index of 2005 conference papers

Women’s participation in Argentina ’s picketing movement: accomplishments and limitations of the redefinition of feminine roles

Freytes Frey, Ada y Karina Crivelli
Universidad del Salvador y Universidad de Buenos Aires

translation by Joan Jurado-Blanco and Evan Frederickson Joiner

Introduction

This paper reuses some of the preliminary results of a research project called “Gender and Unemployed Worker’s Groups: a public or private issue?” The research focuses on the picketing movements that sprung up in Argentina towards the end of the 90’s, stating the importance of considering gender as a factor for analysis.

These movements, whose members are unemployed workers living in conditions of extreme poverty, seem to debunk some of the assertions made by recent socio-political theories. Such theories outline the hardship of the unemployed in matters of communication and political mobilization, stating therefore that it is virtually impossible for them to assume an active role in affecting the nation’s public policy. At the same time, the noticeable majority of female membership in the movements (women make up about 75% of their members) seems to also challenge the traditional stereotypes as to what it means to be “female”, which usually excludes women from public policy making, relegating them to a privileged role in the domestic sphere. This “Division of Political Work” contributes to the perpetuation of gender inequalities and it should not come as a surprise that it was one of the earliest targets of the women’s movements.

Nevertheless, the review of studies about our country’s social movements constituted by women during the eighties (i.e.: the Mother’s of the Plaza de Mayo or the Homemaker’s League) establishes that women’s participation in the public sphere doesn’t immediately imply their challenging of traditional gender stereotypes, in as far that sometimes, not even the content of the demands nor the method of participation generate a redefinition of all the commonly held beliefs that associate the female with the domestic domain.

In this way, our study brings to the forefront the significance and meanings born out of involvement in the picketing movement: it’s main objective is to analyze representations of work, political participation and the roles assigned to men and women both as directors of the movements and as neighborhood representatives, studying in detail the way in which such meanings are incorporated into the demands and battles of the social groups examined.

This paper will address only one of the points mentioned: the impact that involvement in the picketing movements has had on the way women think about themselves and the social roles that they have reclaimed. Subsequently, we will examine some of the limitations that we found in the definition of female roles, beginning with their social participation, and then analyzing the inequalities faced by women within the leadership of the movements.

The data on which this work is based comes from a qualitative empirical study designed to examine the processes by which women construct the meaning of the feminine. We obtained case studies from four picketing organizations (characteristics of each one will be discussed in the following section) which included in-depth interviews with the leaders and neighborhood representatives (both male and female); there was also monitoring – of involvement or non-involvement – within different spheres of social interaction and collective action situations (mass meetings, picket lines and mobilizations); and lastly, analysis of internal documents. Our analysis consisted of a comparison between movements themselves as well as between the leaders and representatives of specific movements (taking into account the different social backgrounds and political paths of both types of leader).

In the next section, before tackling the discussion of the main themes of this paper, we will briefly describe the phenomenon of the picketing movements.

The picketing movements in Argentina: case studies.

The picketing movements in Argentina began towards the end of the 1990s, as one of the most visible expressions of protest against the devastating social consequences of the neo-liberal policies that were implemented by Carlos Menem throughout that decade. Such policies of structural adjustment led to the expulsion of a great number of workers from the labor market, creating an unprecedented rise in unemployment as well as the ‘informal economy’.

In this environment, some in-land areas of the country - those specially affected by such processes of privatization and rationing of the private sector - began to try out ‘innovative’ protest methods such as the picket line. Hence the term ‘piqueteros’, or picketers, was coined and later brought to vogue by the media. These initial demonstrations were carried out by ex-employees and workers from the privatized industries, alongside other members of the local civil society.

Towards the end of Menem’s administration and with the advent of the new Gobierno de la Alianza (1999), the epicenter of the social conflict moved to the province of Buenos Aires. From that point on, picket line movements began to concentrate themselves in the urban capital areas. These new groups had different features from those that rose in-land: they were more stable, better organized and their social base was composed of the unemployed poor.

