Women’s Mobilization in Venezuela: A Historical View

Women in Venezuela have historically organized around their gender identity working together to put pressure on the state in order to have their demands met. Today women are mobilizing around issues related to improvements in economic status, increased women representatives in leadership positions, reproductive and sexual rights, and domestic violence. (Friedman, 2009) The most effective times of mobilization came in the late 1950s, 1970s, and early 1990s and today in which women were able to mobilize in large masses and put pressure on the state causing legislative changes. In each period, the state’s actions shaped the way women mobilized, especially in regards to the state’s transition from dictatorship to democracy to socialism.

In 1958, there was significant cross-party and cross-economic organizing among women since they had a common interest of ending the dictatorship of Jimenez. (Friedman, 1998, 100) The new political leadership during the period of transition to democracy included women by either adopting them into traditional gender roles of the political parties or inclusion by male association only. During the transition phase towards democracy in the 1960s women demobilized due to partisan rivalry. (Friedman, 1998, 126)

In the 1970s women mobilized around legal reforms, the need for women’s state agencies, and the democratization of the home. (Rakowski, 2003, 392) It was during this time period that women were successful in mobilizing for the first national women’s agency, the Presidential Women’s Advisory Commission (COFEAPRE). (Rakowski, 2003a) One of the biggest demands of women in the 1970s was the reform of the Civil Code. The Civil Code was an important feat because prior to the reform children were labeled as illegitimate if their parents were not married and were thus granted fewer rights than legitimate children. Moreover, fathers had no legal obligation to pay child support. (Martinez, 2010, 69)

With the end of the oil boom and world economic crisis in the early 1980s; the devaluation of the Bolivar began to increase extreme poverty in the country. This was the catalyst to the 1989 IMF imposed Structural Readjustment Program that caused chaos in the country. Due to large increases in basic food, gasoline, and transportation costs, the people of Venezuela began looting and rioting in the streets. By 1989, economic hardship forced women to fight for issues on employment, income, food, and subsidies that men were also rallying around. (Rakowski, 2003, 394) By 1990, women were organizing next to men around the creation of a stable democracy for the entire country. “Poverty rates have been closely connected to economic cycles. The total poverty headcount ratio has risen from an estimated 33 per cent in 1975 to 53 per cent in 1988, 64 per cent in 1990 and a peak of 70 per cent in 1995. Later it decreased to 53 per cent in 1997, 41 per cent in 2000 and 39 per cent in 2001.” 

By 1998, when Hugo Chavez was elected President, women were united and ready for change after coming out of the 1989 disaster and neoliberal presidency of Perez. In 1999, through feminist intervention and pressure, Chavez’s new constitutional convention created prohibitions against gender discrimination through the use of gender-inclusive language in the constitution. In 2000, INAMUJER (National Women’s Institute) was created with members of the 22,000 small, state supported women’s groups throughout the country. These groups have been participating in the Missions receiving health care, education, and micro finance opportunities.

In 2003, women organized again across political lines in an effort to protest against the removal of Articles 3 and 39 from the 1998 Law against Violence against Women and the Family. However, the Supreme Court denied their measures. (Rakowski, 2010, 265) Here women were mobilizing against the state and for their human rights. In 2006, the anti-violence law was passed in which rape became a crime and domestic violence courts were created. (Rakowski, 2010, 266) In 2007, the state created a new Domestic Violence law. The world economic crisis that hit in 2008 did not leave Venezuela unaffected. The decline in oil income caused the state to make massive budget cuts particularly in social welfare programs causing people from the middle and lower classes to object. (Rakowski, 2010, 267)

Today, women have duties and opportunities in the Venezuelan Armed Forces. “Carmen Melendez, first Admiral of Venezuela, said on Sunday that the full inclusion of Venezuelan women in the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) has been achieved during Hugo Chavez’s presidential rule.”  This change in women’s role is in part due to the state taking on new forms of speech when engaging the debate around socialism to include women as a key element. “Socialists must be feminists or they won’t be complete human beings. With the support of our women we must strengthen unity in Venezuela... We have to take firm steps towards...the total emancipation of gender and be more just with our women…there is no socialism without feminism.” –Hugo Chavez quote excerpts. (Pearson, 1) Chavez is the first President in Venezuelan history to say publicly that he is a feminist and that feminism is part of socialism. Here Chavez’s rhetoric is creating many outcomes. First, that women and their empowerment are crucial to the success of the socialist state. Second, that women can, and are, allowed to move outside the traditional role and into the military, economic, and political sectors.

Some women believe the increased relationship between the state and women’s mobilizing is indeed problematic. Institutional strengthening is not the route most helpful in creating change, instead grassroots and community building keep the power within the hands of the people. (Martinez, 2010, 89) I argue that historically women’s ability to mobilize with or against the state has been largely affected by class and the economy. While there is still much to be done in the name of women’s equality in Venezuela, history has shown that leadership within the women’s movement has organically grown from the bottom up and will continue with or without the support of the government.

Sources: Friedman, E. (2009). Gender, Sexuality and the Latin American Left: testing the transformation. Third World Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 2, pp 415-433. Friedman, E. (1998). Paradoxes of Gendered Political Opportunity in the Venezuelan Transition to Democracy. Latin American Research Review, vol. 33, 3. Rakowski, C. A. (2003). Women's Coalitions as a Strategy at the Intersection of Economic and Political Change in Venezuela. International Journal Of Politics, Culture & Society, 16(3), 387. Martinez, Carlos. (2010). Venezuela Speaks! Voices from the Grassroots. PM Press. Rakowski, Cathy and Gioconda, Espina. (2010). Women’s Struggles for Rights in Venezuela: Opportunities and Challenges. Women’s Activism in Latin America and the Caribbean: Engendering Social Justice, Democratizing Citizenship. Elizabeth Maier. Pearson, Tamara. (2012). Chavez’s Inconsistent Feminism. Venezuela Analysis website: http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6743