Gender and Sociopolitical Change in Twentieth-Century Latin America

Sandra McGee Deutsch

The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 71, No. 2. (May, 1991), pp. 259-306.

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Gender and Sociopolitical Change in

Twentieth-Century Latin America

SANDRA MCGEE DEUTSCH

I
recent years gender has emerged as a subject of histori-
N
cal inquiry. It is a coinplex term, one not susceptible to
a single, facile definition. I11 a pathbreaking article, Joan
Scott offered a multifaceted explanation of gender. In the first part of her
definition, she viewed it as "a constitl~tiveelement of social relatio11ships
based on perceived differences between the sexes." This element, in turn,
rests on four others: "symbolic representations" of these differences; "nor-
mative concepts" interpreting these symbols; institutions that help deter-
mine the social relations between inen and women; and the ways in which
people slll~jectivelycreate their own identities. Scott tied this first part of
her explanation to another that is "interrelated but must he analytically
distinct"-that gender also is "a primary way of signifying relationsl~ips
of power." She perceptively noted that "this part of the definition might
seem to helong in the normative section of the argument, yet it does not,
for concepts of power, though they inay build on gender, are not always
literally about gender itself."' Seen in this light, genderecl rhetoric and
policies can symbolize and express iinportant facets of the desired political

I thank Charles Anrhler, Rosemary Brana-Shute, Elsa Chaney. Alicia Frolrman. Donna Guy,
Linda Wall, Kathleeli Staudt. K. Lynn Stoner, and Maria Elena Valenzuela for sr~ggestiolrs
and materials; the UTEP Minigrant Progr'lm for its financial support; and, particularly,
Cheryl hlartin for her \aluable comments on tlie various dlxfts of tlris article. Tlrese peraons
are not. however. responsible for the opinions espressecl.
1. Joan Scott, "Gender: 4 Useful Category of Historical .\nalysis," A ~ n c r i c c lHisto,-icul
~~
Rcuiew, 91:s (Dec. 1986), 1067-1070. On definitions of gender alao are Susan C. Bourque,
"Gender and tlie State: Perspectives fro111 Latin .\mrrica," in \\'OJII~II,
the State, ci11t1Dcccl-
opnlcnt, ed. Sue Ellen Cliarlton, Jana Everett, and Kathleen Staudt (Albany, 1989); "Edito-
or propositions as
rial," Signs, i 3 : 3 (Spring 1988). 399-402. 1"ly labeling of the co~npo~rents
first and second does not imply any ranking.
260 ( HAI-IK / blXY / S . i N D R i AICGEE DEUTSCH

and social order. Scott's linkage of these two propositions, as she called
thein, suggests that one cannot analyze either in isolation from the other.
The seconcl part of Scott's explanation also suggests that one cannot
separate politics from gender. Throughout history, people in all social
ranks have coinprehendecl, interpreted, and justified authority relations
in society by referring to what is close to them and readily understand-
able, nainely authority relations in the home. As Scott pointed out, those
who have lauded a hierarchical order have often seen the "well-ordered
family" as the microcosm of the "well-ordered state." In this regard, one
might cite the bourgeoisie in nineteenth-centurp Europe and the United
States, which viewed the nature and roles of the sexes as unchanging. Its
rigid definitions of mai~l~oocland woinanl~oocl,along with its narrow code
of proper sexual practices, helped to reinforce and justify the division of
labor along gencler and class lines in capitalist industrial society and the
bourgeois values of frugality, discipline, '~ndhard work. This is but one ex-
anlple of the deeply iinbeclclecl tendency to express relationships of power
in gendered terms.'
Power relations and gender relations are, then, intertwined. This im-
plies that those who would attempt to o\7erthro\\~the social hierarchy
would also need to break its synlbolic ties with the hierarchy within the
family and redefine gender in a inore clemocratic fashion. If, instead,
leaders ancl the inasses continue to define sex roles in traditional terins
and use this framework as a paradigin for the state and society, they may
undermine the entire process of political and social change.
Inspired by the ideals of socioecoi~onlicequality, inass clemocrac~y,and
self-determination, progressive governments and movements in twentieth-
century Latin Ainerica have sought to tr:insform their respective societies.
Their egalitarian goal has often incll~deda desire to change inherited gen-
der roles and family structure.' Presumably, the degree to which they

2 . Scott. "Gender." 1071; also see 1070-1074. On the ~ r i n e t r e n t h - c e n t qbourgeoisie.

see George L. hloase, 5atiot~crlisrrla r ~ dSestrality. Ltli~ldle-Class
Jlorc~lity(1rlc1 Sescrcil Yorrrls
in &foderrl Europe (\ladison. 1985); Carroll Smith-Rosenbel-g, Disorderly Coridtrct. l'i.sio~~s
of Gerlder i n l'ictorian Air~er-ica( h e w York. 1985) Mary P. Ryan, 'Femininity ancl Capital-
is111 in Antebellum America," in Capitcl1ist Patriot-chy arid the Case for Socialist Ferrlirlisrr~.
ed. Zillali R. Eise~rstei~r
jNe\i~York, 1979). 151-172. For other eva~rrplesof this tendency sce
Yatalie Davis, Society arrd Ctrlttrrc irl Early Jloderrl Frarlce (Stanford, 1975). 124-129.
3. Classic descriptions of the "traditional" gender s!,stem in Latiir America include
Evelyn Stevens, "Xlarianis~iio,the Other Face of Macliisino in Latin America," 89-101. and
Cornelia Butler Flor'~,"The Passive Fe~naleand Social Change: .I Cross-Cultural Compari-
son of \Vomen's hldgazine Fiction," 59-85, both in Ferr~crlca r ~ dJlale in Latin Arrzericc~.ed.
41111 Pescatello (Pittsburgh, 1973). Scliolars Irave freqnentl!. accepted the cult of nrotlier-
liood and other aspects of the gendrs systeni discussed in tlrese \i~orksils having persisted
u~lchangedo\.er centuries. Rigorous studies of the origiirs, e\olntion, and workings of the sys-
tem are needed, pioneering \i~orksi~iclr~de Silvia hlarina Arrom, The li'orrler~ of JJesico City,
GENDER AIVD SOCIOPOLITIC.4L CH4NGE 26 1

have revised sex roles and the gendered imagery they have used to express
ancl justify their political actions should help reveal the nature of their
reforn~programs. If for various reasons thry have decided to restrain the
process of change they initiated or encouraged, they may have used the
imagery of gender to express and justify these limits. One might also ex-
pect their opponents to have criticized the reforms ill terms of traditional
gender notions.
31y original aim was to write a historiographical essay assessing the sec-
ondary literature on gender in the context of political and social change. As
my case studies, I chose revolutionary hlexico (1gio-24), the first Peronist
administration in Argentina (1946-j5), Cuba under Fidel Castro (1959-),
and the Unidad Popular period in Chile (1970-73).;' Since the existing
works did not adequately cover the issues, I cleciclecl to add consider-
ation of printed primary sources, suggest sonle tentative hypotheses, and
point out areas for future research. Thus what follows is a combination of
literature review and substantive article.
This essay covers the two parts of Scott's definition and the subtle ties
between them. I explore the nleaning of the first part, or, as Scott puts
it, "how politics constructs gender," by studying symbols, rhetoric, and
programs relating to the definition of lnale and female roles. The Cuban
and Chilean governments professed to welconle important chi~ngesin the
status of men and women, whereas the hIexican and Argentine envisioned
more limited changes. Considering the second part of the definition, "how
gender constructs politics," these distinctions are not surprising. for the
desired gender roles symbolized the desired social and political relations
as a Deeper analysis of the second part, however, shows that
the statements and actions of protagonists in all four cases had implicit
meanings that at times contradicted the explicit messages. Their manipu-
lation of gendered concepts for political ends leads one to question the
revolutionary character of the governments under study.

1790-1857 (Stanfhrd. 1985);Asuncibn Lc~vrin,ed., Sercrc~litf~ cirid Jlnrringc in Colonic111,citin

Ainericci (Lincoln, 1989); Ram611 4 . Gutiesrez, "Honor Ideolog\,, hlarsiage Kegotiatio~i,and
Class-Gender Do~ni~iatio~r in New hlexico, 1690-1846," I , n t i ~ l ~ , ~ ~ e rI'crspccticcs,
icn~l 12:1
(Winter 1985), 81-104.
4, hltliougli tlie econoli~icand gender-related reibrms of the 1y:jos niiglrt have niacle it a
Period nrore vvorthy of study, I li~nit111yexa~ninationof Mexico to tlre epic re\.olution (1910-
20) and the revolutionary governnrents of Yuc'ltBn (1915-18. 1922-24). I do so because of
the greater abundance of secondary literature on tliese years, ancl in order to depict ,I longer
period. I include staten~ents11). nienihers of the Partido Liberal SIexicano that p e d a t e d
1910 to provide additional i~rsiglrtinto the early revolution.
I discuss feminism and tlie incorporation of \\omen into tlie labor force olrly insofar as
they directly affected official gerrderecl rhetoric and programs.
5. Scott. "Gender," 1070.
262 ( H4HK / \LAY / S4KDR.4 AICGEE DEUTSCH

Mexico
La historia prirnitiva de la mujer es contmria a1 estado social y
politico que actualinente guarda.
-Salvador hl\rarado, 1 ~ ~ 1 5
In its epic phase (1910-20) and the first years that followed, the Mexi-
can Revolution contained many tendencies at \var n7ith each other. Even
n~enlbersof the same factions, such as President \7enustiano Carranza's
(1917-20) allies, often disagreed on vital issues. The gender notions of lead-
ing re\rolutionaries also exhibited these differences. Yet Go\,ernor Sal\,ados
Alvarado of YucatAn (1915-18) and other spokespersol~sagreed that the
re\,olution would have far-reaching effects on gender roles. They secog-
nized that a re\rolution that undermined the social hierarchy would in-
evitably influence the relations between men and women.We\rertl~eless.
the gender-related rhetoric and programs often belied the equality that
X'fexican revolutionasies ostensibly sought.
Before the revoll~tion.nlost h'lexican \\70111c11carried out their tasks
within the honle or the family econoinic unit. Only 8.82 percent in lylo
I~elongedto the work force, a figure that ignores the labor of rural women
in the fields alongside their hl~sbanclsand cllildren. The duties of middle-
and upper-class women. a tiny minority of the female popl~lation,had
become sharply cliflerentiatecl from those of illen: these wolnen found
themselves enshrined within the cloillestic sphere, their tasks limited to
the home, the falnily, education, and religious endeavors. Partl). for this
reason, many hfexicans viewed women as the church's natural allies in the
latter's conflict with the state. Nevertheless, liberal and other progressive
mo\7ements had attracted some femi~lesupporters.'
Women actively participated in the revolution from its beginnings.
They protested against the Porfirio Diaz governnlent (1876-1911) through
strike action, writings in the opposition press, and inembership in the
ai~arcl~osyi~clicalistParticlo Liberal Yfexicano (PLhl). Once the actual con-

6. .\lv,~rado in El Primer Co~igrew feminist,^ de Yucatdn, Ar~trles dc ccti rri~r~~or-trble

(Slerida, 1916), 31, hlaria El\.ira Bermildez. "La familia." i l l 1,ti rirlrr .socic~l.\ ~ l z
(~.s(i~rlbleu .
of dl8xico. Cincueiltc~c~fiosdc recolucitirl. 2 vols, illesico C ~ t y .1961). 88; Her1111laGalilldo,
Estrrdio tle la Srtci. Herr,iiln C;t~liridoC ~ I rrlotiuo
I tlc los tcrrltis qtre lit111 dc t~brolccr-reel1 rl
scglrndo Corigrcso Fe~r~iriisttrtie Ytrct~tcir~(hI+rida, ig1G). 15.
7. On hlexican women before 1910 see ASI-om,\Vorrlert; Jean Franco, P/ottirig \ l h ~ r t o i :
Gentler cinrl Represeritc~tionin Mexico (Ne\v York. 1989). ,3-101: C ~ I - I ~ Ra~noa I ~ I I Escan-
don et al., I'rt~soicin y trnnspnrencicr. I,n rr~t~jrr- e11 In histor-io rle A!IP.xico (Xlexico Cit!,

198;): Mary K . Vaughan, "\.Yomen, Class, and Education in hlexico, 1880-1928." ill LIUrr~erz

in Lntin Anierictr: An Anthology froiri Latiri A ~ r ~ e r i c Pcrspccticcs

t~~l (Riverside. 19;~~).63-

Gg; Frederick C. Turner, "Los efectos de la pasticipaci6n t'elue~linaen la revolucibn de

1910." Historia J1c~xicaliti,16:4 (April-June I$;), 604-60- The percentage is taken horn
Turner. 605.
GENUEK AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 263
flict began in 1910, woinen served as organizers, nurses. fundraisers,
spies, journalists, and even fighters. The best-remembered fenlale activ-
ists, however, are the .solclndera.s,u.110 provided sustenance, lnedical care,
and elnotional support for inen at the front. In reality, as Elizabeth Salas
pointed out, the distinction between the solr1adern.s and feinale soldiers
was not always clear-cut. The revolution also proinpted the beginnings of
a feminist movement, particularly in YucatAn, where it received official
hacking.'
Male revolutionaries of various ideological persuasions interpreted
feinale activisnl in ternls of u ~ m e n ' scustomary duties in the church and
the home. Even before the armed stage of the revolution, PrAxeclis Gue-
rrero, a contribl~torto PI,kI newspapers, used religious inlagery to tle-
scribe female roles in the enlergillg conflict: "la justicia elige por sacerdoti-
sas alas heroinas qlle adoran el martirio." He viewed their cause as a pure,
rec1eml'tive struggle requiring "la pasi6n ardorosa, activa y abnegada que
lleva a 10s apostoles a1 sacrificio." Given the P1,kl's hatred of the church,
this terminology seems paradoxical. Revolutionaries may have been ap-
pealing to fenlale piety, exhorting the inasses in terms the latter could
comprehend, trying to create new secular saints, or legitilnizing their
anticlericalism. O r perhaps they could not free themselves of old ways
of viewing uTomen or their own struggle. Guerrero praised female mili-
tants as delicate, pure, beautiful, conscious, and self-sacrificing, yet also
willful, strong, and, significantly, "virile" (ciril). Despite the last three
"masculine" qualities, the women's task remained to inspire and aitl their
inale comrades, lovers, and relatives, a vie\$, that PLhI leader Ricardo
Flores &Iag6n echoed; thus, women themselves could not 1,e the su1,jects
of revolution. I11 sinlilar religiol~sterms, inen justified the revolutionary
and feminist militancy of Elvia Carrillo Puerto, sister of Felipc, the gov-
ernor of Yucatan ( 1 ~ ~ 2 2 - 2 4by
) , calling her "la Rlonja Roja." The writers
of corridos converted the nanleless legions of courageous, tough fenlale
conlhatants and soldaderas into submissive, feminine, romantic figures
like "La Adelita." Me11 characterized some well-known feinale soldiers
and other woinen they col~lclnot fit into custoinary roles as nonfeminine,
manly, and exceptional.'

8. Shirlene Ann Soto. The ,\fericciii \ I ' ~ I I I

~\L I Strrd!/
I: o f H e r Participatioil ill the Recolu-
tion, 19io-ig4o (Palo .4lto, 1979). 9-32; .41111" hlacias, "\Vo~llelland the hlexican Re\<olution.
1910-igzo," The Arrlericns, 36:1 (Jt11y 1980). 53-82: John Reed, I~isrrrgerltMexico (\liddle-
sex, England, reprint of 191.1. ed.), 88-91. 144, 160, 217; Elizabeth Salas. Sol(1ndercjs iii tllc
Mexicciir Alilitary. Myth nt-rd Ilistory (.4rlstin, 1990). eqp. 73.
9 , Prixedis 6. Guerrero. "Las re\,oluciona~.ias"and "La mujer." in RegerlernciBn 1900-
1918: La corriente i~ihrisraclical tle In recolrrcidii iilesiccjilcj (le i y i o 11 trcjvis de str peri6dico
de co~rlbnte.ed. AI-mandoBdrt1.a (hlexico City. 1977). 198-199 and 202. respectively. These
articles appeared in either Recolrrciciri or Piirlto Rojo brtween 1907 and 1910, according to
264 ( HAHK 1 hL4Y ( SANUR.4 h1CCEE U E U T S C I I

This interpretation of women's activis~nresenlbled the traditional con-

ception of the ideal female personality, or \Iarianism, the cult of motherly
devotion and self-sacrifice. TVhen discussing the role of the state in pro-
tecting women's rights under marriage, legislators during the Carrailza
l>i-esidency noted that "la m ~ ~ j e yl - nluy
, especialmente la mujer mexicana,
es toda abnegaci6n y ternura." According to Alvarado women were natu-
rally loving, sweet, ancl instinctive hut at the same time astute and tireless
in glvlng of themselves to thelr fainllies. T h e w spokesmen, 1 ' s \veil as
the PL31 writers, stressed fenldle self-denial, whicll stood for more t h ~ n
just a desirable trait in women. I11 terms of how gender constructs poli-
tics, it represented the noble sufferillg of the hlexican people ("el pueblo
sufrido") and the attitude that revolutionary leaders wanted the lnasses
to u p h o l ~ l . 'While
~ they recollllnellded abnegation, they did not advo-
cate downright passivity, which also figured anloilg the Marian virtues yet
would not serve the purpose of a nation in arms.
Tllc Virgin of Guadalupe, whose banner accompanied Emiliano
Zapata's army in combat, enlbodied these hlnrian qualities and others as
well. TVith her indigenous identity and pre-Columhian associations, the
\'irgin had enlerged as a protector of disinherited groups, a remembrance
of tiines in u~hichnative hfexicans ruled themselves, and a symbol of hope
and rebellion against the al~tl~oritni-ian Spanish "fatl~ers"and their legacy
during independence. As such, she stood for the revolutioil itself, ancl
the egalitarian Zapatistas appropriated her mantle. In their effort to con-
trol the revoll~tion,Carrancistas attempted to steal her image from the
rival Zapatistas. Mexicalls on all sides of the revolution reve;ed the Vir-
gin, indicating that she may have represented diverse values; clearly, this
syrnbolisnl requires careft11 study." \T1hatever its meaning, the usage of