These movements attained an even greater leading role and public significance with the institutional crisis at the end of 2001, when they were recognized as the representative of the unemployed sector and of those most affected by the neo-liberal model. By early 2002, these groups enjoyed significant growth thanks to the implementation of a broad social program (Plan Jefas y Jefes de Hogar Desocupados, or Plan of Heads* female and male* of Unemployed Households), reaching approximately 1.700.000 recipients and destined to mitigate the direst consequences of the economic crisis, as well as to appease social conflict. It was practically an unemployment subsidy – albeit low paying – for which participants/recipients were to perform four hours of ‘social work’ per day, within the framework of a state organization (in municipalities, for example) or in a non-governmental organization. In as much as the picketing movements played a major role in the implementation and management of these plans (8% of the subsidies were managed by them) these social plans meant an increase in their resources, available to be used in neighborhood activities and in political organization, allowing for the enhanced development of existing groups and the emergence of new ones.

As has just been asserted, there is no one single, monolithic picketing movement but instead, different organizations with diverse leadership, ideologies, and strategic and organizational structures. Our research has dealt with four of them, two of which (MP1 and MP2) have a long record of long data, organized by territory, about its leaders and oldest rank and file members, who became such through the public land-grabbing practices of the conurbano of Buenos Aires during the eighties. They have currently developed mechanisms to achieve national outreach. They are set apart by their political goals (the second one calls itself ‘class-conscious’), although it has been know to have sown strategic alliances on occasion. The other two organizations studied (MP2 and MP4), were born out of the neighborhood efforts of rank and file members and politicians – many of the middle class - who, without belonging to a particular political party, decided to visit the ‘barrios’ or neighborhoods with the goal of organizing them. These two movements, originally tied by a common goal, broke away from each other in 2004 due to ideological and strategic differences.

The re-definition of the feminine roles from social participation

Gender inequalities are rooted in depictions, norms and values that contribute to its legitimization and perpetuation throughout time. Among the causes for gender- related labor divisions, we find certain historical and socially based stereotypes that rendered these separate spheres as ‘naturally different’ for males and females. If the public sphere, in all its different expressions (work, politics, intellectual inventions, etc.) has been the realm of the male during decades since the industrial revolution, then the domestic sphere, along with its diverse responsibilities (maternity, care of children, the sick, and the elderly; home economics and homemaking, and active support of the male head of household), has been the realm of the female.

Most of the women interviewed for our research project express having been socialized according to these traditional models of the ‘female’ and the ‘male,’ expressed for these women in what they were always told to do as well as amidst the habitual routines of family life. Here’s an example of what a leader of the MP2 said:

“It’s like I’ve always said, we were raised with one thing in mind and my grandma always repeated… ‘you have to get married, keep your husband, you need to take care of your daughter, do the laundry, you need to cook, you need to take care of him’…………..”

The questions we ask ourselves at this point then are: what effect does the participation in the picketing movements have on these representations of female roles? What is the relationship between the involvement in such organizations for the unemployed and these constructions of what it means to be a woman?

We concluded from our research that there is no single answer to these questions. On the one hand, we found from our female interviewees that their involvement with the picketing movement and other social struggles was always strongly tied to their performance of traditional roles (maternity, the support of their husband or ‘partner’). But over time, these activities acquired a new connotation. On the other hand, the participation in the different work settings and mobilizations that the movements propose, led women to reject certain stereotypes linked to the feminine, and to challenge some aspects of the gender divisions of tasks and responsibilities.

Let us examine this more closely. The female role which is mentioned most frequently in the interviews, and which is often used to legitimize other roles and activities, is that of the mother. This was most notable within the leaders and representatives that shared the same social background as the other members of the group. For these women, the feeding, caring for and rearing of children appears to be a primordial concern. When faced with such dire living conditions, these responsibilities actually became– for them and for the majority of women that make up the ‘foundation’ of the movements – the vehicle for their involvement and participation in the struggle for social issues and for neighborhood efforts.

