It rained really hard on Wednesday. The result was snow all of the peaks around Mérida, a very unusual occurrence in these parts.
On Thursday afternoon, we had the pleasure of meeting with a professor at the Unversity of the Andes, whose expertise is in the women’s movement in Venezuelan academia, government, and civil society, and the ongoing struggle for feminist legal reform here. She took us through the history of women’s organizing during the Punto Fijo period of Venezuelan history (1958-1998), and the changes that have—and haven’t—occurred under the 1999 Bolivarian constitution.
One interesting point is that, at the insistence of feminists, the constitution uses both the masculine and feminine forms for every noun and adjective (e.g. la cuidadana/el ciudadano—the citizen), making it absolutely clear that the Bolivarian revolution is for every Venezuelan, regardless of gender.
Some of the biggest gains of the past nine years have been less on the legislative front than in the provision of material resources; the government missions to women in the barrios, Banmujer (a government bank dedicated to making credit and microcredit available to women’s enterprises), and the creation of a network of tens of thousands of meeting points for women throughout the country have brought a level of empowerment and material security unknown under previous governments, however, these tend to be top-down initiatives of the governments institute for women, INAMUJER, rather than coming from the grass roots. In the legislative arena, the struggle for abortion rights and non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender presentation continues, so far unsuccessful in the face of opposition from the Catholic and Evangelical churches, and conservative sectors of civil society.
Venezuela has recently instituted a very progressive law on the right of women to live free of violence, and law that provides for the first time for training of law enforcement personnel in how to protect women from domestic violence, among other things. However, the gap between legislation and enforcement is wide, and violence against women continues here at a very high level.
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (the party of President Chávez) is running lists of candidates in the upcoming state and local elections that alternate one male candidate with one female candidate, and so on.
On Thursday afternoon, we had the pleasure of meeting with a professor at the Unversity of the Andes, whose expertise is in the women’s movement in Venezuelan academia, government, and civil society, and the ongoing struggle for feminist legal reform here. She took us through the history of women’s organizing during the Punto Fijo period of Venezuelan history (1958-1998), and the changes that have—and haven’t—occurred under the 1999 Bolivarian constitution.
One interesting point is that, at the insistence of feminists, the constitution uses both the masculine and feminine forms for every noun and adjective (e.g. la cuidadana/el ciudadano—the citizen), making it absolutely clear that the Bolivarian revolution is for every Venezuelan, regardless of gender.
Some of the biggest gains of the past nine years have been less on the legislative front than in the provision of material resources; the government missions to women in the barrios, Banmujer (a government bank dedicated to making credit and microcredit available to women’s enterprises), and the creation of a network of tens of thousands of meeting points for women throughout the country have brought a level of empowerment and material security unknown under previous governments, however, these tend to be top-down initiatives of the governments institute for women, INAMUJER, rather than coming from the grass roots. In the legislative arena, the struggle for abortion rights and non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender presentation continues, so far unsuccessful in the face of opposition from the Catholic and Evangelical churches, and conservative sectors of civil society.
Venezuela has recently instituted a very progressive law on the right of women to live free of violence, and law that provides for the first time for training of law enforcement personnel in how to protect women from domestic violence, among other things. However, the gap between legislation and enforcement is wide, and violence against women continues here at a very high level.
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (the party of President Chávez) is running lists of candidates in the upcoming state and local elections that alternate one male candidate with one female candidate, and so on.
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