Rartra. Also see Ricardo Flores Slagon. "A la mujer." 235 (from Reger~ewcii,,~, Sept. 24.
1910): Gilbert h I . Joseph, R e ~ o l u t i o F'rof11
~l Withorit: f'rrcatci~~. ,\lerico, c~ndtlie I'llitrd Stnte.9.
1h8o-lgz4 (Cambridge, 1982). 218; Ilene Yirginia O'\lalley. "Propaganda, the hlyt1l of the
Revolution. and the Institr~tionalizationof the Xlerican State. 1920-1940'' (PI1.D. cliss.. Lni-
vexit)- of Xlichigan. 1983), 44-45, 237-239: Salas, Solclurlarc~s.82-101. Anarchists else\vhere
in the Americas held similarly conser\'ati\e. although not religiously inspired views of female
roles. see Slarifran Carlson, ; F e ~ l l i ~ ~ i sTllc~
~ ~ ~\lh,,le,l',s
o! Jloce~~lerlt ill Argcvlti~lcl FI-01111t.s
Beginnings to Ecn Pel-611(Chicago. 1988). 123-124, 12;; h l a x i n ~\ l o l ~ ~ l e u ' i"No , God. No
Ross, No Husband: Anarchist Feminism in Nineteenth-Crnti~ryArgentina." Loti11~\itiericnfl
Pcrspcctitic.~. i 3 : i (\Vinter 198A\, 129, 132-135: .ASLIIIC~~II La\'rin. "The 1cleolog)- of Femi-
nism in the Southern Cone, 1900-1940.'' The iVilson Center Latin A~nerican Program.
if'orking Paper no. 169 (1986), 13.
lo. Legislators quoted in Bermildez. "La F~~milia." 89; Sal\,ador .4lvarado, Ln r-ecorl-
.strucci6n de Mixico: 1111 lrler~,s(ije11 10s plreblo.s de ,Virico. 3 vols. (Slexico Cit)., 1919). 11,
293-294, O n Slarianism see Stevens, "Slarianismo." The phrase "el pueblo sufrido" appea~-s
f r e ~ ~ i ~ e nint l corridos.
y
11. Eric R. \Volf, "The Virgin of Guadalupe: .4 hlexican National Symbol." Jourtlnl

ofArnericnn Folklore. ;I (1958). 3 4 3 9 ; Harvey L. Johnson. "The Virgin of Guadalupe in

GENDER AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 265

the Virgin did not prompt a radical alteration in the view of womanhood,
despite the potential opposition to patriarchy that some authors clainl she
manifested.
Indeed, the revolution's effect on the conception of lilanllood may
have threatened women's status. Ilene Virginia O'hlalley suggested that
the oppressive l~rerevoll~tionary order had enlasculated lower-class Mexi-
can illen by denyiilg them equality and the ability to both support their
fanlilies econoinically and protect their womenfolk from sexual abuse by
upper-class men. One might also ask whether priests. with their
infll~enceover fenlale parishioners, seenlecl to linlit secular inale control
over women. By attacking the church and the socioeconomic hierarchy,
revolutionaries inay have reclaiined their manhood. This hypothesis re-
quires research on such unexplored topics as tlle genderecl connotations
!)f anticlericalism and of male nlotives for activism. Yet it inight help ex-
plain Ain6rico Parecles's assertion that exaggerated notions of unfettered
machismo did not appear in Mexican folklore until the revolution. At any
rate, this association between social change and manliness implied that
the equality of inen ulould entail fernale subordination. It also seeined to
deny women the ability to become genuine revolutionaries.12
If, in ternls of Scott's first proposition, revolutionaries enlpllasized ag-
gression and virility in their construction of the inale personality, they also
included other values. Rarely stated explicitly in speeches or writings,
the male ideal was depicted in corridos of these years, u l l ~ i c lextolled
~
various revoll~tionaryfigures as fearless, upright, loyal, incorruptible, and
constant. The corridos also praised inen for the "\Iarian" virtues of gen-

hlexican Culture." in Religioil ii1 Latiil Arne,-icn: L t f ~ c111d Literattrre, ed. 1,yle C . Bro\vn
and IVilliam F. Cooper (II'aco. 1980), 190-20:3; Virgil Elizondo, ''0111. Lady of Guadiilr~pe
as a Cultr~ralSymbol: 'The Power of the Po\i~erle\s.'"C o n c i l i ~ r ~ ~ ~(i97;),
lo2 . 25-33: Jacqi~es
L,afaye, Qrretzalcontl and Gtradnlnpe: Tlie Forrncrtion of' Xfesicnrl S a t i o ~ ~ nCoilsciorl.rrless,
l
1531-1813, trans. R e ~ ~ j ~ ~Keen
r n i n (Chicago dnd L,ondon, 1976), esp. 299-300. Il'illia~ir R.
Taylor discllssed conflicting interpretations of the Virgin during the colonial and indepen-
dence periods in "Tlre Virgin of Guadalupe in Kew Spain: An Inquiry into the Soci'11 History
of hlarian Devotion." Ait~er.icnil Ethilo/ogi.~t.i 4 : i (February 1987), 9-1.3: research on the
revol~~tionar) era is needed. D. .4. Rrading, in "Tridentine Catholicism and Enlightened
Despotis111 in Bourbon hlexico" (loz~rnnlofl2otiil Ainericnir Strl(lics, 15:1 [\lay 198;3]. 2-5).
noted that tlre cult of the Virgin in this I,e~-iodrepresented, among other things, the unity
of tlre Xlexican colony under Xlexico City and its archbishop. The Zapatista documents con-
tained in El ejircito cclnlpesino del slrr (idcologicl. orgclr~i:c~cicin11progrclincl) (Xlesico City,
1982) did not reveal any interpretation of the Vil-gin.
12. O'hIalley. "Propaganda," 239-247: FSBIICO. Plottiilg W'oinen, 102: Arntrico P;iredes,
"The United States, hIexico, and ,2lncllirino," trans. Nancy Steen, Jotrrilc~lof the Folklorc
In.stitute, 8:1 (June 1g;l). 17-37; 1-inda Hall and Cheryl hlartin. comments. Brief condem-
nations of priests' supposed encouragement of female promiscuity are forind in E . V. Nei-
me)-er. Jr.. Recoltrtion nt Queritclro: The ,2lexicnn Constittrtioncll Coriceiltiorl of 1g16-lg17
(Austin, i974), 81, 9;.
266 / HAHK I MAY I SANUM SICGEE DEUTSCH

erosity, selflessness, and martyrdom. Vl'lietlier fhuncl ill inen or women,

these quasi-religious traits served the cause. \I.'llereas men had frowned
on female autonomy, however, the corritlos vieu~edillale r~utonomyam-
I~ivalently,1-eflecting divergent popular attitudes on the subject. O n one
hand, they revered Emiliano Zapata and Panclio L'illa for strllggling in-
dependently for the oppressed Indians and against the United States,
respectively. On the other hand, they also lauded Presidents Fr:tncisco
hladero (1911-13) and Carranza as "fathers" of tlle llatioil who "gave" vot-
ing and other rights to inen previously stripped of these freedoins by cruel
tyrants. Tlle songs implied that hlexicans were children who passively ac-
cepted these gifts-and cluite properly so. Carranza and his s ~ ~ c c e s s o r s
used this children-father paradigm, as well as descriptions of Madero (and,
after 1920, of Zapata) as a saintly hero, to justify paternalistic rule.',' Such
sentiments heralded the growing authoritarianisin of the revolution.
Tlle l~revailingideas of u~onien'sliberation paralleled tlie narro\v view
of the revolution as one tliat had au~arclecllneii freedoin fi.oiil al~ove.Schol-
ars regard the PI,h'l as the most radical current in tlie revolution, and
its prescriptions for women seemed radical on thc surface. Guerrero and
Flores Magcin advocated the emancipation of uTomen from the shackles
of capitalism, which had tlirust \i70men out of tlic home into degi.ading,
poorly remunerated labor; of tlic cliurch, \vhicli had tamed ~i-omeninto ac-
cepting their lot; and of laws and customs, u~hiclihad enshrined women in
their lowly position. LIrhile it hoped to free \i70nienfrom economic, legal.
clerical, and sexual subjugation, however. the PLM, like anarchists else-
where, wanted women to return to their rightful domesticity, Guerrero
opposed feminism, which he defined as turning woillen into men. Sonle
Carrancistas 1-iewed fenlinisnl inor(: favorably than the PLh.1. Among them
the most outspoken advocate of' \i7onlen's concerns \i7as Carranza's secre-
tary, Herinila Galindo, who defined felnale emancipation in broad terms.
She believed tliat women sliould posscss exactly tlie salne rights as men,
inclllding the vote, and should l ~ free
e to assume roles outside the home.
Galindo also eii~pl~asized the freeing of v1onien fro111 priestly control. or
"defanaticizing" them. Male revolutionaries within and outside Carran-
cista ranks seeined to equate this hi7ith lil)eration, although their motives
may have been to reduce what they sa\i7as feniale opposition to tlie revo-

13. See tlre sections on Yilla and Zapata in hlerle E . Sim~nons,The Jlerictr~~ Cor-r-ido(1.5
A Sorircefor Interpretice Study of.llotlt,rt/ Jferico (1870-i")o) (Bloo~iii~igto~i, i c ~ ~ j ; ) , 250-
319; and those on the re\.olutionary leaders in John Hr~thel-ford,Jlc~rico~lSocic~t!! d r ~ r - i ~thr ~g
Recoltition: A Liter-fir!! Approach (Oxford, ic~:i), 134-171. .41bo bee Jesils Ro~iieroFlores,
Cor-ridos tle la Recoliici6t/ Jle.vicntln (XIexico City, 1977). O'XIalley, "Propaganda," 44-46.
Katherine Anne Poster, "Corridos," S ~ I I - 52 ~ , ic~zq),157-158.
L ~(Xla?
GENDER AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 267

lution or to replace clerical dominance over women \vith their own, rather
than to release woinen from religious strictures.14
The Carrancista govcrnor of Yucatan, Salvador Alvarado, also favored
feinale emancipation, which he described as "levantar y dignificar la con-
dici6n de la inujer. haci6ndola fuerte para luchar con la vicla y danclo vigor
a sus alas, entuinecidas por la tradici6n y el convencionalismo." IIe iin-
pleinented this goal through the broadening of educatioi~alopportunities
for women, the con\location of two feminist congresses, revision of the
civil code, laws protecting feinale labor, and the banning of brothels-
thus ostensibly freeing prostitutes from exploitation by madams, pimps,
and others. Yet while Alvarado believed that woinen performed useful
functions outside the household, it was there, he thought, that they ful-
filled their highest calling and developed their true talents. Thus it was
l~referal~le that woinen devote themselves to inarriage and family. Emanci-
pation meant enabling them to become bctter, more respected wives and
inothers who could support theinselves honorably in case of dire need.
And the nlost important talent for them to use in the home was that of
shaping
- *
.
men's character.15
Not only tradition prompted such views. The revolutionary cataclysnl
had sanctioned bloodshed, crime, rape, and other aggressive behavior,
and it had also destroyed old habits of deference and obedience. Disorder
inlpeded consolidating the state and implementing reform. To Alvarado,
reform meant installing bourgeois capitalism through such measures as
the division of land into small, efficient private holdings. The governor
wanted to tame disorderly inale conduct and curb workers' autoi~omyin
order to contain the revolution and guide it ill a capitalist direction. One
may iilterpret his attenlpts to outlaw bordellos, pimps, cockfighting, gain-
hling, and the consuinption of hard liquor and drugs-and similar actions
by Plutarco Elias Calles as governor of Sonora (1917-19) and as president
( 1 ~ ~ ~ 4 - ~ 8 ) - a s e f f o rto
t s iinpose austere, disciplinetl values conducive to
capitalist development, rather than as mere prudery. Yet state action did
not suffice to coiltrol men, and the anticlerical revolutionaries did not want
the church's assistance. Therefore, Alvarado and other leaders stressed
women's moralizing roles in the home as a nleans of delegating the vital

14. Guerrero, ' L a n ~ ~ ~ j e201-2~)3;

r," Floses hlagon, ".4 la mujer," 2:35-2:37; Galindo,
Estrlclio, 9, 15; Franco, Plotting ll.'or~ler!,\-is.
1s. Al~arado,L n reconstrucci6n, 292-293, 296, 299-302; Sal\,ldos .il\arado, Actrrcicid~l
recol~rcionuriadel Generc11 Snlcclrlor Alcclrcldo el1 Ylrccltci~~ (Xlexico City, 1920), 46-48. 011
his social prograllls see .inns RIacias, Agoilrst All Odcis: The Fr~~lir~i.rti Z . f o ~ e l l l eill~ ~Itf e x i c ~
to 1940 (\Vestport. 19821, 64-80; Soto, The Mericn~llliorrltrn, 49-56 O n the congresses see
Alaide Foppa, "The First Feminist Congress in XIexico, 1916." Siglis, 5 : i (.4utumn 1979).
192-199; Primel- Congreso, Anales, Galindo, Estrlriio.
268 / HAHR I \LAY I SANIIR4 XICGEE DEUTSCH
task o f pacifying llnruly male behavior and stabilizing the re\lolution. They
viewed the traditional family as an essential bulwark o f the capitalist order
they wished to construct.'" It seems that, to them, the united, orderly
family was a paradigm for the ~lnitecl,orderly state.
Thinking o f the need to train women for their cloinesticating mis-
sion and to liinit the oppression o f fenlale workers, Alvarado insisted that
"mientras no elevemos a la inujer, nos serli iinposible hacer patria." His
words, as well as soine o f his policies, revealed a strong sense o f pater-
nalism. Alvarado's attempt to control the First Feininist Congress o f 1916
by formulating its agenda further illustrates this point. His treatment o f
\vomen was characteristic o f his re\lolution in YucatBn, one that he di-
rected froin above, and this was the pattern that other leaders tried to
iinplant throughout h ~ l e x i ~ oAgain,
. ' ~ according to Scott's second proposi-
tion, control o f women expressed and symbolized control o f the political
system.
Al\larado's successor, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, was an exception to this
type o f paternalistic rule. IIis plans to collectivize agriculture and efforts
to 1nol)ilize the masses for change through the Ligas de Resistencia mani-
fested his desire to radically redistribute wealth and power. Carrillo's
support for birth control programs, marriage reform (secular marriage
regulated as little as possible by the state), sex education, coeducational
schools, and the election o f women to office clemoilstrated that his poli-
cies for women aild the family were equally radical. IIis views on pros-
titutioil and organizing \vomen contrasted sharply with those o f his pre-
decessor. Instead o f siinplp ol~tlawingbrothels and otherwise controlling
prostitutes, as Alvarado had done, he sought to ope11 1111 alternative e m -
ployment opportunities for \vomen. Unlike Al\larado, who showed little
interest in mobilizing female workers or cainpesinas, Elvia and Felipe Car-
rillo encouraged lower-class \voinen to organize Ligas Feministas, whose
inen~bershipreached fifty-five thousand by 1923. Despite Carrillo's egali-
t.ailanism,
.' his divorce law still refiected the traditional double standard

16. Alan Knight, Co~rnterrevol~rtim nird Recoi~sti-trctior~.

vol. 2 of his T/lr Jlcricnil
Heoolt~tio~l, 2 vols. (Canbridge, 19861, 520, 522. Sote the preoccupation ~vithrape in El
ejircito. 71: Soto, The Life.~icc~n'11'oi11(111. 34; Neimeyer, Heco/rctioil, 206. Anger over the
disorder dlld illl~lloralit~
of the re~olutionhelped m o t i ~ a t ethe Criatel-o revolt: see Jean .4.
hleyer, The Cristero Rabellioll: The hleiccltl Peopl<,bettceeii Chrri.ch c~nclState, 1 0 2 6 - I ~ Z O ,
trans. Richard Southern (New Yol-k, 1976). 140-143, 154, 011 Alvarado's policies, see his
Act11aci611,76: Joseph, Recollrtioii, 105; \-aughan. "\%men." 70-71. On \romcn a\ tamers
see Sherr>-8 . Ortner, "Is Female to XIale as Nat111-eIs to C:ultu~-er"'in \\'o~~zciiz,Cr~lture.crilcl
Soci~t!!, ed. hlichelle Zimbalist Rosaldo and Louise L'~mphere(Stanford, 1974). 67-87.
17. Al\rarado, Actlruci611. 45: Xlacias. Agoinst A// 0tlrl.r. 71; Primer Congreso, Ancrler;
Joseplr, Recolr~ttoil,111. On (:arrcinza's dtte~llptedcontrol o\.er the 1916-17 collatitl~tioll~l
convention. see Niemeyer, Recollrtion, 36-37. 58-59. 222.
GENDER AXD SOCIOPOLITICAL CHASGE 269

h> treating inale adultery inore leniently than female. and by perinitting
divorced inen to reinany sooner than divorced \von~en.~"
Apart from his divorce legislation, Carrillo's progressivisin did not fit
with the revolution's tendency to~vardconsolidating a capitalist order. The
views of his ally, Carranza, did. The Constitutionalist leader sllpportcd the
First Feminist Congress in Yucatiin and some of Galindo's feminist ideas.
;Clany feminists were pleased wit11 Carranza's decree of 1914 legalizing
divorce and the subsequent divorce provisions of the Constitution of 1917,
altllough these measures, like Canillo's, retained the sexual double stan-
dard. In contrast to Carrillo's lil~ertarianism,Carranza regarded inarriage
as a civil contract, a matter that fell under state jurisdiction. To comple-
nlent the divorce laws and promote equality within the family, the Law
of Family Relations (1917) gave such additional rights to inarriecl women
as authority over tlle children (pcltria potestacl) and control over lnarital
property equal to that of men. However, it still prevented wives from p ~ r -
suing a career \vitllol~ttheir l~usbands'agreement and single \vomen from
leaving their parents' home without permission llntil age thirty. except
to marry. Carranza wanted these regulations "to establish the family on
a inore rational and equitable basis, to inake the consorts aware of the
great responsibility that society hat1 entrnsted to them"-that of raising
a family. He wished to rationalize society by throwing off the weight of
tradition that had impeded capitalist progress. Like Alvarado's, his family
policies reinforced and epitomized his broader social and economic aims.
One of Carranza's justifications for divorce legislation, namely. decreasing
the incidence of consensual unions and illegitimate births among the poor,
further indicated tlle l~ourgeoisiinplications of his programs.'"