…”But we also had to work and do something so we wouldn’t have to stay at home, and go out to work…..out of need.. It’s difficult……so we had to come together to figure out what we could do because when you have little ones you can’t just quit”.

A second commonly mentioned role, albeit less frequent than the first, is that of wife or companion of the man: the woman is the one that supports and effectively holds strong during difficult times. At this point of the discussion, it is necessary to point out a significant piece of data: in three of the movements studied (MP1, MP2 and MP4) some of the female leaders with the greatest acting role were, in fact, the wives of the principal male leaders. In the first two groups, these female leaders have also been in charge of created “women’s space,” designed to talk about the diverse set of problems that directly affect them (from the ‘symbolic’ obstacles to their equal participation and involvement alongside men, to matters having to do with reproductive health, family planning, domestic violence, sexual violence, etc. ). That said, despite the important role that women play within the movements, they continue to emphasize their role as the supporters and ‘facilitators’ of their male partner’s leadership duties and activism.

In other cases but especially those of the neighborhood representatives, the role of companionship of female leaders acquires a new meaning within the context of unemployment. The loss of their traditional function as the ‘breadwinner’ leads them to call into question their own sense of self-worth and often results in a series of unsettling consequences: depression, self-blame, alcoholism, and violent attitudes are some of the problems that we hear frequently in the accounts. When faced with these issues, it is the women that stand up and assume an active role in the search for solutions to the family’s needs.

“I think the crisis hit us all very hard, but it affected women even more because the family suffering was twofold……We were the ones that had to be strong and fight so we could help our husbands rise from their depression. After all, a man who has worked his entire life suddenly feels that he’s worth nothing, not even to collect recycling, eh? Because it’s because of that male dignity, that macho attitude he carries inside, instead we [women] were able to overcome that and not throw our hands up in the air and say: ‘ I guess we’ll just starve to death here inside these four walls’. “

As one can appreciate in the last quote, the roles of both mother and ‘wife’ are not only intimately connected, but they also affect the place of the woman in her family. At the same time, however, these roles give meaning to the new activities that women develop within the picketing movements.

To counter the above, and as we had pointed out earlier, these new practices lead to the questioning of other aspects of the traditional ‘female’ models, especially those linked to the “confining” of women to the domestic sphere. In our interviews, the representatives and leaders tend to reject the image of womanhood given to them while growing up, which dictated passivity and obedience to men, an almost exclusive devotion to the care of all family members and ‘domestic chores’.

This rejection has various causes. Among the interviewed leaders there are a few with histories of feminist activism and whose work within the organizations was specifically directed towards the struggle against gender stereotypes. Nevertheless, we learned from most of our interviewees that it was their actual involvement in different fields and their work in the picketing movement that put into question such long-established gender roles.

On the one hand, female involvement in these organizations made it possible for women to begin to step out of a strictly domestic space. Initially motivated by the need to procure the means of survival for the family – and legitimated, as we have seen, by already existing female roles – women’s participation in their neighborhoods consisted of the establishment of networks and relationships based on mutual solidarity and struggle.

A shared work space enabled the emergence of common needs and shared solutions, and eventually allowed for the creation of the previously mentioned ‘women’s spaces’ in three of the groups studied (MP1, MP2 and MP3).

Furthermore, women’s involvement in community mobilizations and meetings contributed to the creation of an awareness of their own capabilities (in contrast to the previous devaluation of such): the ability to tackle neighborhood tasks linked to solving the most urgent matters (clothing, soup kitchens, food hand-outs, survival endeavors), as well as the political organizing and involvement. In a sense, political involvement creates political competence: the public realm becomes ‘an issue for women”, as a consequence of their feeling ‘competent’ enough to get involved in these types of activities.

