayo, 2023, Tamara Taraciuk Broner, directora del Programa de Estado de Derecho Peter D. Bell del Diálogo Interamericano conversó con NTN24 sobre el proceso judicial para las víctimas de violación en Venezuela.