18. Felipe Carrillo Puel-to, '"The Se\v Yucatin," Stirre!/, 52 (hlay i c ~ ~ $138-142, ,
Joseph, Recolrltioit, esp. zifj-zi(3, 233-263; hlacias, Agcriilst ,411 Otlds, 87-100, Soto, Tlrc
Alesicuir \Voi)taii, 56-64; Vaugh'~n, '\\hmen," 71-72. On the coedu~ation~tl. anticlerical
schools see Da\,id L Raby, Etlrrctlci6ir !/ rc,col~tcidi~ socinl ell Alkrico (1921-10401, trans.
Roberto G o ~ n e zC i s i ~ a(Xlesico City, 19741, 37-,38. hluch \\-ork remains to 11e done o n the
gender i~n~lications of educational reform in r r \ olutionar) \ l e ~ i c o .
19. Carranza quoted in Donna \I. \\hlf: "\\hmen in \Iodesn hlesico," Strltliei. iir IIir-
tory ntrd Society. 1 (197fj), 34. Beslllildez, "La familia." 88-89, Soto, T11c Jlez~c~liz \llo~irnir,
34-35, Astelnisa Sdenz Ro)-o ("Xocl~itl"~, Ifistoricl politiccl-rociol-crrlt~li.(~ldel 1)toc.it)rieilto
feineizirlo erz JfB.sico 1914-1950 (XIexico Cit!, 1954). 50, 66-67, Lillian Eatelle Fibher, "The
Influence of the Present \lexican Re\olution upon the Statr~sof hlexican \Volnen," HAHR.
22:1 (Feb. 19421, 212-213. Fisher (214) described the conbtitutional clause confel-I-ingeclrlal
rights to all hlexicans, yet its intent was nationalistic rather than feminist. C a s r , ~ n ~ apolitical
's
and economic liber'11ism is discussed in: Clrarles C. (:umberl'~nd, Tlte blesicoit Hecolution:
The Cot~stitrrtioitolistYeclrs (..\ustin, 19723, 383-384, 387, 401, Robert E. Quirk, Tlrc ,\le.xiccliz
Hecolrltion 1914-1915: The Coiroention of Ag~rcrsctrlieirtes(Bloolnington, 196o), 9-10. 152;
John \Idson Hart. Reuolrctionnr!/ Mexico. The Coir~iilg:'lilt1Procc.~, of the Jlrriccri~Rel-olrltioil
(Berkeley and Los Angeles. 1987)
Defense of ~narriageoften is a clc~ss position, ;IS J;~lreJaquette lrotetl in "Felnale Politic'11
270 I HAHR I hlAY I SANDRA AICGEE DEUTSCII
Paradoxically, the post-1920 national regime also used disorder, or at
least syrnl~olsof disorder, to strengthen its coiltrol over the populace.
Like Carranza, Presidents Alvaro Obregcin (1cpo-24) and Calles fi~vored
capitalist developnlent and an authoritarian state, but they contii~ueclto
employ revolutionary rhetoric to justify their power and ol~scurethe gap
between the revolution's stated goals and actual achie\lements. In doing
so, they and their followers drew upon themes already present in popular
songs and literature, particularly the legends that had grown around revo-
lutionary figures and the association between the re\~olutionand manli-
ness. 0 ' ~ f a l l e yhas argued that the ruling elite encouraged the disaffected
to identify writ11 such rebellious heroes as Zapata and Villa. Propagan-
dists stripped their defiance of political and class overtones, leaving only
"masculinity." This masculinity encoinpassed not only the traits previously
illentioiled in corridos, but also exaggerated prowess wit11 women and,
in the case of Villa, wild beha\lior. Thus, according to O'hlalley, govern-
ments attenlpted to channel popular feelings of dissatisf:xction and political
impotence into identification with tough: virile figures. Linda B. IIall,
however, disagreed with O'hlalley's emphasis on the conser\lative and ma-
nipulative implications of the mythification process, noting that the hero
cults predated 1920.20Toll11 Ruthelford's observation that Villa's m\~thic
reputation grew in spite of, not because of, the efforts of official propa-
gandists, \vl~opainted hiin as a villain since he had fought on the losing
side, tends to support Hall's contei~tion.~' Revolutionary mythology and
its functions are another field that calls for more research.
This survey of the early years oftlle revolution demonstrates how poli-
tics constructed gender and gender constructed politics. Leaders devised
gender-related programs that suited their perceived political ends. The
genclered rhetoric and policies of hlexican revolutionaries also served as a
pi-adigin for the preferred political and social order. The Carrillos' inno-
vative views on gender relations were a model for the democratic socialisin
they envisioned. The emphasis that .Alvarado and Carrailza placed on con-
trol and order in their gender and f;~milialnotions syinbolized the hierar-
chical political and econonlic order that prevailed in hlexico by the 1920s.
Considering the first part of Scott's definition, the view of illale and

Participation," in Se.x (iricl Closs i r i 1,ntitt Atrlcr-icn, ed. June Ndah dnd Helen Icken Satb (Ye\\
Yo&, 1976), 230.
20. O'hlalley, "Propaganda," 95, 98-99. 175, 245-24(<, 258: compare Lvith Smith-Rosen-
berg's discussion of tlre lla\!y Crockett m!th in Diro~-tl(,r.l!lC o ~ i c l ~ 90-108. ~~r. Also see
Li~rdnB. IIa11, ~.evie~v ofthe published \erriou of O'Xlc~lley'stli\se~.t,~tion, Tlze .2l!/th O J R C L O -
/iitiorz: llero Czr/ts crrlcl the Irl.ctitutiorln/izntior~of the, Alarico~nStcite. 1c)no-19.40 (Ne\\. Tork.
1986). in Amcricnn Historicc~lRccicu. 9 ~ 3(April : ~ 1988). 33 - , 2-5:33.
21. Rutherfor-d, ,2le.~icnrl Societ~y,164.
G E N D E R AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CIIANGE 271

female natures constructed by revolutionary spokespersons-of women

as the tamers of men, and of men as inherently unruly and rehellious-
seenlecl to beconle frozen in tiine. .Although the idelltificatioll of u70men
with order gave them a task to perform for the revolution, it also equated
womanhood with conservatisn-and therefore, ironically, with threats
to the revolution. This notion, which was also tied to the assumption of
fenlale adherence to the church, was responsible for deilying X'lexican
wonlen the vote at the federal level until 1955. \I'hile nlany exanlples of
Cristeras and conservative women existed, nota1,le female revolutionaries
also appeared from the epic period on, sonle of thein situated to the left of
the state. Ilowever contradictory to reality, the idea that men and women
had immutable personalities persisted. In ternls of Scott's second propo-
sition, it mirrored the apparent iinmutability of the social order in the
1920s-the betrayal of the masses' dreams."

Argentina
Yo me siento nada lnQs que la humilde representante de todas las
lnujeres del pueblo.
hle siento, coino ellas, a1 frente de 1111 hogar . . . : el gran hogar
venturoso de esta Patria inia que conduce Per611 hacia sus 1115s altos
destines.
iCracias a el, el "hogar" que a1 principio file l>ohre y desmantelado,
es ahora justo, lihre y soberano!
iTodo lo hizo kl! ''
In the speeches, writings, and progranls of Juan and Eva Per611, c o n -
plex gendered rhetoric and appeals aboundetl. In terms of Scott's first
proposition, nlany of their policies had gender implications, u~hichin turn
reflected perceived political exigencies. In terms of the second, these
policies, as well as their marriage, also served as niodels for the couple's
broader aims. Eva portrayed herself in the passage cited above as a leader

22. See Xlosse, Nntio~ic~lis~,i,

23 and passinr. ti)r tl-e,~tmentof the theme of immutnl~ilit!..
111 IVoincin Stdfrnge in hlesico (Gainesville, 1962), \Yard hI. RIortoll discussed the view of
women as conser\~ative.On women's radical x t i \ ity, see L'aug11'1n. "\Vomell," 72. 76; L'erna
Carleton hlillan. Alesico Reborn (Boston, 1939). 164-167. 0 1 1 the character of the I-evolution
by the 1920s, see Esperanza \'eliizqr~ez Bringas, comp., Jlkjico clrltc, el ~ n ~ i t i d Ic/eologin
o. del
presidente Pltrtcirco Elins Cnlles, zd ed. (Barcelona, 1927). 72-78 Johll \L'omack. J r . . "The
hlexican Re\-olution. 1910-1~2o."ill Tlle Cntttbridge Ilistory of Latin At~tericn.ed. Leslie
Bethell (Cambridge. 1984). L'. 80-82. 152-153.
23. Eva Perhn. Ln rnzdn tle ~ n ~.idn
i (Buenos Aires, "51). 311. .is E\'a'uvorks were
ghostwritten. the v,rords cited here and elsewhere are not truly lrers. but they ~le\ertlleless
111dicateofficial opinion.
272 I HAHK / AMY 1 54NDR4 5ICGEE DEUTSCII
\vho was nevertheless subordinate to her husl,and, and the Argentine
" ,
fainily" as a free people who nevertheless owred everything to their
benevolent Father, Juan. The ambiguity of Eva Per6n-as well as that
of Juan Per611, and of their relationship to each other-symbolized the
ambiguitv
., . of Peronism: a movement that con~bined democratic and au-
thoritarian elements, praised both workers' militancy and class harmony,
attracted a nlulticlass constituency. and appeared to synthesize leftist and
rightist traits.
In contrast to some h'lexican leaders, the Per6ns were keen to attract
women to their cause. One possilde reason for this difference was the
greater degree of fenlale participation in the Argentine economy vis-5-
vis that of earlv twentieth-century hlexico. According to the 194; census,
women constituted 22.6 percent of the Argentine labor force. \I'hile this
figure represented a decline from earlier years, the census also demon-
strated a shift in female enlploynlent away from small family-centered
enterprises toward factories, offices, shops, and schools. :It the same time,
women Lvere narrowing the gap in the literacy rate between then1 and
men, tllus iinproving their prospects for mo1,ility. Evidence also indicated
that \vo111en were increasingly choosing to have fewer children. According
to Susana Bianchi, the public's awareness of \vomen's new roles made it
more receptive to the idea of female suffrage, albeit apprehensive about
the possible impact of these changes on the f~1111ily.~~
The issue of the vote had been on the political agenda for decades.
The Socialist party sponsored the first female suffrage bill in 1928. In
contrast to the h'lexican case, where feminism began writ11 the revolution,
Argentine feminists were active long before the Peronist administration
and lobbied actively for the vote in the 1930s and 1940% LVolnen f'ornled a
potential voting constit~~ency, one that the Perhns wished to tap. Despite
their interest in ~nohilizingfcinale sl~pport(an interest, like mobilizing
workers' support, that set them apart from preceding leaders). Juan and
Eva were anxious to distinguish their movement fro111 feminis~n.Peronists
tagged fen~inistsas anti~lationalists,oligarchs, ilnd representatives of im-
ported 1 - i e w . Closer to the point, nlost feiniilists were affiliated with the
Socialist party and other groups that opposed Perollism-grol~ps, more-
over, that had not nlanaged to identify themselves with nationalism. The
Per6ns wanted to distinguish their female adherents not only from their

24. Susana Bianchi, "Peronismo !- sufra~iofenrenino: la ley electoral de lgq;." .Arlrinr.io

clel IEHS, 1 (1986). 265-266. On the Iristory of wolnen'a economic dctivities, see Nanc!- Caro
1-Iollander, "\Vomen in the Political Econom). of Al.gentind" rPlr. 11. diss., Lrni\er\it) of Cali-
fol-nia at Los Angeles, 1974). h l a r y ~ aNavarl-o. "Hidden. Silent. and .inollynroua: LVo~nen
\Vorliers in the .bgentine Trade Union Xlovement." in The \170r.ltIof \Ifor,ier~'sTI-c~tlrC:rliorl-
s , Norbert C . Soldon (\Vestport. 1985). 165-1938
isr~z:Corilpnrntice Nistoriccll E s ~ c i ~ l ed.
G E N D E R AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CIIANGE 273

political rivals, but from a stance that traditionalist supporters inight per-
ceive as radical. Eva assured thein that she and other female Peronists had
retained their femininity and did not hate men, supposedly unlike ferni-
nists.*j X'luch of Eva's gendered rhetoric served to justify her leadership
and the roles of Peronist women in nonthreatening tcrms.
In inany ways, Peronists encouraged female activism. \.Vomen forined
a prosuffrage group under Peron's auspices before his election and par-
ticipated in his campaign. After his victory thcy, like their nlale counter-
parts, formed local Peronist cells. 'A Peronist-dominated Congress passed
a feinale suffrage law in 1947 and other nleasures favorable to women.
The creation of the Partido Peronista Fenlenino (PPF) in 1949 as one of
the three branches of the Peronist movement, autonomous froin and co-
equal writ11 those of men and the union confederation, at least in theory,
marked a significant advance beyond the subordinate felninine sectors of
other political parties in Latin .America. Party menlbership reached an
in~pressivehalf million by 1952, including nlostly working-class women
previously uninvolved in politics. Operating within an exclusively female
organization gave politically inexperienced woinen the opportunity to de-
velop skills, self-confidence, and an awareness of their o\vn needs. It also
introduced many women to activities outside the home in a way that
did not estrange them from their husbands. i\lthough the male l ~ r a n c h ,
backed by Perbn, refused to give her as lllaily slots as she requested, Eva
imposed six female candidates for senator and twenty-three for deputy
on the Peronist ticket in 1951. .A11 won their seats. giving .Argentina the
highest number of elected female representatives in the l ~ e n ~ i s p l ~ e r e . ' ~
Yet several factors detracted from this picture of female mobilization.
.Although Eva tried to do so, the Perons collld not rightfillly clailn ex-

