Overcoming Difference, Building Gender Solidarity in Bolivia

• In Event: Women's and Feminist Movements

Abstract

In 2012 Bolivia became the only country in the world criminalizing ‘Political Violence and Harassment against Women’ with the approval of Law 243. The approval of Law 243 is remarkable as it is the only one of its type in the world, and it was approved unanimously, with the support of indigenous and non-indigenous congresswomen alike. Indigenous women had previously voted unanimously against a similar proposal in 2006, arguing that this proposal would be used for political purposes against indigenous men. How did women in Bolivia overcome historical tensions between indigenous, mostly rural women, and urban, middle-class women? This paper argues that Law 243 was the result of the indigenous and non-indigenous women building solidarity to take advantage of a gendered political opportunity structure opened by the election of Evo Morales and the initiation of a “Process of Change”. Despite the historical tensions, women from different ethnic groups were able to create a common agenda that included not just Law 243 but a broader “Political Agenda by and for Women” with bill proposals that had an intersectional framework and supported the interests of marginalized women. This alliance was possible because neither group had the political capital to guarantee the inclusion and approval of legislation in support of their own “separate” interests. Workshops, meetings, and marches strengthened ties among indigenous and non-indigenous women. This alliance included a re-thinking of gender from a Bolivian –as opposed to a Western- perspective, to account for Andean notions of gender relations and challenge the influence of Western feminism. The political opportunity structure that facilitated solidarity was, however, frail, and the shifting political climate fractured it, rekindling differences and endangering the common Agenda, including the implementation of Law 243. The paper uses interviews, legislative debates and documents, and reports from women’s organizations to explain how tensions between indigenous and non-indigenous women took advantage of political opportunity structure that was not open had they not built solidarity across different groups.

Author

• Juliana Restrepo Sanin, University of Florida