“… women had to get involved in the picketing movement, yes, but it turned out to be very beneficial for them, having to make such a serious move, right?....she now felt that she was somebody, that she was an important person as well, that she could do things, which is not the same thing as being locked-up inside four walls and believing what one has always being told: ‘you’re good for nothing!’.. ‘what do you think you’re going to talk about in a meeting if you don’t even have any teeth?’… “what are you going to say to the officials, that you don’t have any shoes?’.”

Lastly, the groups that created specific spaces for the discussion of women’s issues and all of the exchanges within this context – supported by the creation of workshops and training classes in which feminist activists frequently participated – contributed to the unabashed questioning of those ‘female’ stereotypes. Participation in these spaces led women to question gender injustices (for example, identifying the work divisions and attitudes known familiarly as ‘chauvinistic’ or ‘unjust’) and to pursue the vindication of several women’s rights (such as reproductive freedom). These activities further contributed to the newfound conviction among these women that they had the political aptitude to engage in a collective struggle for these rights (among them, the right to address of domestic violence).

From what’s been explained up to now, it has been shown that the transformation of the roles assumed by women has had a strong political content: social work in the neighborhood, participation in assemblies and other representative bodies, street demonstrations and mobilization. However, due to the environment of unemployment that has affected all of these families directly, we identified very few changes in their actual work situation. As has been indicated when describing the nature of the picketing movements, one of their achievements – directly linked to their development as social organizations – has been the granting of ‘social plans’ for their members. Such plans demand certain social activities in return, which in the case of these movements, have resulted in many public works in the neighborhoods, pending the resolution of the most basic needs of the members of the community (clothing, dining halls, community vegetable gardens, micro-projects). It is in these activities, which we have called “community or social work”, that women have asserted themselves.

However, the perception of these “plans” has also affected the traditional division of roles within the home. The main beneficiaries of these effects have been the women themselves, for these changes have made it possible for women to become principal providers of family income, replacing or complementing the men in this function. If this type of situation is looked at positively as a temporary means of enduring economic crisis (the general hope is that men will find work again in the formal job market), the collection of monthly subsidies then permits women to control at least a part – and often a considerable part – of the family income.

Furthermore, some of the examined movements have begun to lead to the development of productive projects, coupled with a change in the socio-political lines impelled by the actual government (which seeks a gradual substitution of the social plans for more active governmental policy based on the support of incentives which would generate employment, though such programs might prove risky). Within this framework, some of the neighborhood representatives who were interviewed referred to their participation in these types of projects, or to their hope to become involved in such projects, making evident their decision to unite with small businesses and work cooperatives. As such these types of initiatives have recently begun to establish themselves within the movements, and we will have to see in the future what impact they have on the on the incorporation of female “picketers” into the labor market.

To close this section, it is necessary to note that the widening of traditional gender roles or the “exit from the domestic sphere” that we have discussed up to this point appears in the discourse of our interviewees to be extremely difficult, for it requires a true struggle in the interior of the home. To this effect, there are recurring accounts of family conflicts that further engender female participation in the movements – domestic violence, as well as accusations and discussions that can even lead to the eventual dissolution of the relationship.

“Y ahí es donde empiezan a salir a la ruta... hay compañeras que te cuentan que las han cagado a palos y le decían '¡vos vas a buscar macho a la ruta, claro, con ese pibe!”.

In the next section, we will examine a perceptible aspect of these movements, which will allow us to evaluate to a certain degree the scope of the reformulation of feminine roles within of the movements: for this, we will turn to the participation of women in directing these movements themselves.

Limits and tensions involved in women’s participation: Access to positions of leadership

As we mentioned in the introduction, women perform a fundamental role in the structure and visibility of the picketing movements, in that they constitute approximately 75 % of their membership. Nevertheless, this majority presence of women is not reflected equally in the constitution of the leadership of these organizations. We believe this to be a point that marks a significant limit in the redefinition of the feminine roles that we discussed earlier, and for this reason, we will analyze it in depth.