25. Lns nil'jeres cle Arg~ritinn(Buenos Ail-es, 11352[?]),25: \'era Piellel. A l i pciis !/ slrs
~nrtjeres(Buenos Aires, 1968), 73; Per'iil, La r-clzh~i,265-267. 0 1 1 ftlninisl~l,see Carlson,
Fe111ir1is1,zo;.\suncihn L A V I - "\Voliieil.
~~~, Ldbol- dlld the Left: .\rgentilla and Chile, 1890-
11325," Journcll qf Li70t~ie~~'sNistorly, 1 : 2 (Fall 19891 88-116: Lavl-in, "Ideolog\-"; hlaria del
Carmen Feijoti, "Las luchas feministas," Torlo E,s Hi~tor.ic1,110. 128 (J'II~.11378), 7-2:3; Cynthia
Jefhess Little, "Rloral Reform and Feminisnl,"Jo~rr.nnlqfl~iter-Ar~~ericci,~ Studies c111rl\Vorltl
Aflnirs, 17:4 (Nov. 19;s). 386-397; hlaria Isabel Constenla !-hlaria A~lleliaReynoso, "L'I
mujer la politics." Todo Es Historicl, no. 183 (.\ug. 11383). 68-79,
26. Nicllolas Fraser and hlarysa Navarro, E r n Per611(New York, 1981), lo;. On Peron-
ist Lvonren see Esteld dos Santos. Lns ~,irtjerespero~ii.i.tcis(Buenos Ail-es, 1983);.\lberto Ciria.
ljolj~~l(lr:
Politiccl 11clrlt~lr(~ In Argentil~nper.or~istn1946-1955 [Buenos Airt.5. 1983). 181-186:
Julia Silvia Guivant. "La visible Eva Pertin y el invisil~lerol femenino en cl pero-
nismo: 194fj-1952," Lrniversity of Notre Ilame. Kellogg Institute IVorking Paper no. 60 (Jan.
1986), e s p 30, 53: Peron. I,ci rnzdn. 289-295: Nailcy Caro Hollnlldel.. "Si Evita Lriviera . . . ."
in Li70nlen i11 Lntiri Ar~lericn,108: Susana Bianchi and Norma Sancllis, El Pnrtido P<.ro~listci
Fe~nenino,2 vols. (Bi~ellosAires. 1988). I. 37-42: Nornna Sdnchis, " ~ h l ~ ~ j een r e sIn politica
o politica 'de mujeres'? Un anBlisi5 d e la experiencia de las mujeres peronistas, 1945-1955.''
Isis Interrzocioncil, l o (llec. 1988). 99-101.
274 I IIAfIR / AMY / SANDRA XtCGEE DEUTSCH

clusive credit for feinale sufiage; its time had come. thanks to woinen's
advances in einploynlent and education and to the efforts of anti-Peronist
feminists. Orie could also argue that working within an all-female group
inarginalized Peronist woinen, although tlle foundation of fenlinine sec-
tions within the Socialist and other parties had formed a precedent for
Peronists to follo~v.Nor did the creation of the P P F necessarily increase
feinale independence. The various preexisting groups of Peronist women,
which had enjoyed sonle autonomy, dissolved with the founding of the
PPF. Eva ruled the latter, setting its agenda and picking as its leaders
and congresswomen women lacking political credentials who would fol-
low her orders. The illale branch of the party was more democratic than
tlle female, which, unlike the former, ditl not hold internal elections or
congresses during Eva's lifetime and was not formally constituted, with
officers, until two years after its birth. Thus, while Marysa Navarro noted
that Eva imitated her hushand's control over male Peronists, it seeills that
she outdid him." Exemplifying Scott's second proposition, the hierarch!;
within the P P F synlholized the larger Peronist pattern of mobilizing the
inasses while maintaining dominance over t l ~ e i n . ? ~
The Pel6ns defined women's roles in a traditional manner, albeit with
a political t~vist.They referred appro\,ingly to women who worketl outside
the home and implemented programs in their behalf, such as clay care
and the principle of equal pay for equal work, although such measures
were not a priority. Nevertheless, school text1,ooks during tlle Peronist
years depicted most women as house\vives and mothers, in contrast to
inen as jobholders. Juan and Eva justified their social Lvelfare policies by
noting that these would enable ~vorking-classwomen to fulfill their true
calling by staying home. Eva segregated P P F women from inen so that
the former would remain within their o\vn sphere and not assume "mascl~-
line" traits. Following a precedent set by conservative female activists in
the early twentieth centl~ry,she characterized their duties not as "political
action," which was reserved for men, hut as "social action," permissible for
women. By eliminating ambiguity from women's roles, she reduced the
possibility for change in gender relations. Tf'hile she believed that Per611
had "liberated" women, this word had a narrow ineaning for her. Thanks
to the improved econoinic status of workers and to fenlale suffrage, under
Peronism women were free to organize, propagandize, and assist other
women and children, so as to "Peronize" i"1mi1ies. Eva also charged thein
with the duty of organizing const~mptionwithin tlle housel~old,which

2 7 Rlarysa Na\arro. Ecitcl (Buenos Ail-e,, 1981). 211. 21:3, Bianchi and S~unclris,El
Partido, I , 67-68, 91.
28. Peter U'aldrnann. El P e r o ~ l i s i ~1cjq3-1;15,j,
~o trans. NGlida hle~rdilaharzutle hlachuili

(Buenos Aires, 1981), 87.

GENDER AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 275

assunled importance with the economic stabilization plan of 1951." For
Eva just as for some Mexican revolutionaries, feinale einancipation meant
incorporating wonlen into the cause, although she was inore optimistic
about female willingness to participate than the Mexicans.
Eva Per611 assigned great significance to these tasks. Julia Jolly ob-
served that she saw the household as a "liberation front"; the transforma-
tion or Peronization of the home would serve as the basis for the larger
social transformation. Significantly, Eva did not assign feinale workers
a role in sponsoring change in the \vorkplace. Their role was to incul-
cate Peronist doctrine, fulfill Peronist economic aims, raise Peronist chil-
dren, and assist in the perpetuation of Peronist control. As Eva put it,
"Per611 necesita clel baluarte inviolado clel hogas y clel iinpulso intuitivo y
sustancialinente conser\~aclorcle la mujer, para Ilevar adelante y afianzar
su prograina d e acci6n cle gobierno." Dianchi also noted the importance
Peronists placed on wonlei1 conserving the traditional values of religion
and morality within the family setting. The First Five Year Plan of 1946
reinforced the "unviolated" nature of the home by supporting natalist
measures and opposing divorce and abortion. Occasionally, Eva seeinecl
to call for changes within the family by denouncing dictatorial l~usbancls
and advocating wages for house\vives, but her ~vordsfound no concrete
expression in legi~lation.,~'On the whole, then, in terins of the first part
of Scott's definition, the Per6ns favored few alterations in the family and
gender systein beyond recruiting women into politics ~ ~ n dtheire r tutelage.
Julia Silvia Guivant thought that Peronism promoted a ne\v feinale
role that transcended the old boundaries of the doinestic arena. D l ~ tEva
Peldn and the P P F had a precursor: the female adherents of the antileftist
Liga Patri6tica Argentina in the 1920s and ig3os, who had styled their
ef-forts to coopt working-class wonien as "Argentinizing" the immigrant
home. Eva differetl from Liguistas, ho\vever, in that she extended the
l~ounclariesof the private sphere to include the public sphere. She did not
coinpare the movement ancl the nation to the family; in her words, they
were the family-"la gran familia peronista" and "la fainilia national," re-
spectively. Eva saw herself as the mother ancl sister of the militants in

29. Percin, I,(I raz611, 289; Navarro, Eritn. 220. Catalina \Vaine~.man,"El mulrdo de la.;
ideas y 10s \alores: Xlujer y trabajo," in Del rleber- ser cl hacer- de 1c1s 111rrjet-es:Dos c,st~rdios
de cclso en Argenti~~cl, ed. Catalilra Wai~rermalr,Elizal~etlrJeli~i,and Xlaria del Cal-mrn Fri-
joo (hlexico City, 198:3),87-89; Bianchi and Sa~lcliir,El Pur-tido. I, 69-70; Salrd1.a F . h l c c e e ,
"The Visible and In\isible Liga Patricitica rgelrtina. 1919-1928: (;ender Rolrs and tlie Right
IVing," H A H R . 64:2 (XIay 19841, 233-258. Bialrclii and Sanclri5 (49) l ~ o i ~ i t eout
d that t h r
Peronist nrobilization of women coliflicted with that of the c1ir11-cli.l'lie gender iniplication5
of tlie relationsliip between Peronism and the church need study.
30. Julia .4. Jolly. "Eva Percin: Ad\enturesa or Xlilitant'?" Pmccedin,os of the PCCLAS,
4 (19751, 86, Percin, La r-az6n, 279; EGOPer611 l~ablnn Ins ~ ~ ~ t t j e r(Buelroa
e,, .Airrs, 1975). 34,
Bianchi and Sancliis. El Paltido. 1, 45; Uianclii. "Pel-oniamo," 278-279. 284.
276 I HAHR ht4Y I SANDFM AICGEE DEUTSCH
this family and Juan as their father, thus also justif:\.ing her political role.
This equation of private and puldic demonstrated, as Guivant poiilted out,
that Peroilisill intruded in people's personal lives more than illany authors
have It also indicated that Eva made no tlistiilctioll between her
relatioilship with her husband, the private, and \vith the Peroilist state,
the public.
In this sense and others, Eva set the model for feinale Peronists to
follow. Just as Eva suborcliilated herself to Juan, women were to suborcli-
ilate theinselves to their husbands, the Leader, and the moveinent. Thus,
both through her exaillple and her explicit admonitioils to wornell, she
assured men of their coiltiilued pi.eeminence in the home and ill society.
111 the Peronist family, women, like Eva, were to defeilcl and b e faithful
to Juan. They were supposed to imitate Eva's Marian image of beauty,
purity, ~llaterllallove, humility, charity, and self-sacrifice, the latter sym-
bolized in her renunciation of the vice-presidency. One illust note that
Eva also praised women who possessed resolve, dynamism, a sense of
responsibility, f~~naticism for the movement, ant1 intuition, yet also, incon-
sistently, rational judgment. These qualities wcre not among the hIariail
virtues, but all save the last fit the traditional view of women as non-
thinking, feeling, and willful beings. Perhaps here Eva responded to the
contradictions in her own public persona; the "madoila de 10s hnmildes"
was at the same time the inore illilitailt "abanderada d e los descamisa-
dos." 3?iinotl~ercontradiction lay in the fact that Eva demanded so much of
female militants that the latter had no time for their own k~milies,whereas
Eva's unique partnership with Juan merged politics and marriage. In this
respect Eva could not serve as a model; hence, also for this reason, she
created a new family for them in Peronism.
Did the Pel6ns coilsicler the ideal feillale traits worthy of eml~lation
by the inale sector? Many values of the Tercera Posicibn, or Peronist
doctrine, such as love, generosity, compassion, ~~nselfishness, harmony,
and peace seemed traditionally fenlinine. Juan isolated two characteristics
he considered female-intuition and attention to detail-as particularly

31. Guivant, "La vi5ible," y-q:i, \fcC;ee, "Tlie \.i5ible": E:ccl Per611sr~ficrlcr1.1 cclr~~i~lo
del cicisnio n ((1 rnr!jer. cirgcntinn (Buenos ..\ires, 1951) 10, 12; Ircn Peron hohltr, 91. Juan
Pe1.611 h ~ justified
d 5tate interference in tlre filmilc ill a speech ill 1944 see Juan Peson, El
pueblo q~rieresclber de quC se trcitn (Buenoh ..\ires. i944!. 5-6
:jz. Eco Per6n l~clblo,42, 44-45. 89, 123. Eco Pcrd~li~~n~ortcll iBuenos .\ires. i953[.']):
Ecn Pel-6n nnd Her Socinl \\'ark (Ruenos .\il-e5. 1950): E1.a Peron. "llirz con5ignas pal-a la
mujer peronista," .2it1rldo Peronisto. 1 : 2 (Aug. 1, 1951). 5. Gui'allt. "La \.isible," 48, J , h l .
Taylor. Eva Per6n: Tlle .2iyths ($0 \l'onlon (Chicago. 1979). e s p 86. BiC~nchi. "Pero~rismo."
277. Peronist songs in Julio Dario .ilessandro, e d . . Cn~lcionerotlelrrnr~Per611 y Ecci Per611
(Burnos .\ires. ic~fj(ii,praisrd both inrages of Era. l'he "madom" appears. for rxample. ill
"Eva de .imi.rica," 5fj-57. a11d "E'ita capitam," 306-307, lauds the nili it ant Evita.
GENDER AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 277

valuable in the art of leadership. He added that hllmility, loyalty, ancl obe-
dience were ilnportant in both leaders and followers; certainly the Perons
ue~ticalisi~zovalued these qualities in both sexes. Yet men and women re-
ceived different messages on warnlth and fervor. Juan told nlale Peronists
that leaders had to be cold ancl passionless, whereas Eva set the oppo-
site example for prospective female leaders. Along these lines, Peronist
textbooks presented models of nlale behavior that varied nlarkedly from
the female. They portrayed men as stern, rational, strong, clomi~leering
fathers hut emphasized the Marian qualities in women. Evidently Eva was
the only woman permitted to exhibit strength and authoritarianism; she
did not train women to elnulate her in this regard, but simpl>-expected
them to follow her c o n ~ m a n d s . " ~
Tlle Per6ns' views on renunciation were ambiguous. On one hand,
Juan believed that leaders sacrificed tl~elnselvesfor others, and all Peron-
ists should elnulate this behavior. Eva's renunciation of the vice-presi-
dency prompted her hl~sbandto award her a special medal for embodying
the highest qualities of a Peronist. On the other hand, Juan frequently
observed that under the Tercera Posici611, Argentines were acllieving
progress "without sacrifice or pain." Nancy Hollantler found that Peronist
songs asked women to offer their lives for Peronism but exhorted men
sinlply to unite in the movement and share in its triumph. This differing
attitude on ahnegation indicates that Peronism based itself on a dichotomy
between Inen and women-one s>-mbolized in the division of labor be-
tween Juan and Eva.l4
Moving to Scott's second proposition, however, in terms of power the
Peronist propagandists' view of wonlen served as a paradigm for their
view of the masses as a whole. As Julie Taylor demonstrated, Peronist
ideologues drew upon middle- ancl upper-class conceptions to formulate
these ideas. Peronist literature depicted Eva's or women's power as spiri-
tual, intuitive, emotional, irrational, and fanatical. It tended to portray the
masses in the saine manner, albeit less explicitly. In this context, Per6n's
words were equivocal. LVhile h e insisted that a successf~~l political organi-
zation required a disciplined, intelligent rank and file with some sense of

33. Juan Dolningo Peron, La tercera posici6n cirgentil~rr(Buenos .&ires. n.d.), lo, 13,
31, 46, and Conducci6n politicrr, 2d ed. (Buenos .&ires, 1974)~14, 150-154, 160, Salicliis,
"hli~jeres,"96-98, \Vainerniali, "El niundo," 87-88,
:34 Peron, Conduccicit~.75; Robert D. Cra5swelle1-. P e r d ~clnd
~ the E ~ ~ i g ~ no$Argrii-
crs
firla (New York, 1987). 241: hIoviniir~rtoNacional Justicialistd. Perdm: Actclali;aciti~t politiccr
y tloctrinoria porn la toltln del poder !Xladl.id. 1971); Hollander, "Si E\itd," 109 hI'~rys;i
Ndvarro described the dual leadership of Peronism in "Evita's Cliarismatic Leadership." in
Latin Arnericalz Populisrl~ill Coitlpclratice Persprctire, ed. Xlichnel I,. Conniff (.&lhuquerquc,
19821, 47-66;
278 I HAI-IR LLI' I SANDlN hlCGEE DEUTSCH
initiative, he admitted that the latter had no "intrinsic value'' except in its
"reactive power." This reactive power, in turn, depended on the leaders,
for the masses feel and intuit rather than think: leaders had to stiinu-
late their reaction, just as the brain activated the muscles." Like female
power, the power of the masses was instinctive and natl~ral,reql~iringthe
control of civilized men. (At the same tiine, Eva Per611 would probably
have added that the ~vomen'stask was to civilize men and children.) As
Peter Waldlnann pointed out, Peronism would "domesticate" the workers,
althol~ghhe did not intentionally use this term in a gendel-cd c ~ n t e x t . ' ~
Like the consolidation of the hlexican state, the domestication of the
Argentine workers apparently required parental guidance; indeed, the
Per6ns used falnilial metaphors to describe and reinforce their Icader-
ship style. A childless couple, the Per6ns may have seemed unsuitable for
this task, hut as Eva 1-epeatedly noted, the Argentine people were their
children. Nor dicl Eva necessarily fit the image of a mother; while her
sl~ppoi-tersl~l-aisedher 11). citing her beauty and her image as a strong,
protective mother, her detractors focused on what they regarded as her
lack of femininity and maternalism." Juan was all even odder choice for
father of the nation than Eva may have been for mother. Some of his
critics questioned his virility and manliness, since he h:~dnever fathered
a child, and he tended to be attracted either to very young 01. passive
women, or to a domineering woman like Eva."' Perhaps another reason
for this perception was the apparent "femininity" of Peronist doctrine, as
indicated above. His followers, however, may have thoilght that with his
virility Jllan attracted young desirable women and rendered thein passive.
Juan's iinage and the entire issue of' his appeal to luen require filrther in-
vestigation. What is clear is that while the Pcr6ns justified their rule in
gendered terms, their opponents used the saine ternls to disparage it.
Peron took soine measures that happened to strengthen his masculine
appeal. He exercised and dieted to remain in shape, and he dyed his hair;
many hrgel~tinescollsidered him attractive ancl virile in appearance. As
"First Sportsman" of the nation, Per611 engaged actively in and encour-
aged sports, particularly boxing and motor-racing, filrther proll~otillghis
manly image.'V~Ielikewise inspired feelings of masculinity in his inale
followers, not so much through identification with his image as through

35. Taylor, .\lyths, esp. 113. 126, Per6n, Cor~dtcccidr~, :jo, rz:j-r25.
36. \Valdrnann, E l Pcro,~ismo,36-37.
37. Ta?lo~-,J lytlts, 72-85, Bia~lcliiand Sanchis, El Portitlo, 11, 152-156.
38. Ta>-lor.M y t h s , 78-79; Joseph A. P'lge, Po.611: A Riogr-tlpll!i [New Yol-k, 198,3), 6.
78-79, 291-292; Nd\rasro, Eoita, 324.
39, Page, Pertin, 24-25, 224-225, 293, 295, :339, ''Histol.~adrl Prl.o~l~\rno, la prlmel.a
psesidencia," parts 16 and 17, Priinercl Plonn, Sept. 6,19(i6, pp. 4 - 4 3 , and Sept. 13, 1966,
PP 38-42.
G E N D E R A S D SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 279

his actions on their behalf As may have been the case with the h~lexican
Revolution, his reforins and his mobilization of workers encouraged them
to experience hope, dignity, and self-worth; now the \vorking inan felt
that he, too, was soinebody and could stand up to his employer. "With
Per611 we were all machos," one laborer put it.40
If Percin helped stinlulate a sense of self-assertion and pride ailioilg
~ \ . power by emphasizing
workers, he sought to linlit their a ~ ~ t o n o mand
his paternal qualities. Although he paicl hoinage to the masses' struggle
to obtain economic concessions, Peron also presented himself, with Eva's
aid. as the dispenser of such concessions. I l e assigned to himself and to the
Peronist state the responsibility for harnlonizing the interests of labor and
capital, just as the kindly 11ut stern father of the Peronist texts would aclju-
dicate clispl~teswithin the householcl. The first lines that children leariled
to write in school incl~~decl "Per611 nos ama. Nos anla a todos. Por eso
todos lo ainamos." These and siinilar se~ltencesrelating to Eva reinforced
the view of the Percins as parents. The schoolbooks' identification of J l ~ a n
Per6n with JosP de San hlartin, the fither of his country, fi~rtherencour-
aged Per6n's paternal image:" So, too, clid Eva's depiction of her husband
as a father figure who possessed all the qllalitics shc lacked and of whom
she had to prove herself worthy.,'"
Peron's attenlpts to regulate the Argentine family also manifested his
paternal role. Besides the First Five Year Plan, the Constitution of 1949
and sonle of his speeches emphasized the family as the nucleus of society
and the need for the state to protect it. Accordiilg to the constitution,
the state would guarantee the equality of the spouses, iilcll~dingtheir all-
thority over their progeny, yet at the saine time it \vould grant special
attention to \vomen and children. The state \vould go so far as to forin "la
unidacl econ6inica familiar" and gl~arantee"el hien de fainilia," presum-
ably through Per6n's redistribution of incoine toward the workers. In this
sense, the Peronist program may have represented a step toward a new,
Inore egalitarian family model. Per611 also expressed a regressive desire,
however, to control laborers throl~ghsuch paternal admonitions as "de
casa al trabajo y del trabajo a casa." Along these lines, hefore the election
of 1946 he advised his supporters to remain at home and to abstain from
alcohol or festivities."

40. Quoted by 1)alnel James, A v ~ i ~ t c i l ~(111d c e Il~tcgrcition.Po-orlisr,~nr~tlt / ~ Argclifine

e
l\'orkirig C:la~s,1946-1976 (Camhsidge. 1988). 29; alao aee 36-37
41. Cirid, I'oliticu, 219, 283-284: Peshll, El /111eblo, 124, Edllardo l i o l i ~ ~ ~ ".\pllntes no,
sobre C L I ~ ~ L I Il- ~~I ~ p l ~!.l apesolliai11o.''
r ill LO ctilttir(~ tlel pet.oi~isrr~o,e d . Norlllail
Briski r t al. (Buenos Aires. 1973). 35, Enlesto Goldas. "La literatusa pero~iista,"in El p r o -
nisr~io,e d. Gonzalo Cdrdenas et al. (Buenos Ail-es. 1969). 152,
42, Peshn, La r-clz611,NaLar1.0, Eoitn, 328, 348
43, Per-611, El pueblo, 5; Faust~noJ . Leghn and Samuel \V. hIedrano, e d s . , Lns corlsfitll-
280 I HAHR / >LAY / SANDKA XICGEE DEUTSCH

Thus the Per6ns attempted to preside over the natioil as if it were

their family. This may not be unique in history, but what is unusual
is that many Argentines viewed this paternalistic movement as rcvolu-
tionary. Eva's persolla and her relationship with Juan epitomized tllesc
contradictions. The husband and wife seemed to represent different social
groups: Eva, the workers, and Juan, through his ties with the military, in-
dustrialists, and middle sectors, the bourgeoisie. Both the bourgeois and
lxoletarian characters of the illoveineilt also found their expression in Eva
as the "seiiora bllrgl~esa''and CompaIiera Evita, as described by Juan Josi:
Scbreli. The "seiiora burguesa" or "primera dama" of the early years was
a passive wife who identified herself with RIarianism by taking the name
of Maria Eva. Throllgh her luxuriol~sdress and newly attained status, she
coinml~nicatedthe inessage that workers could rise within the existing
systein, just as she had. CompaIiera Evita, whose image increasingly pre-
dominated in subsequent years, wore plainer (althollgh no less elegant)
clothing and a inore austere hairstyle, as hefitted an active, hard-working
\voinan. Her identification with the masses, hatred of the oligarchy,
- and
emergence from passivity, according to Scbreli, may have contributed to
feinalc and working-class conscio~~sness,-l-' or, in view of Scott's second
proposition, exemplified it.
The couple also challenged bourgeois morality. In this regard Sebreli
noted that both Juail and Eva were illegitiinate children, and that the
exainple of Eva, as one born out of wedlock and as Juan's mistress be-
fore their marriage, threatened the established fiamily, the transmission
of property, and the foundations of bourgeois society." Juan's behav-
ior after Eva's demise-his dalliance with young girls, his legalization
of prostitution and illegitimacy, and his divorce legislation-challe11gecl
bourgeois inores even further. Abhorrent as they were to the upper and
middle classes, Peron's sexual habits may have strengthened his appeal to
the l o ~ 7 e r . ~ ~
Yet did the Percins' flouting of middle-class sexual norms prefigure
a revolutionary appeal, or, in Scott's terms, express a more egahtarian
social order? Perhaps the) were preseiltiilg a new model of the family, one

ciones dc In Snciciil.41-gentilln (?latlrid. 1953), 480-4Si. Janles. Resistn~icc.34, Julio \Iafud.

Sociologi~rdcl p c r o r ~ i ~ r(Buenos
k Aires, 1972). 40.
44, JU'IIIJosC: Sehreli. Ecn Peron. ,L4celifrrrcrn o ltrilitnl~tcr'z d e d , (Bneno\ Aires, 1g6fji.
30. 59-61, 76, 83-85. 90. Ferdi~l,lnd,111d Imelda \larcos, ailloilg other leaders, also 11sed
f,lmily imagery; see Taylor, ,2lyths, 12, 15.
15. SeLreli. E o c ~ ,25, 28, 53-54. .\Is0 see Tahlor, 31!ytlls. 78-79, 89-90, 011 the fil'~c!i
hlyth and Eca's sexuality.

4 6 hlafhd, Sociologia, 126, Page, Per-611,292.

G E S D E R AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 281

more in keeping with popular customs and more easily lnobilizecl than the
conventional version. Or, like the post-1920 4lexican leaders, the Per6ns
may have manipulated their sexual images to encourage popular identifi-
cation with themselves and thus divert potential sentin~entsof class revolt.
Whether an actual threat existed or not, anlple evidence shows Juan's and
the elite's preoccupation wit11 the leftist specter.4i
The Per6ns' record 011 gender was as contradictory as their overall
achievements. Considering the first part of Scott's analysis, tlie "feminine"
values found in Peronist doctrine, as well as Jl~an'swillingness to rely
on Eva, may have mildly challenged tlie traditional definition of man-
hood. The Per6ns attempted to ease women smootlily into public life and
to offer them a somewhat broader vision of tlieir roles, withol~t,how-
ever, questioning the donlestic sphere. I11 turn (rcgarding Scott's second
component), this reselnblecl their efforts to incorporate workers into the
political and welfkre systems without questioning capitalist principles. To
what extent they may liave intended to restructure tlie family deserves
further research. Nevertheless, even these limited changes required Eva's
presence. I-Ier death removed the nlodel of strong felnale leadership for
other women to follow, particularly since she did not delegate authority.
It also seeills to have curtailed female activism ant1 tlie power of the PPF.
Thus, however progressive some of tlie Per6ns' stands may have heen, tlie
legacy appears to liave heen brief. In other respects, their statements and
programs reinforced the traditional gender roles, and they utilized con-
ceptions of these roles to justif:\. their hierarchical control and authority
relations within the society. The Peronist revolution, such as it was, may
have weakened hut did not overturn capitalism, the corporatist state, or
male rule in the householcl. The Per6ns' use of gender and hmilial con-
cepts with ambiguous conte~ltwas tailor-made to serve a movement with
a heterogeneous membership and essentially co~lservativeends.

Cuba
This p h e ~ l o i n e n oof~ women's
~ participation in the revolution was a
revoll~tionwithin a revolution . . . . And if we were asked what tlie
inost revolutionary thing is that the revolution is doing, we would

4.; Bianchi. "Pesonismo," 284, noted Peronist desisrs to ~woidre\~olutionaryuphea\ral.

I11 Reuersrrl of Deceloli~~iei~tirl L4rgo1ti1tn:P o ~ t [ c (C~ ~r i i ~ t i t e r i - e ~ ~ i l ( IP~licies
f i o ~ ~ u (rr1d
r ~ ~ Tlieir
Strrictur-01 Con.seqrrences iPrincrton, 1987). CC~rlos H . IYaisnra~idescribed at length Peronist
and uppel.-class fear of tlie left. C11~1rlesBergquist, in Labor iri Latin ,4111ericc1: Co~ttpar-(itice
Essays on Chile. Argentina, \7e11ezrreln. orit1 Coloit~bici(Sta~iford.1986). 152-167, discussed
Pel-onist persecution of leftist u~iiolis.
282 / HAHK / /
;\LAY SAXDIM SICGEE DEUTSCH

answer that it is precisely this-the revolution that is occurring

among the woinen of our country14"

-Fidel Castro, 196G

Castro has consistently tied the revolution to the issue of feinale libera-
tion. Regarding Scott's first proposition, his government has implemented
many prograins for women, and regarding the second, its progressive view
of male-female relations serves as a illode1 for the entire spectrum of' social
change since 1959 Yet- the probleins ficed by a besieged, ui~derdeveloped
island, as well as the legacy of traditional attitudes, continue to liinit the
revolutioil within a revolution. These liinits, in turn, call into question the
estent of transformation in broader power relationships.
I11 some respects Cuban m70111e11before lygy enjoyed a higher status
than their counterparts in prerevol~~tionary Mexico and pre-Peronist Ar-
gentina. A dyilainic fenliilist inoveineilt had won inale politiciails over to
its agenda. The results were sweeping laws on divorce, maternity and
other benefits for female workers. civil equality with men, and tlle vote,
all of which subsequently appeared in the Constitution of 1940. K. 12yi1i1
Stoner attributed this progressive legislation to the siinultaileous birth of
(and links between) deinocratic nationalism and feminism, as well as to
politicians' need for allies in the unstable early years of the republic. To
what extent this legacy helped iilflueilce gender prograills after 1959 de-
serves scholarly attention. By the iyijos m70111e11had achieved a slightly
higher literacy rate than men, although they were vastly outilumhered
in the universities. But the advances in feinale legal status and education
did not necessarily reflect their position in society. Governments failed
to enforce the impressive laws. In i g j 3 , only 17.2 percent of m70111e11
worked as paid laborers outside the llonle, a percentage sm;~llertllail that
of' Argeiltiila ill 1947, and, as in hot11 Argentina aild hlexico, they were
overrepresented in poorly paid, unskilled jobs. Nor had feinale civil rights
altered the traditional definitions of sex role^.^"
\irl1e11 they assuinecl power, Castro and his guerrilla army comrades,

48. "The Krvolution within the Re\,olution," in Tl.'on~ctl (111d the C I L / I ( I R I Le u o l ~ ~ i i o ~ ~ :

Spcecl1e.s otrrl D o c ~ r n ~ e n O!/
t s Firlel C(1sir.o. T'il111oE.spi11, nrrrl OiIle~.s,ed. Elizabetli Stone
(New York, 1981), 48.
49. On women, gender relations, and ferninism I~rfore1~)59,see Stoner, "FI-om the
House to the Streets: \Voman's hlovement for Legal Change in C u l ~ a ,1898-1958" (Ph.11.
diss., Indiana University, 19831; Lousdes Casal, "Revolutio~ratid Coilsciencicl: Ll'omrn in
ed. Carol R. Brskin and Clara ;\I. Lovett (New
Cuba," in TT70~nerl,TT7nr-,nnd Kccolt~tior~,
Yosk, 198o), 185-189; Casal, "Images of \Tomen in P s e and Postse\~olutionary Cul)an
Novels," ed. \'isginia R. Dominguez, C~rbcinSiuclies, 1; (19871, 25-50: Llirta de la Torre
hIr~lliare,"Sexual Ideology in Pre-Castro Culm A Cultural Ati;ll>sis" (I'll. D . diss., L'~iiversity
of Pittsburgh, 1969); Vrsena hIarti~iez-Alies,Jlorriage. Class, nnd Color~ri i ~X i n e t e o ~ t h -
Centur-!I Cuba (Ne\v York, 1974) The figure comes from Cdsal. "Revolr~tion,"189.
GEh-DER A N D SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 283

including a few m70111en,understood that women's subordinate status con-

tradicted the egalitarian goals of their struggle. Moreover, integrating
women into the labor force and inass organizations was necessary to insure
popular support ancl increase production to meet popular needs. Castro
believed that, doubly oppressed in the past on the basis of sex and class,
women as a group had greater revolutionary potential than men. The
revolution's success depended on its ability to tap this resource; as Castro
noted, no revolution was possible without feinale participation. At the
same time, the overthrow of capitalisill had created the conditions under
which women could f?ee theillselves from the burdens of povertv and
sexism. Female liberation could only occur within socialism, through the
deternlined efforts of'wolnen and men. Indeed, wonlei1 were emancipat-
ing themselves and silnultaneously integrating thelnselves into socialism,
and Castro considered these processes to be the nlost far-reaching aspects
of the revolution.50
Starting in the early days of the revolution-and befbre the feminist
resurgence in the United States and Latin America-the government took
many aml>itious steps to iinplelnent both processes. In the early 1960s it
encouraged woinen to step out of the traditional sphere 11y participating
in the literacy campaign, the militia and police, volunteer work in the
countryside, and the Coinitirs de Defensa de la Revoluci6n (CDRs). It
sent rural wolnen to the Ana Betancourt schools, named for a nineteenth-
century Cuban feminist and independence advocate, to learn writing,
reading, and sewing and to carry the revolution back to their villages.
It educated donlestic servants and prostitutes fbr alternative careers and
placed them in other jobs, or, in the case of domestics, increased their
wages and benefits. The government created the Federaci611 de llujeres
Cubanas (FMC) in 1960 to bring women into the labor force and revo-
lution, and the Frente Femenino cle la Confederaci6n de Trabajadores
Cubanos in 1969 to address problems faced by feinale workers. Both in
principle and in practice, it established equal pay for equal work, mater-
nity leaves, vocational training programs, workers' schools, and easy entry
into higher education. To ameliorate the "double day" ancl hegin to social-
ize household chores, the regime set up daycare centers: school, univer-
sity, and workplace luncl~rooins;and priority service for female workers
at groceries and other enterprises. The agrarian refbrm laws gave women
access to land and inembership in rural cooperative^.^'

50. ;\nlorig many stateruents to this efyect, see Castso. "Tlie Re\~ol~ltion."48-ji: Susan
Kaufman Purcell, "h~lodesriizingLfIomen for a Iloderri Society: The Cuban Case." in F e ~ ~ ~ c l l e
and Male, ed. Pescatello, 261-262: Fidel Cosiro 011 Chile ( N e ~ Y
v osk, 1982), 127-128.
ji. Cuban programs for Ivomen arid tlre farllily Irave inspised a vast litel.ntuse. See. for
example, Purcell, "hlodernizing"; Isabel Lasguia and John Dunioulin. "Lf'onien's Equality
2%
/ HAHK 1 hL4Y / bANDR4 AICGEE DEUTSCH

Eve11 so, Cubail rulers have not fully confronted the issue of how far to
associate the redefinition of society with the redefinition of gendcr roles.
Ailoinalies in government rhetoric and action continue. The new image
of womanhood as revolutionary but discreetly "feininine" exllil~itssoine
of these contradictions. In its fashion section, which occupies a signifi-
cant portion of each issue, the FRlC's inagaziile Mtrjcres has consistently
advised women to dress attractively yet soberly and noilprovocatively.
Similarly, the FRlC trained former prostitutes to dress and 1)ehave in a
subdued femiiliile fashion as part of their education for a new life. Para-
doxically, the revolutioil seemed to approve of \voinen displaying their
bodies on cereinoilial occasions. Coiltests to pick carnival clueells took
place at least until the mid-1~-jos,although judges and audiences chose
wiililers on the basis not only of physical bcm~tyhut of revolutionary atti-
tudes and participation. Criticism 1)y the FhIC and the Coini~~uilist party
led to the end o f t h e practice of choosing carnival queens. Nevertheless,
tourist hotels and nig11tclul)s still feature scantily clad fem;xle dancer^.'^
His coinmitinent to feinale equality not\vithstailding, Castro himself
has betrayed ambivalei~ce.Kepeatedly he denounced the bol~rgeoisview
of m7ome11as sex ol~jectsaild "decorative figures." He has praised woinen
for their abnegation, concern for justice, discipliile. and combativeness.
While the first two are qualities traditionally associated with women, the
last two are not; moreover, these are revol~tionar~. traits he wants men to

and tlre Cuban Ke\olution." 344-368. lid C,lrnren Diana I>ee~-e,"Kur,31 \\omen and
-\grarialr Reform in Peru, Cliilr, and <:uba," 199-203, in Mhnrer~ N I I ~Change i r ~Ltiti~r
An~ericci.r d . June Kash and Helen Saft~(South Hadley. AlA, 1985); Ctrbo Reuietc. 4:2 (Sept.
1974):Cuhcz Recierc. 5 : 4 (llec. 1975);Oscar Le\vis. H11t1rh l . Lc\vis, S~lsalrhl. Rigdon. Fotrr
ii'ortlen: 1,icing t l ~ eRcco!trtion. An Oral History of' Co~rten~portiry C t ~ b akUrl>a~ra.19;;);
hlargaret Kandall. \,i'o~ne~rin Ctiha: Ttcolt!j Yecirs Ltrttzr (New Tor-k, 1981). I,tr nrtrjer en
Crrba socialists (tlavana, 19;;): entire ibsur of Ciibnir Sttrtlics. 1; (198;); I,au~-etteSrj.journi..
I,n ~t~tcjcrcuba~laol el qtcchncer de la 11i.rtor-in(hleuico City. 1980). On day care and etlu-
cation, see \lar\in Leiner, Children L4rethe Rrcolrition: Dc~yCare in Ctilxi, zd ed. (Ne\v
l'ork, 1978) Karen \\'aid, Childr-en of Che: Childcar-P and Edricutioi~ i l l Ctrhci (P'11o Alto,
1978); Jonathan Kozol, Cltiltlrcn of the Rerolirtion: A Ycitlhec Tcaclrer irr tlze Ctrhcl~rSclrouls
(New Tork, 1978) For additional sources before 1974, see Nelson P. \'alder. ".4 Bibliogrnplry
o ~ rCubalr \\'omen i ~ rthe T\ientietlr Century." Criban Studies Set~slettcr-.4 : 2 (June 1974),
1-31.
52. Stone. "Ir~troduction."18. and Communist Party of Cuba. "Tlresis: On tlre Full
Exercise of \Vomerr's Eclualit!.." 102, in Stone. \\'oi~rpn. \'irgi~rid Olesen. "Col~fltle~rces in
Social Change: Cuban \\'omen t ~ n dHealth Care," Jotirnal of Into--rlrtlericcin Studie.~tincl
%.or-!d Affairs. i;:4 (No\'. 1975). 401-402. hfax .4zicri, "\Vo~rrel~'rDevelopnre~rtTlrrot~glr
Revolutio~rary Slobilization: A Study of the Federation of Cuban \fJomen." Interirntionnl
Journal of '\Vo~nen'sStrrtlies, 2 . 1 (Jan.-Feb. 1979). 35: P~wcell."Sfodernizing." 267-268,
"PI\so a la estrella." Ctiba Internacionnl. Sept. 1973, p. 74. Sourcrc on beat~tyronterts are
licted in \'<~ldes."Bibliography," 38. I sur\.e!ed J1trjerc.s. ]an.-Dec. 1978, Jan.-June 1980,