Our own interviews show that there are women that fulfill leadership roles on a regional level and, to a lesser extent, on a national level. But, in general, men are over-represented in such leadership positions. And the leaders with the greatest presence and recognition among national public opinion are invariably men.

On the contrary, many of the neighborhood representatives are women. In fact, the local space of the neighborhood appears to be a center of women’s action, particularly in the completion of daily activities that arise with any movement (dining halls, lunchrooms, gardens, the supply of clothing for the community, and to a lesser degree, productive enterprise). Such organizational endeavors, as well as the presentation of the needs and demands of the neighborhood before the district and regional boards, is precisely the work of both male and female neighborhood representatives alike.

Furthermore, we may infer from the interviews that there exists for these neighborhood representatives a formative process of legitimacy and recognition. The roots of this process lie precisely in representatives’ work within communal spaces and on the establishment of relationships of confidence and proximity between neighbors, which stem from the resolution of concrete problems of diverse natures. In this process, we notice once again the effectiveness of mechanisms of participation that we examined earlier: the involvement in specific activities of the movement (including the participation in mobilizations and assemblies) contribute to the generation of “political competence” for many women who little by little assume responsibilities of leadership at a neighborhood level. Their consciousness of their own abilities is reinforced by discussions and workshops carried out within the framework of the “women’s spaces,” in the three organizations where such spaces exist.

“And afterwards we women say that we collaborated a great deal because of the many cases that we have taken grasp of the situation in the movement of the unemployed, and today the women are the leaders of the neighborhood. It helped, right? The entire process grew out of women’s space.

It is necessary to take into account that a general characteristic of these movements is a focus on the establishment of face to face relationships between the leaders and the other members of the group. Thus the neighborhood representatives as well as the directors of the movements are people who “can always be approached for help” in resolving a variety of problems. Their participation ranges from the facilitation of basic needs (food, healthcare for the sick, clothing, access to a social plan) to the listening to and mediation of conflicts between individuals, families and neighbors.

As I am the mother of the movement (…) They always find in me a person who they can chat with … I am there to listen to the protests or the wants or the suffering of our people.

As clearly illustrated in the previous quotation, the capacity for listening is linked, in the traditional models of gender, to “the feminine.” Thus it is understandable that these women are able to assume the role of neighborhood representatives with relative ease, particularly with the help of the progressive security and confidence provided by their work in the space of the community. Nevertheless, as has been said, this “close” and “personal” type of leadership is also present among the directors of the movements (even among those with principal roles in the national public sphere). But in the case of such directors, there exists an additional quality: the strategic vision required to define the political orientation and the specific positions of the movement as a whole. Thus it is not strange that there are so few women who make it to these upper leadership positions, for deep within many of them the idea persists that such strategic vision, like other types of political competence, is a “masculine attribute.”

“I will say again that it is not a question of gender. I have discussed it a couple of times with other women in other organizations, how … ‘the visible face is always a man’ … That could be, but I say, if you want my opinion, it’s not that I don’t have the capacity to speak, but yes, a male leader constructs his language and handles his form well. In order to transmit a message to society, when you’re on live television, where you know that there are thousands of people watching, you have to know how to transmit what you are protesting on multiple occasions, and the male leaders are better prepared to do that. It isn’t because it’s a man or a women, I say, it’s about who has the capacity to do it. So I prefer that they give those five minutes of press to a male leader so he can make the message as clear as possible.”

In the face of this type of agreement, the female directors and representatives who are dedicated a feminist ideal – whether coming from a past of previous feminist activism or influenced by the activities carried out in the “women’s spaces” – criticize the naturalization and legitimization of the gender inequalities which they seek to eliminate. In effect, if these directors recognize that differences do exist in the political capacity of men and women, they are quick to point out that such differences are the product of unequal training and experience in the field and, therefore, such gendered differences may be eliminated through greater women’s participation in the movements and through adequate preparation.