July-Dec. 1981. RIar. 1984. and Jan.-June 1986. In three issuer picked at randonr, clothing
and sewing patterns covered froni i j to 18 percent of the total pages.
GENDER AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE: 285

emulate. Castro addresses women as comrades, just as he does inen, and

has declared that the ideal is a government, a party, a leadership; and a
state of both sexes. Yet he also assumes that women are weaker physically
than inell and that "proletarian manners" therefhre dictate special treat-
ment of wornen on soine occasions. Alld while Castro has criticized sexist
language; he has continued to refer to "the new man" as the embodiment
of socialist virtues, implicitly excluding \\-omen from this category.j3
The regime has selected role nlodels for the new inail froin the ranks
of nationalists; soldiers; ancl revolutionaries; and it has found female role
lllodels who resemble these heroes. These include the 1CIainbisas, the
woinen ~ v h ostruggled for independence; such as Aila Hetancourt, Kosa
la Hayainesa, and Slariana Grajales. Firm, revolutionary, and combative
was how the F l l C described the icleal Cuban woman in its posters in
1979-tennsthat differed little from the officially sponsored iinage for
Inen to upl~old.Such stateinents and role models helped prepare women
for new undertakings. The government has praised hard-working wonleil
with nontraditional careers as National Heroines of Labor. These persons
receive special attention in Mlljeres, wllicll also has publicized women
in sports, the military, ancl the police. hloreover, in recent years wolnen
have constituted about half of the students in economics; science, and
" ~
some techllological discipli~lesnot customarily seen as feinininr:" areas
of s t ~ ~ d y . ~ ~
These new roles and images of women, however; coexist wit11 the old.
As l'irginia Olesen noted, the maill contribution of many Xlambisas was
to sacrifice tl~emselvesfor their revolutionary sons and husbands. This
was true of Grajales, Antoilio hlaceo's mother, after whom Castro's female
coinrades in the Sierra hlaestra, the hlarianas, named themselves. \f70C'ornen
who engage in community volunteer work belong to the RIoviilliel~tode
1CIadres Coinbatie~ltes.Perhaps the combined imagery of maternity and
soldiering helps to justify women's new roles in traditional terms, thus
promoting their acceptance, or to dei~lonstratethe feasibility of merg-
ing such roles. Alternatively, it may suggest that the revolution has not
altered women's lives as much as one might think, or that its leaders;
like the PLM, cannot break out of old patterns of tl-~inking.Altljcres de-
votes more space to children, health, cooking, sewing; and other motherly

53. Fidel Castro. "The Struggle for \\'ome~r's Equalit!," 68-72, and Communist Party,
"Thesis." 75. in Stone. ~ V V I ~ CC.I I Fred
: Judson. Cuba and the Rccoltrtior~a~-y Afytlz. Tllc
Political Erlucatio~zofthe C t ~ b a nRebel AI-~ny,195.3-196.3 (Boulcler. 1984h esl)eci,tll!. 239
54, Stoner. 'Breaking tlre hlold: The hlambisas and the C u l ~ a \Vass
~ r of Independence."
ma.: Carollee Bengelsdosf. "On the Problem of Studying \Vo~nenin Cuba." in Crlbon Politi-
cal Economy: Co~~troc.ersies in Cttbanology. ed. Andrew Zilllbalist (Boulder. 1988). 126-129:
M~rjeres.passim.
286 / HAHR / XlAY / SAWDlt4 h I C G E E D E U T S C I I

coilcerils than it does to fenlale workers or leaders. h'foreover, its portray-

als of the latter often highlight their "fe~nininit~" and illaternal devotion.
The magazine A41~clzachasends a siinilar nlessage extolling n~otl~erl~oocl to
the younger female generation. Even the well-known film statement on
gender equality, Portrait of Tere.scl ( ~ C J ~ C J )iillplicitly
, reinforced women's
responsibilities within the home, as Juliarlile Burton
In conformity with these responsibilities, the government continues to
assign to woinen such duties as food preparation, childcare, cleaning, and
education of the young. Occupational categories seenlirlgly unrelated to
women's and men's customary tasks are nonetheless reserved for one or
the other gender. Officials have given some jobs to nlen uilcler the pretext
that they inigllt damage female reproductive capabilities; apparently they
do not fear the prospect of siillilar danlage to male physiology. IVhatever
the stated reason, the work desigilated as female is usually lower in pay.
Eve11 within ilontraditioilal fields, women often perform chores considered
appropriate to their sex; female militia members, for example, more corn-
monly train for civil defense than for combat. The small numbers of women
who have occupied leaclersllip positions-a significant fact in itself-have
usually ad~ninistereclprograins related to the domestic sphere and have
supervised fenlale workers and bureaucrats. As Lourdes Casal has pointed
out, however, not only tradition is respoilsihle for the creation of these
"supermadres"; women entered health; education, and social service also
because precisely these sectors expanded with the revolution.
The extent to which the regime has addressed Scott's first compo-
nent of gender and proinoted new fenlale roles is, therefore, debatable.
IVhether it has encouragecl new illodels for inale bella\lior is even less
clear. The descriptioils of the new socialist man; well-disseminated pic-
tures of male sports heroes, and the cult of the revolutionary martyrs
seein to irlclicate that the ideal Cubail male is firm, brave, self-sacrificing,
and combative; just like the female. The propaganda that also upholds
discreet fernininity and illotherllood for women, however, stresses virility

55. For information in this and the next p,iragrapll. see Olesen. "Confiuellcer." 402-403;
Casal. "Revolution." 191: Pastor Vega, director, Retrc~tode Tei-e.sa (1979); J u l i a ~ ~ nbur
e tor^.
"Seeing. Being. Being Seen: 'Portrait of Teresa.' or Coiltradictionr of Sexual Politics in Con-
temporary Cuba," Sociul Test. 4 (Fall 1981). 79-95: Lois SI. Smith. "Teenage Pregnancy
and Sex Ediication in Cliba." paper presented at Latin .American Studies Association (L.AS.4)
uneetii~g.New Orleans (SIar. 1988). 27; Isolina TI-iay, "Hilda del Carlllen: la realizc~ci6ntle
un suefio," Altljeres, 2G:4 (Apr. 198G), 61; Stoner, commentr. Maxine iclolyneux noted a simi-
lar enlplrasis 011 ~nothedroodi ~ other
r socialist countries in "Soci'11ist Societies Old and New,:
Progress Towards IVome~r'sEnrc~~rcipatio~rP" Felnir~istRecietc, 8 (Summer 1981), 1-35. 0 1 1
the tendenc!- of female bureaucrats to work in family-related matters, ree Elsa hl. Chaney.
S~i~errrzndre: IVoir~erzin Politics in Latin rlit~ericn(Austin, 1979). .-\pp~-o~ir~latelyhalf of the
hldrdr 1984 issiie of Altjeres was d e ~ o t e dto motherlrood- 01.fanrilyrelated matters, and h i s
coverage seeilled typical for tlre magazi~re
GENDER AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 287

and virtually ignores paternity for men. E\lidently. as in the h'lexican and
Argentine cases, female revolutionaries must be mothers, but, unlike their
counterparts in Argentina, inale revolutionaries need not be fathers.
The definition of inanhood may draw upon Castro's image as well as
traditional notions. The leader of the Cuban Revolution serves as a illode1
of virility. hlany photographs feature Castro engaged in sports or in tlle
company of athletes. His large physique and apparent attractiveness to
women add to his masculine image, as does his history of standing up to
the United States. This, in turn, reinforces his popularity anlong Cubans,
who affectionately call him "el caballo." While Castro offers an image of
virility, h e has been single for inany years, and although h e has fi~thered
cllilclren, h e does not portray lliinself as a paternal type or fanlily head-
unlike Juan Per6n. In terins of Scott's second component of gender, per-
haps this serves as a paradigill for a socialist government that has s o ~ ~ g l l t
to destroy old l l i e r a r c h i e ~ . ~ B research
ut is needed on Castro's image and
its influence on inale roles under Cuban socialism.
The few existing works on male roles suggest sonle change over time.
In 1966, citing the need for more daycare centers and other f'acilities to
help boost female participation in the labor force, Castro asked who was
going to prepare food and perform other housekeeping chores without
such services, implying that h e did not en\lision illale f;~milymeinl~ersin
that role. However, at least one Cuban official has called for illore male
l>erson~~el in daycare centers, and husbands ~ v h otruly share household
chores have received the praise of Mrfjere.s in recent years. One article
featured photographs of the subject in military uniform, clearly suggesting
that one could perforin cloinestic chores and retain one's masculinity. The
effect of this publicity is uncertain. Oscar L,ewis's interviews indicated
that as of 1970 inen of different ages strongly resisted gender role change,
but apparently no study has measured attitudes since that date. The lack
of communications inedia specifically directed toward men inlpedes the
studv of inale roles. This absence is in itself significant; like tlle exclusive
category of the "new man," it iinplies that nlen (ire the revolutionaries;
as in the Mexican case, so they do not require special attention. It also
iinplies that men, unlike woinen, do not need to alter their identity to join
the revolutioi~.~'

56. Trevor Slack. "Cuba's Political Involvement in Sport Since tlre Socialist Re~olution."
,/owma1 of Sport and Sociol Issues. G : 2 (Fall-IVinter 1982). 36, pllotor of Castro in Fidel
Castro. Fidel sobre el rleporte ( H a ~ a n a .1975). Lois hl. Smith and Alfred Padula. "Twenty
Questions on Sex and Gender in Re~olutionaryCuba," Ctiban Sttidies. 18 (1988), 150,
57. Castro. "Revolution," 52-53; Bengelsdorf, "Studying IVornen." 1 3 5 n. 33; Judsolr,
Cuba. 58: Gladys Castaiio. "Una pareja de hoy," Mujet-es. 18:: (July 1978). 75. Alicia Cas-
caret. "Teresa y hfanolo." Altijeres. 20:6 (June 1980), 24-25: Lewis et al. Forii- \lrotnen: Ana
Maria Radaelli. "For The FUll Equality of IVo~nen,"Cubo Intertlntio~lal,i : 4 (July i985), 15;
288 ( HAHR 1 XIAY I SANDRA MCGEE DECTSCII
Tlie persistence of traditional gender patterns notwithstancling, many
Cubans have viewecl tlie re\lolutioii as tlie "revolution of \vonien." Tliis
attitude has particularly characterized Castro's opponents, who, since
early in the revolution, have utilized gender and faniilial change as a
metaphor for tlie social transformations tliey despise. By sending feiiiale
as well as inale students into the hinterland to teacli peasants to read, tlie
literacy calnpaigri of tlie early 1960s aroused opposition. Bourgeois par-
ents, especially fathers, resented the state for undermining "their role as
guardians of their daughter's virtue," as Alfred Padula and Lois Smitli put
it. The state was challengi~igtlieir honor and, ultimately, tlieir class stand-
ing, already besieged by econonlic policies. The literacy calnpaign and
other prograins to remove \voinen and children from the hoine and inte-
grate them into tlie revolution pronipted parents to send their children to
hliami. Such parents expected to cventually reunite their fanlilies either
in exile or in a post-Castl-o Cuba, but ironically tliey decided that, in tlie
meantime, tlieir children were safer alone in the capitalist United States
than supervised by revolutionaries in Cuba. Cuban inale exiles in the late
1960s exaggerated tlie changes in women's roles and equated tlieni with
promiscuity. They claimed tliat Lvonlen no longer depended on inen eco-
nomically, nor were tliey accountable to parents or liushancls. Women;
one exile lamented; almost ruled tlie~nselvesor were ruled "from outside;"
that is, from outside tlie family. (In Lewis's book, sonie inale supporters of
the revolution ruefully agreed.) The exiles used tlicse charges to niohilize
opposition to Castro within the Cuhan community in tlie United States.
Paradoxically, a considerably higher percentage of Cubanas participates
in the labor force in tlie Cliited States than in Cuba-55.4 lwrceiit ver-
sus 37.3 percent as of the mid-ly8os-and some Cuban fenlale workers
in tlie United States indicated tliat their jobs have given tllem a sense of
independence." This information suggests that the inale exiles' gendered
rhetoric is a critique more of the new power relatioiisliips 011 tlie island
than of woiiie~i'sstatus per se.

Smitli and Padula, "T\irenty Questions," 15;. The ~ n a l erole in tlie Ilome 11as changed little,
accordi~igto Safa, "\\'omen, Industrialization and State Policy in Cuba," C'ni\el-sitv of Notre
Dame, Kellogg Inutitute Mbrking Paper (December 1989). 39. J u ~ . e ~ i t uKeGelde.
d C:r.crrlltlci,
and the debates at varior~slevels of society over the Fanlily Code might be ubeful sources fol-
a study of male roles.
58. Padula and Smith, "\floi~ien in Socialist Cuba, 1959-1984,'' ill C u l ~ a :Ttoelity-Fice
Yecrrs of Recolntio~~, 1959-1984, ed. Sandor Halehsky and J o h ~ iX I . Kirk (New York, 1985).
82; Geoffrey E . Fox, "Honor, Sliame and \flo:omen's Liheration in Cuha: \'ie\vs of IVorking-
Class Emigri. \fen," in Pescatello, Fei~laleand ,\!ale, 279-280, 287; Stoner, (potation on the
"re\olution of \i~oiiien";Lewis et al., Four- iYo111e1i.Contemporary critics of the French re\ o-
lutio~ialso equated it with promiscuity; see Scott, 'Gendel-," 1071. For the figures o ~working
i
women, see Yolanda Prieto, "Cuba11 \flo~iienin the U.S. Lal~orForce: Perspecti~eson the
h'ature of Change," Cnbnr~Studies, 17 (1987), 77. and Bengelsdorf "Studying \Vomen," 1 2 3
GENDEK AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 289

Although the extent of change in sexual Inores was hardly as sweeping

as opponents claimed, in many respects government policies on sexuality
and marriage were more realistic and pernlissive than those of' previ-
ous regimes. Over time the government established sex education in the
schools and liberalized access to divorce, birth control, and abortions.
The progressive yet largely unenforced 1940 constitution had recognized
common-law marriages and renloved the stigma of illegitimacy; the gov-
ernment fully observed these provisions but encouraged couples to fbr-
lnalize their relationships. Leaders, as well as the sex-education publica-
tions, attack the double standard that has encouraged nlale and suppressed
female sexuality. Articles in Mttjeres and other periodicals infornl women
on sexual f~ilfillment,proclaiming an end to fenlale sexual passivity and
ignorance-all within marriage, however. (Whether men receive the same
message linking sex with marriage is not clear.) jY
The emphasis on marriage, at least in female-oriented publications,
indicated a governlnent reaction against "disorganized, disordered" sexu-
ality, as a sex education official put it,Goand in favor of reconstituting the
family. The revolution had introduced so many changes that the leader-
ship concluded that stability required the maintenance of a few traditions.
Despite the apparent contradiction between the emerging socialist soci-
ety and the nuclear family, reinforced as it had been by capitalism, the
governnlent decided that the latter deserved strengthening. Accordingly,
the Family Code of 1975 and family-related provisions of the Constitution
of' 1976 recognized the "socialist family" as a group vital to the functioning
of societv. Concerned over the stressful effvct of the revolution on familv
life, the governnlent tightened divorce regulations and criticized irrespon-
sible parents. This policy may have reinforced the cult of motherhood,
but officials seem to have retained their apathy toward fatherhood. At
the same time, the new legislation aimed at weakening authority relations

59, Olesen, "Context and Posture: Notes on Socio-Cultural Aspects of LVomen's Roles
and Family Policy in Contemporary Cuh,~,"Jonrnal of ,tfarricr,ae crnd the Fainily, 33 (Aug.
1971), 551-552; Smith, "Pregnancy," 5, klonikd Krause. "Sex Education in cub^," paper
presented at LASA n~eeting,h'ew Orleans (hlar. 1988); Krause, "Los cuba~losy el '~mos,"
Cuba Intcrnircior~al.15:161 (Apr. 19831. 32-34; "En defensa del nmos," Jfujeres, 24:3 (Mar.
1984). 52-53. Kralrse is the coordin'ltor for the Grupo Naciondl de Trabajo de Educacibn
Sexual (GNTES).
60. Krause, comments in discussion nt LASA session. This sanle reaction also is related
to the antihomosexr~alpolicy of the 1960s and i97os, an exception to the tolerant go\ern~nent
actions mentioned above. See Lourdes Arguelles and B. Rub! Rich, "Homosexuality. H o n ~ o -
phobia, and Revolution: Notes Toward An Understanding of the Cuhan Lesbinn nnd Gay
Xlale Experience, Part I." Signs, 9:4 (Summer 1984), 683-699; 'Cuban Prisons. A Prelimi-
nary Report," Cuban C'pdatc?. 9:1-3 (June 1988). 28; "Segunda cal-ta a 10s padres." Jlrljeres,
18:6 [June 1978), 65; Carlos Alherto Xlontaner, Fidel Castr-o y lo r e ~ o l u c i d ic~rbana
~ (Barce-
lona, 1983), 131-134, 257-261. X101~11euxp ointed out that other socialist countsies ~.egasd
homosexuality as a crime, in "Socialist Societies," 1 1 .
290 I HAHR I RWY I SANDRA MCGEE DEUTSCII
within the home. It declared that women and men had equal rights ~ ~ i t h i n
all spheres of activity, including the family, and assigned husbands half
the share of cloinestic chores. Thus it also attempted to iinprove ~ ~ o i n e n ' s
status and end the division of' labor \vithin tlle fanlily, and in this sense
may have symbolized the new egalitarian social order."'
By the 1970s econon~icdilemmas had emerged \vhich also help ex-
plain the context of the Family Code and the new constitution. Cubans
were earning good wages but the economy did not produce sufficient con-
sumer goods for thein to purchase. Productivity was low and absenteeisin
high. The heavy denland for labor that had characterized the 1960s-
and had proinpted the hiring of women-had reversed itself. To reduce
the ainount of currency in circulation and spur productivity, the govern-
ment increased prices for many goods and utilities and began to charge
fees fbr claycare, among other previously free services. Under a new, de-
centralized nlanagerial system, it became disadvailtageous for enterprises
expected to realize profits to hire woinen, M J ~ Oincurred maternitv 1eal.e
or btheiurise were likely to miss work for family-related reasons. ~ ~ ; i the th
labor surplus, the regime decided to give priority to inale over feinalc
employment; it guaranteed jobs only to inen and to feinale heads of house-
holds. These changes, and inore broadly the substitution of a new socialist
system of distribution according to work for the previous communist sys-
tein of distribution according to need, in Muriel Nazzari's opinion set
women's liberation back.@'
Under the coininunist systein the state had taken over some of the
family's tasks of bringing up children and providing for the elderly and
infirm. Under the new socialist system, however, the Family Code held
individuals, rather than society, respoilsible for s ~ ~ p p o r t i ntheir
g children.
parents, and other family members, and, to soine extent, for inculcating
socialist principles. Thus the regression from communism signified a con-
servative trend in family and gender policy, for it implied that women
~vouldhave to return home to assume these duties. Just as in nineteenth-
century capitalist society, order in the sexual and familial realins suitecl
econoinic policy and served as a metaphor for the new focus on discipline
and hard work.

61. The texts of tlre Falnily Code nnd rele\-nnt artlcles 01' the constitution ,Ire found
in Lo lriiijer, 281-3411, 386-390, resl~ectivel!, Also see Smith, "Preglralrcy," 9-10; Bengels-
dorf, "Studying If'omen," 122. Various artlcles in .2ft!jeres described the tlmily as the cell of
socialist society
62. Azicri, 'IVolnen's Development," 41-42: Belrgelsdorf, "Str~d>,ilrg IVomen," 121-122;
and, for information in this nnd the next paragrapll, Xluriel Nazzari, "The 'IVoman Question'
in Cuba: An Analysis of hlaterial Constraints on Its Solution," Signs, y : z (\\'inter 1983), 258-
263: and Robert Colren, "Cuba's New Generation: Coming of Age," Cirba Keuietc, 8 : 2 (June
1978), 10-11.
GENDER AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 291

This evidence supports hlax Azicri's argument that the regime has set
certain priorities above felnale liberation. Azicri claiinecl that it encour-
aged women to join the labor force as long as that policy coincided with
the ol~jectiveof increasing production. \Vhen a labor surplus and a con-
cern for efficiency developed, it reduced its commitment. hloreover, it has
lnobilized wonlen through the FRIC, an institution that serves primarily
as an official mouthpiece, although it also sends conlplaints fronl the ranks
up to the leadership. This top-down style characterizes all of the nlass
organizations; in terms of' Scott's second proposition, just as in revolu-
tionary Mexico and Peronist Argentina, domination of women symbolizes
and expresses doinination of the entire populace. Also, the enlphasis on
defense and on supporting revolutions overseas has diverted resources
from the developnlent of goods and services needed by orki king MJo1nen.
The transportation bottlenecks, the lack of'household appliances, the poor
quality of foods and other consumption items-along with the absence
of' domestic servants-impede ~ ~ o i n e nstruggles
's to free themselves from
the home.""
Nazzari ancl Azicri, however, ignored the very real strides Cuba has
nlade toward gencler equality in the midst of' econonlic difficulties. The
government found that the onerous "double day" kept women from enter-
ing or staying in the labor force and fiom pursuing political office. It
instituted the Falnilv Code and family-related sections of tlle constitu-
tion partly to tackle this probleln by encouraging nlen to share household
duties. IVhile it does not enfbrce these laws, the governinent has publi-
cized them by sponsoring debates on their ramifications, filnls like Portrait
of Teresa, and coverage in other media. Despite tlle reversion to social-
isin and the labor surplus, ~ ~ o i n e nparticipation
's rose from 25.3 percent
of the labor fbrce in 1975 to 37.3 percent in the mid-1980s. Vndoubt-
eclly the greater cleinand fbr cash to pay for services and consumer goods
helped influence women to work outside the home. During the same
years, the percentage of felnale Cominunist party members and leaders as
well as trade union and government officials also increased significantly.
Nevertheless, only one woman, Villna Espin, holds full meinhership in
the Politbureau, the highest political body, while two are alternate^.^^
This review of gender notions and policies in Cuba enables us to uncler-

63. Azicri, "LVomen's Development"; Stoner, comments.

64. The figures are cited in Bengelsdorf, "Studying Women," 123. Also see 120-124,
126-129; Patricia Peyton and Carlos Broullon, "Portrait of Teresa: An Inteniew with Pastor
\tga nnd Daisy Granndos," Cinenste, i o : i (\\'inter 1979-80), 24-25, 4;; .\la]-ifeli Perez-
Stable, "Cuban IVomen and the Struggle for 'Conciencia'," Ct111ntl Str~dic?~, 1; (198;i, 66,
n . 1; Heidi Steffens, "A \\'on~an's PLce . . . ," Cuba Recierc, 4:2 (Sept. ig;4), 29; hlasjorie
King, "Cuba's Attack on \Yomen's Second Shift, 1974-1976," in IVonzen i n I,crti~z At,~c?riccr,
118-131.
292 / HAHR 1 MAY 1 SANDRA XICGEE DEUTSCII
stand the Cuban Revolution illore fully in various ways. Regarding Scott's
first proposition, the g o v e r n m e ~ ~has
t often supported transfbrmation of
gender roles Inore staunchly than inuch of the public, although it does
not define equality of' the two sexes as the equating of' the sexes. It has
offered woinen new role inoclels and new arenas of' activity transcending
by far the tiinid steps the Perons took in this direction. I11 contrast to
Mexico, the Cuban woinan unequivocally participates in public matters,
and she, along with the entire socialist family, has a stake in the deepen-
ing of'the revolution. The extent to which the governinent has redefined
inale roles and activities is uncertain. This is an important question, for,
as in the Mexican case, it is doubtful whether a revolution can rest on the
immutability of' either gender. LYhatever the degree of change, clearly the
government has controlled it, denlollstrating its tendency to place the goal
of inass participation below that of social transformation. Indeed, soine
have argued that just as the state replaced the capitalists, it has replaced
fathers and husbands rather than encourage them to redefine their roles.Gi
According to the latter view and to Scott's second proposition, the
l'aternalisin of the revolutionary regiine is a metaphor for its larger au-
tlroritarianisin. Cubans probahly could not have achievecl the same mea-
sure of' social and gender change without the guidance of enliglrtenecl
leaders linked to inass organizations, even thougl~one \venders at what
point the authoritarianisin of rulers, 110 matter how enlightened, under-
mines their ideals. Nevertheless, ~ ~ h e t h eone r emphasizes the progres-
sive or conservative aspects of the revolution's gender policy, its symbolic
iinportance is evident: for Castro, the freedoms and advances experi-
enced by woinen illustrate the blessings of the revolution, whereas for
his opponents, gender equality and sexual permissiveness represent its
shortcomings.

Chile
Es gran tarea, la d e conquistarla conscientemente, para que ella
[la mujer] entienda que su propio futuro clistinto est6 precisainente
en esos derechos que se le negaron y que nosotros no le vanlos
a regalar, porque ella 10s tiene conquistados por el hecho de ser
mafiana una mujer que construira una sociedad distinta.""
111this passage Salvador Allende revealed a central dilemma of'both the
Chilean deinocratic road to socialisill and of the ruling coalition's gender

65. Padula and Smith, "If~on~en." yo. Also see Fou, "Honor." 289; Rhoda Pearl Rahkilr.
"Crlban Political Structure: Valrguard Party and the hlasses," in Ctrhn, ed. Hnlebsky and
Kirk, 250, 267; Sah, "\\'omen," 48.
66. Salvador Allende, Snlvcldor Allende 1908-1973: P1.6cer de la libernci611 ticlcioncll,
ed. Alejandro If'alker (lIe,xico City, igXo), 255.
GENDER AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 293

policy. A siinplistic faith in socialism as the automatic solution to Chilean

problems, includillg that of discrimination against women, seemed to
guide LTnidad Popular (UP). By implementing reforms to aid wornen ancl
other groups, the LTPhoped to convince the electorate of the inherent
logic of this belief. Allende's juxtapositioil of two conflicting ideas-that
woinell would liberate themselves, once the UP had "conquered" them-
also suggested the contradictiolls underlying official attitudes on gender
ancl, considering Scott's second proposition, on other issues.6'
The situation of \voine11 by 1970 reseml~leclaspects of the Argen-
tine and Cuban experiences. Chilean as well as Argentine feminists had
emerged from the ranks of the left, but the Chilean left, in contrast to the
Argentine, identified itself with nationalisln. If Chilean feminists reaped
advantages from their alliance \ ~ i t l lthe nationalist cause, they were no-
where as sweeping as those gleaned by their Cuban counterparts; for
example, Lvornen won the right to vote at the nluilicipal level in 1934 but
at the national level not until 1949. Cllilean \vomen organized the Partido
Feinenino Chileno (1946-1953), \vllich managed to elect a congresswoinan
and a fenlale senator. Froin the late 1940s on, house~vivesorganized what
became kilowll as Centros de Madres (CEMAS), in which they discussed
their problems and developed political awareness. Tlle formation of these
groups, as well as the tendellcy of felnale public figures to devote them-
selves to education and other "feminine" concerns, nlanifestecl a tradition-
alism of women's political involvement similar to that of Peronist women.
This traditionalism may have reflected a world in \vhich nlost Lvolnen still
~vorkedwithin the home. As of 1969, 23.1 pt:rcent of the economically
active population was female, a figure much higher than the Latin Ameri-
can average of 13.6 hut less than the Argentine percentage in 1947. At
the same time, men of all classes disapproved of felnale integration into
the labor force, and inany ~ ' o n l e i as
l well as men expressed ambivalence
about female political participation, despite widespread invol\;ement in
the CEhIAS.""

67, Bergquist noted the UP'S "un~ritic~ll acceptance of '1 hlasxist orthodox)" in Lahor
i r ~Lntiri Arnericcr, 79. E d d ~G a l iola Astigas. Lorelld Lopresti XL~rtinez.and Cl,ludia Rojas
X1il.a. "La p~rticip~~cicin
politicd de la ~nu~jerchilena entse 10s afios 1 c ~ ( i ~ - 1 ~jms.,
7 ~ " Santiago,
1987), 13, and Xlaria Elena 1:alenzuela. private commu~~ication. pointed out the \\-idespread
view that Lvithin socialisnl women could dchieve liberation painleisly. O n populist i u ~ dcor-
por,ltist tendencies in Chilean socialism, see Paul U~.,l!ir. Socirrlisrr~cztrd Poj~lrlisr,i in Chile.
1932-52 (Urbana. 1978b
68. O n feminism and \vomen's statl~sbefore 1970, see CChaney. Suj~ertiic~dre: Gaviola
.\rtigas et al., "Qurremos cotczr en Ins j~rdsir~znseleccioncs." Historin del n~ocitiiiertto
feiilerlino cliiler~o1913-1952 (Santiago. 1986), Paz Co\.arrubiaa, "El movimiento Seminista
chileno," in Chile: nitijer !/ sociednd, ed. Paz Covarrubias and Rola~ldoFranco (Santiago,
1978), 615-648: .\rlnand hlattelart ancl hlichi.le hlattel'lrt, Ln rilrijer chilericr en lrri(r r~uecci
sociecind. I;IIestudio esplorcrtorio crcercci de In situcrcidri e ii~lnger~
de In ntt!jer eti Chile (San-
tiago. 1968): La\.sin, "Icleology" ancl "\f'on~en"; Gaviol;~Artigas et al., "La participaci6n."
294 I IIhIIH I hIAY I SANDRA XICGEE DEYTSCH
Like their ( h ~ h a npredecessors, UP leaders recognized the importance
of incorporating women into their movement. Salvador Allende ancl Carlos
Altamirano, secretary general of the Socialist party, stated on occasioll
that the fate of the government would rest in female hands. Their con-
cern was more immediate and practical than that of the Cul~ans.The UP
had assulnecl power through a tiny plurality of votes, not through arined
struggle; in fact, it was only laying the grou~~clwork for socialism rather
than creating it. To relnain in office and fulfill its mandate. it needed to
increase its following. This nleant recruiting women, particularly of the
middle and upper classes, the majority of whom had voted for Christian
Democrats and Nationalists in 1970 and previousyears. \T7hile a majority
of inen had also voted for the opposition in these elections, the left had
managed to secure a higher percentage of male votes tl~ailf e n ~ a l e . ' ~
The neat division of the electorate into thirds and the resulting heavy
colnpetition for votes meant, however, that all three political contenders
sought women's support. The Nationalist and Cl~ristianDeinocratic plat-
forms of 1970 contained separate sections on women. Both called fbr
equal pay for equal work, legal equality for n~arriedwoinen, and eco-
nonlic opportunities or econolnic security for housewives. But while the
rightist party doct~inentemphasized feillale roles within the home, the
Christian Delllocrats envisioned wolnell entering the public sphere. prom-
ising, for example, to integrate them "in all levels of action and decisior~
~ n a k i ~ ill
l g the next governlnent." During the Eduardo Frei administra-
tion jiy64-.--ly70),the Cilristian Denlocrats had encouraged female activ-
ism, albeit within the traditionally organized CEhIAS, by granting them
juridical personage. According to hlicllael A. Francis and Patricia A. Kyle,
of the three parties only the Christian Democrats favored birth ~ontrol.'~'
The UP platform also addressed women's needs, with provisions on
establishing cllildcare centers, a hlinistry of the Family, alcoholisln pro-
grams, equal pay for ec1ual work, and solne type of security for hol~sewives;
on liberalizing divorce laws; and on equalizing thc legal status of legiti-
mate and illeg.itiinate children. I11 addition, Allende endorsed full legal
equality and educational ancl cultural opportni~itiesfor wornell. Except for

81-85. Felicitas Klimpel, Ln tt~rijerci~ilo~rc (11 progr-oo

(el npotte,fettret~it~o
rle Chile), 15jio-
1960 (Santiago, 1962), esp. 127-1.1.9. The figures comr fronr Sol Arguedas. Chile: Hocin el

socic~listtzo(hIesico City, 1973). I 50: .111c1 ChC~lley,"\\hlllell in Llltin A~llerica~lPolitia:

The

Case of Peru and Chile," in Feninle. ed. Pescatello, 131.

6 9 .\llende. Alleizde, 255; Carlos.\ltalni~-ano,Decisidn rat-olrrciot~clriri(Santiago. 1973),

153: Chaney, "The Xlobilization of \Vomen ill .\llencle's Chile," in \i'ot~letl it1 Politics, ed.
Jane S. Jaquette (New York, 1974), 268-269: Challry, infornlatioll on female voting patter~ls.
70. Xlichael Francis and Patricia .I.Kyle, "Clrile: The I'owvr of Lb111e11 at tlre Polls," in
lntegrciting the Seglected Al(zjority: Cocet-l~rtlet~t
Respoirses to Del~lni~rls
for
Yell: Sex Roles,
ed. Patl.icia A. Kyle (Brunswick, OH, 1976), 106, 108-110.

GEKDEK AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 295

the statelnents on divorce and illegitimacy, the UP'S plans appeared less
progressive than tlle Christian Democrats'. Francis and Kyle claimed that
the UP docnillent simply commented on wornell here and there, and they
attributed the left's reluctance to focus on women to inale paterllalism and
political o p p o r t ~ n i s i n . ~ '
However, the UP did concentrate on wolnen in a separate work, Ln
~rz~ijer e n el gobierno de la Unidad Poprllnr, in \vhich it expanded upon
themes broached in the platform. This work viewed female labor am-
bivalently. On one hand, it blamed capitalisin for forcing women to work
outside the home and thus abandoning their families to ruin. On the
other hand, it colnmitted the UP to helping women liberate themselves
from house\vork through the establishnlent of coinmnnity services, and
it specified innovative means of integrating women into production. It
even proinised access to family plailning and sex education. It is unclear
\vhether the puhlicatioil appeared before or after the election; if it came
out afterward, perhaps, as Francis and Kyle charged, the UP did not pub-
licize its views earlier for fear of alienatiilg the pliblic, or perhaps the UP'S
thinking had evolved.72
If, as it asserted, capitalisin was responsible for tlle oppression of
woinen and the family. the UP w s determined to show that socialisin
would help them. Quickly the government established free milk programs
for children and mothers and free medical care in sluin areas. It raised the
wage scale, ellahling the poor to eat more-at least until food shortages
commenced. These lneasures reduced the rates of infant and maternal
death, disease, and malnutrition. The administration made primary edu-
cation universally accessible and primary texts gratis, froze tuition for sec-
ondary education, and provided school buses. It continued Frei's policy
of opening daycare centers, and it required businesses over a certain size
to set up their own claycare programs. Significantly, it helped integrate
CEMAS ineinhers into production hy offering vocational training in their
facilities and supplying then1 with sewing machines and other eciuipment.
It constructed workers' housing and recreational centers. Excluded from
agrarian reform under Frei, woineil were now eligible for nlemhership in
agrarian cooperatives. Doinestic servants benefitted from a law requiring
employers to show due cause before firing t l ~ e m . ~ '

7 1 Ibid., 110-111.
72. Unidad Popular, La ttrtjer en el gobierno de 10 rnidnd Populnr (Santiago. 1970).
73. On the reforms thr UP implemented or planned. see Drrrt., "Rnral \.tJomen." 196-
197: Altarnil-ano, Decisid~i. 162. 164-165; Samuel Cha\.kin, Storiiz Ocer Chile: The Jtirztc~
rnrler Siege (u'estport. 1985). 195. 199-202. 204: Pnlottz(i. 2 (No\'. 28. i972), 24: Gaviola
Artigas, Lopresti, and Rojas, "Chile-Centro de Xladres-iLa ~ l l l ~ j epoprllar
r en movi-
miento?" Isis Inierncicioncil, l o (Dec. 1988), 86: Gaviola Astigas et al.. "La participaci6n."
More work is needed on policies to\\-ard \\-omen before ;1nd cluring the Allende years.
296 I HAHR I \MY I S A N D I U MCGEE DEUTSCH
The UP was unable, however, to ilnpleinent all of its policies ori-
ented toward women. Different reasons have been suggested-its political
rivals' hindrance, the UP'S own tepid support of these programs, a wide-
spread view that women's issues were less pressing than others and could
be postponed, and the short duration of the administration. The oppo-
sition in Congress delayed passage of the bill creating the LIinistry of
the Family until the eve of the coup, when it probably would have won