With this in mind, these female directors and representatives are demanding greater women’s participation in the leadership of the movements, noting that often the forms of women’s involvement in the organizations only allows for activities appropriate to the domestic sphere (food, clothing and care for the children and other neighbors, primary healthcare and prevention, small productive projects designed to satisfy basic necessities). As a result, in their eyes, there exists within the picketing movement a certain logic that perpetuates the very gender stereotypes which women have sought to break by means of the struggle to redefine what it means to be a woman.

The persistence of such stereotypes can be seen reflected in the tensions that various interviewees mentioned having experienced in relation to the responsibilities associated with the various roles they fulfill: tasks associated with the domestic sphere (responsibilities as a wife, care for the children – this appears to be the most difficult to delegate -, general housekeeping) demand time and attention which conspire to make it difficult for women to assume a larger role within the leadership of the organizations.

“…A women who has a man in here house is limited because attending meetings takes a lot of time; it also implies that he begins to feel the predicament of going to such places, to the spaces where there is an organization for men who are within the movement. And predicament is time, and that implies that if you have a man, the man is torn in the same way that you are, but many times he doesn’t understand that a woman can delegate the responsibility for the children to him or to another relative and also go out and organize ourselves. So we say, more is permitted of men than of us…”

In this quotation the limitations on the redefinition of feminine roles are clearly evident. We note in this case the persistence of a cultural imaginary that assigns to the woman the exclusive responsibility for the reproductive labor within the home. As such, political participation and the community tasks appear as new activities that simply come to join the traditional female functions, generating among the directors and representatives an overwhelming feeling of overload and overextension. At the same time, in cases in which both husband and wife are dedicated activists, the man’s participation in the public sphere is generally prioritized, reinforcing the woman’s role of “support.”

In closing:

At the beginning of this paper, we asked ourselves to what degree and in what manner women’s participation in the picketing movements has generated changes in the social roles that women assume and the way that they think about themselves. After the discussion which has developed over the length of these pages, there is no doubt that such participation has the potential to call into question some of the stereotypes surrounding “the feminine” in which the majority of our interviewees had been socialized, particularly those that reinforce gendered social parameters based on the “natural” differences between the performance of men and women.

It has been illustrated that there exists a certain continuity between the tasks associated with the domestic sphere, traditionally designated as “feminine,” and the social work that women in the movements have accomplished within the space of the neighborhood. This passage from the private to the public produces a true redefinition of women’s practices, giving a social dimension to personal or familial problems. It is also fitting to speak of the persistence of other features of the traditional model of the woman (the importance assigned to the roles of mother and of wife): these characteristics themselves tend to motivate political participation, while in the process, acquiring new connotations. It is necessary to note that this continuity has permitted the mass incorporation of women into the picketing movements, for such involvement would have been impossible if it had required an absolute rupture from these women’s previous experiences.

Furthermore, the opening up of the public sphere for women has been reinforced by participation in moments of social struggle, a process which contributes to the generation of women’s own sense of “political competence,” as manifested in the various leadership roles which our interviewees have assumed in the movements. This general participation is coupled with the role of specific “women’s spaces,” where debates are formulated – often with the involvement of feminist activists – which serve explicitly to call into question these gender stereotypes. But we must warn that all of this work is still in process and far from complete.

Thus the third point of this paper illustrates the permanence – although on an implicit level, as is the case with any type of “common feeling” which orients concrete practices – of certain “cultural mandates” that designate woman as the sole bearers of home labor. As a result, women assume new practices and responsibilities, but these only come in addition to the traditional ones. Thus the gendered elements of the cultural imaginary generate, as we have seen, tensions between these roles that limit women’s involvement in the movement and, above all, their participation on the highest levels of its leadership.

index of 2005 conference papers