approval. In its place, the government founded a less powerf~llNational
Secretariat for \%'omen, administered by six women. Bills providing for
maternity leave, legal equality for married women, divorce, the reinoval of
the stigina of illegitimacy, and sanctions against hoarding food and specu-
lating over food prices did not become law. Nevertheless, some members
of the goveri1iilg coalition had plans to push for food preparation, laundry,
and other services to help working women, as well as for the regulation of
cottage labor; nor did they abandon hope of in1plementing the ui1fulfillecl
aspects of the platform. Despitc the failures, these programs and ideas,
along with other socioeconoinic reforms, boosted female-and male-
electoral support for the UP, at least in its first six ll1onths in office."
The UP inohilized women for various causes. Only a few weeks after
Allende's inauguration, the adininistratioi1 issued an invitation to women
over the radio to a meeting in downtown Santiago. There, women forinetl
the Comando Nacional Femenino to counteract the rightist media's anti-
government propaganda and to work with sluin area residents. The Co-
lnando organized twenty thousand women by 1971 to distribute inilk and
train @ELIAS rneinhers in the slums to improve their fainilies' dietary,
sanitary, ancl other health-related habits. It also proposed the full-scale
transformation of CE hIAS into officially financed productive enterprises,
lllanaged cooperatively hy the women who worked in them. Although
the government did not fully meet this goal, CEMAS multiplied rapidly
and attracted an impressive one million members by 1973, indicating the
appeal of their new orientation. I11 response to rank-and-file demand-and
particularly after the rightist women's first "inarcha de cacerolas vacias"
in late 197i-UP leaders called women to large public meetings and

74. Chaney. "hlobilization," 272; Kyle ancl Francis, "IVomen at the 13011s: The C,lsr of
Chile. 1970-1971," C o ~ ~ ~ p n r n tPoliticcd
ice Stt~dics,11:3 (Oct. 1978). 306: Steven h I . Nouse,
"1:oting in Chile: The Feminine Responae." in Citizert ntld Stcrte, ed. John A. Booth and
Llitchell A. Seligson, vol. 1 of their Politiccll Participc~tiorii l i Latirl Artier-icn, 2 \zols. (Nr\ir
York, 1978). 128-144: Ulliclacl Popular, Progrczlr~tzb6sico de In Cnitlrd Populnr. .4gotd(z
1971 (Santiago. 1971): P t ~ l o n ~1( ~(No\,.
. 14. 1972). 7. and 3 (Dec. 12, 1972), 6-7: Biblioteca
clel Collgreso Nacional. Santiago, Secci6n La11or Parlalnentaria, file on tlre SIinistel.io cle la
Fanlilia. Chanry attributrd the failures to the UP'S decisiolr to as\igl> low priority to wolnen's
issues; Chackin, Storm, to the oppositiol>;and Valenzuela. in private comments. to a varirty
of factors.
GENDER AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHAKGE 297

discussed food shortages and other probleins with them. At one such
meeting in 1971 with Pedro \.'uscovic, minister of the economy, the plan
arose to create Juntas de Abastecimiento y Precios (JAPs) to control food
prices, supplies, and the black market. By 1973 wonlei1 and men, nlostly
in working-class neighborhoods, had established al~outfifteen hundred
JAPs, and women playecl important roles in thein. The UP and the hlovi-
miento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (hlIR), which remained outside the
ruling coalition, helped organize woinen in other kinds of neighborhood
and local groups. Allende eilcouraged woinen to lobby for, draft, and sub-
niit laws; wonlen wrote the laws pertaining to divorce and illegitimacy.
The UP ran seventeen feinale candidates for the lower house and two for
the senate in March 1973, while the opposition only presented five for
deputy and none for the senate. The leftist coalition managed to elect one
--
feinale senator and ten feinale deputies."
Despite these indications, most of the secondary literature and some
participants have fouild fault with the UP'S record on women. Critics have
focused not on the prograins but on the degree of commitment and, espe-
cially, on gendered rhetoric. Fenlale activists complained to Elsa Chaney
that the UP postponed their agenda, undervalued their contributions, and
excluded thein from leadership. Allende appointed few woineil to high-
level positions, and they, as well as the women inentioiled above, tended to
work in health, education, food distribution, and other "female" concerns.
The principal exception-and a significant one-was \linister of Labor
Mire? Baltra. Sonle critics also charged that the UP parties marginal-
ized women by organizing thein separately horn men. (In this regard one
might argue, however, that the UP inainly built upoil precedent.) L'ania
Bambirra, a Brazilian exile and governinent s!~mpathizer, concluded that
the UP had not exerted enough effort to understand women's problems
and inobilize them. Another Brazilian exile went further and condemned
the Chilean left for what she saw as its fear of fenlale inilitai~cy.'~
Existing studies have stressed the left's inability-of which there are

75, Rtgis Debray, Concersacibn co11A l l ~ i ~ r l8th

e , e d , (Slexico City, 1976), 105; Chav-
kin, Storln, 195, 198-199, 202-203; Alta~nirano,Dccisi6n. 154, 161-162; Anrallda PUZ,L(i
~ntijercchilena (Santiago, iy7z.1, 81-82; VUSCOV~C meeting in The Chilean Road to Socicrlis~t~:
ed. Dale L. Johnson (Garden City, 19731, 457-472, Gaviol,~Artigas et al., "La participacibn,"
31-33. On the number of candidates, see Paloinn, 8 (Fel,. 20, 19731, 12; I thank Verhnica
Valdicla for the nurnbers of ~ictoriousfenlale candid'~trs. On the gro\vth of CEhlAS, \vl>osr
nunrber doubled between 1971 and 1973, see Gaviola Artigas et a]., "Chile," 86.
76. Chaney, "hIobilization," 269-270, 272; Vdnid Bambirra, ''LA mujer chilena en la
transicibn a1 socialisn~o,"Ptlnto Final, June 22, 1971, Suplenlel>to,2 , 5; Angela Nevrr-Xacier
de Brito, "Brazilian iVornen in Exile: The Quest for an Identit>-,"tr<~ns.Charlotte Stanley,
Latin Ai~lerican Perspectices, 1 3 : ~ ( Spring 1986), 65, Colin Henfi-ey and Bernardo Sorj,
trans, and eds., Chilean Voices. Acticists Describe Their Esper-ic~~ccs qf the Poptrlar LTnity
Period (Atlantic Highlands, NJ, 1977), 139.
~9~ I HAHR I SIhY I SANDKA XICGEE DEUTSCH
nunlerous examples-to conceive of female participation in the struggle
for socialism, Although he aclclressecl some speeches to both "compaiieros"
and "coinpaiieras," the president regarded men as the true subjects of
revolution when he said that the UP would win when, among other things,
"la mujer chilena sepa d e nuestro llamado y se incorpore a la lucha de su
hombre, de su padre y de su hijo, de su hennano." \Vomen's ulain duty,
according to a Colnnlnnist conference in 1971, was to insure that workers
ancl peasants-i.e., their menfolk-increased production. I11 such state-
ments the UP ignored working women or, in orthodox fashion, did
not regard housewives as members of the proletariat. Given the Chilean
left's familiarity with and admiration for the C u l ~ a nrevolution, its limited
vision was puzzling."
Like other Chileans, soine UP spokespersons had difficulty visualiz-
ing women outside the doinestic realm. Released 11y the official publisher
Quiinantil, a voluine on the Chilean woinail titled La tntger reassured its
popular audience that she was, "priinero que nacla, inadre," although she
was also becoining a worker ancl a citizen. According to this work, her
prime concern was love, but aside from husband and home, the Chileila
was also preoccupied with fashion. The author described her in the nlost
traditional terms: generous, soft yet strong in defending her family, re-
signed, conciliatory, faithful, self-cleilying, and s u b i ~ ~ i s s i vTVhile
e . ~ ~ gen-
erosity, loyalty, and self-sacrifice were useful traits to encourage in a revo-
lutionary movement, resignation and subn~issivenesswere not. Quimantil
also published a magazine for women, Palo7lzc1, reaffirming a separate
feinale sphere. So, too, did the UP program for 1971, which clescribecl
women exclusively as housewives. This evidence suggests an official belief
in the ilnlnutable nature of woinalllloocl that seemingly contradicted its
programs as well as (in accordance with Scott's second proposition) the
nature of a revolution.
Like leaders in Ilexico, Argentina, and Cuba. some C P spokespersons
seemed to view the nature of illen as immutable. At tiines Allende and
others appealed to Inen to act as such, according to traditional views. The
president blamed men for failing to recruit their womenfolli, reininding
thein of appropriate nlale familial and sexual roles by noting that "cada uno
cle ustedes tiene una madre, una hija, una m ~ ~ j euna r , herinana, una coin-
paiiera o nna amiga. Y 61 que no la tenga, jque se vaya de la Unidacl Popu-

77, Norma Stoltz Chinchi!la, "hIobilizing \f'omen: Revolution in the Recolution," in

U'oinen in L a t i r ~America, 147; Julieta Kirkwood, Ser politicci en Chile. Las feir~it~istas y 10s
p a r i i d ~ s( Santiago, 1986), 41, Allende, La recol~rciciiiclzileiln, gd ed. (Buenos Air-es, 19731,
121 and 134.
78. Puz, La niujer, see esp. 4-12, 35, 51, 62. 91. Chanr!- cited this book in S ~ r ; ~ e r t t ~ a d r e ,
46, as an example of UP t~.aditionalism.
GENDER AKD SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 299

lar!" An activist affiliated with the h'lovimiento d e Acci6n Popular Unida

(MAPU), a group that belonged to the UP, resorted more overtly than
Allende to the ilnagery of "machismo" in his worker education courses.
H e colnpared the situation of a Inan discovering his wife's adultery to
that of workers discovering their exploitation, and h e led his students to
the conclusion that the solution in both cases was the same-to "fix" the
male lover as well as the bosses. Through its redistribution of income
and power, the UP, like Per611 and the Mexican R<:volution, may have
strengthened nlale workers' feelings of masculinity. A hIIR organizer de-
scribed how some working-class nlen nlanifested their new sense of pride
and assertiveness by acting aggressively with women.7' These exanlples
suggest that the U P tended to use traditional conceptions of manhood to
explain and popularize its goals. Also, as in Cuba, the lack of official publi-
cations directed toward nlen indicated that the subjects of revolution were
male and that they, unlike women, did not need to change.
Allende used gendered language to express the need to attract sup-
p o r t As indicated above, h e viewed the recruitment of women as a task
for Inen to accomplish in traditional ways-indeed, through seduction. In
this regard, h e implicitly recognized fenlale power, if only the power to
subvert the revolution. The president indicated that "a llli rile inquieta
prof~~ndamente el hecho . . . d e que la nlujer no haya entendido que ella
ser6 la beneficiada" of UP policies. In his opinion, "la m ~ ~ j .e .r . teme, y
telne a la revolucicin." In this context the president made the statement,
quoted above, that the revolutionary's task was to "conquistarla conscien-
temente." In another speech he explained that "conquistar a la lllujer para
Chile y la revolucion chilena" would entail speaking with women "con
pasi6n" and "con ternura d e hombre." Apparently a type of dolnination
akin to sexual subordination would be necessary to insure their loyalty.H"
On the other hand, an exaniination of printed prinlary sources re-
veals a broad range of U P statenlents on gender that most existing studies
have not taken into account. While the diversity of views does not nec-
essarily belie the criticisnl of the UP, at least it indicates the extent of
debate within the left, debate that might have led to changes in the gen-
der system had the Chilean experiment in deniocratic socialisln continued
beyo~ldthree short years. Allende himself referred to the opportunity to
create "una nueva moral, una nueva relaci6n en el trato humane entre el
hombre y la mujer," and to new possibilities for female self-development
within socialism. Altamirano further emphasized these possibilities. I n
his speeches he addressed wonlen as workers and professionals, not just

79. Henfre)- and Sorj, Clzileni~Voices, 43, 136, Allende quoted in A r g ~ e d ~Chile,
~ s , 147.
80. Allende, Allerlde, 255; Arguedas, Chile, 1.17.
300 I HAHR 1 >MY / S A N D M MCGEE DEUTSCH
as mothers and wives. The Socialist leader defended the adlninistration's
record on wonien and argued that despite its rhetoric the right had never
assisted them. It had inlprisonecl them within the home, denied them
rights over their own bodies, and questioned their abilities. The right
tried to manipulate the woman, to keep her "un objeto pasivo y a1 mismo
tiempo como un agente activo-aunqne inconsciente-de la dominaci6n
burguesa." It did so by confusing "la estabilidacl d e su hmilia con la esta-
bilidad del r6gimen capitalista."" Here Altanlirano delnonstrated that he,
inore than any other revolutionary figure in the four cases, clearly under-
stood how gender expressed power relations.
While Altamirano viewed women in some stereotypical Lvays, he used
these stereotypes to construct an active fenlale image and genclered sym-
bols with a progressive political connotation. I l e implied that under social-
ism the wonla11 could alter her capitalist-inspired passivity, when h e asked
her to convert "tus liigrimas d e humillaci6n en sonrisas de esperanza; tu
llanto d e inlpotencia en himnos de rebeldia; tu incertidumbre en decisi6n
d e lucha; tus telnores en cantos d e victoria!" Rlore strikingly, h e equated
the revolution to motherhoocl; just as the fornler created a new society,
women created new life. Here Altamirano not only presented woinen in
a vital, creative role, albeit a traditional one, but firnlly identified them
with the left and with the subjects of the historical process.
The official nledia also provided images of women as revolutionary
actors. Interviews with fenlale activists and government officeholders ap-
peared in Pnlo7)l-a. Rnrizonn, a youth-oriented magazine, praised young
women active in the labor force, the universities, and politics (although it
said little or nothing about altering men's traditional activities). The Com-
munist daily El Siglo cited Luis CorvalBn, secretary general of that party,
on the ilnportant fenlale role in constructing socialism. In the same news-
paper Ruth Castillo, a leader of the Central Onica d e Trabajadores (CUT),
warned the governlnent not to relegate wonlen to "el illtinlo rinc6n d e la
cocina."" Her statelllent revealed both the prejudice against mobilizing
women and women's determination to surmount such discriminat 1' 011.
Some nlelnbers of the leftist coalition, I>articularly women, beliebed
that the context of social transformation denlanded the redefinition of sex

81. Allende, Allende, 255. For Altamirano's quoted statemrnts in this and the following
paragrap]>, see Decisibn, 157, 167, also see 154, 156-161, 166-167. An opponent of the UP,
Teresa Donoso Loero, however, claimed in La epopeyci rle las 0110s cacias (Santiago, 1974),
74, that Alt'ulliralro had characterized fe~u'devotes 1' s "second class." Gaviola Artigas et al.,
"La participacibn," is an exception to the tendency found in lllost of the s e c o ~ r d a rworks.~
82. R a ~ , ~ o l l El
a ; Siglo, hIdr. 8, 1972, 1) 9, and hla!- 29, 1971, I). 1. Also see the following
issues of Palomci: 1 (Yov. 14, 1972), 114-115; 2 (No\. 28, 1972), l o ; 8 (Fell. 20, ly73), 12-1 j;
20 (Atig. 7, 1973). 4-8.
GENDER AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 301

roles. Such ideas appeared in Pnlorlza alongside traditional ones, but the
newer viewpoints predominated. Interestingly, the magazine devoted far
less space to domestic concerns and fashion than its Cuban counterpart,
~Mujeres.The lnaiil theme of Pnlonza was that, as Chile moved toward
socialism, women were learni~lgto develop their talents and personalities
and to express their needs. The publication stressed the need to partici-
pate in social change and achieve more rights, but it also discl~ssedother
women's requisites, such as asserting their sexuality. \Vhile Pnlolnc~ cli-
rected itself nlainly to a fenlale audience, as noted above, it also invited
nlen to a dialogue. Whether it attracted nlanv nlale readers is doubtful, but
some Inen wrote colnnlns reacting to changing mores, often defen~ively.~.'
Quimantti published another volume on women that differed nlarkeclly
from La ~ 1 - r ~ j eIts
r . author, L'irginia Vidal, who also wrote for El Siglo,
pointed out the interdependence between feniale enlancipation and revo-
lution to a proletarian female audience. In a significant departure from
the gendered rhetoric found in all four countries, she criticized both ma-
chislno and, particularly, "la mistica d e la maternidad" for condelnning
wonien to frustration, isolation, subordination, and sexual dissatisfaction.
She added that wonien should not be expected to marry or have chil-
dren in order to lead happy, productive lives. Nevertheless, Vidal defined
fernale liberation siulply as women's involvement in the creation of social-
ism. While she cellsured machismo, she avoided the issue of male respon-
sibility within the home and assigned traditional domestic tasks to either
Mronlen or the state.'-'
Other U P spokespersons did question the inlmutability of Inale roles
and the family structure. The Colnlnunist senator Julieta Campusano pub-
licly called for men to share household chores with wonlen and insisted
that, by doing so, they need not feel "menoscabado en su condicion d e
tal [hombre]." Pnlomn provided examples of husbands who helped in the
home and thus enabled their wives to participate in activities outside it.
It also encouraged Inen to assume responsibility for birth control by inter-
viewing a Inan who had had himself sterilized and highly recolnnlended
the procedure to other men. Congressman Luis hlaira of the Christian
Left party, a UP affiliate, described the ill-fated projected law to grant
legal equality to married women as a first step toward creating a socialist
family within which nlen and women would enjoy equal rights and obliga-
tions. Indeed, a feniale professional reported in Palorna that women were

83, Gaviola Artigas et al., "La participacicin," 19; Pnlomu, 1 (Nov. 14, 19721, inside
cover. Nineteen percent of this issue \CIS devoted to motherhood- and house\vife-related
concerns, and 12 percent to hsl~ion,colnpare to Altljerris, 1). 52 and 55.
84. Virginia Vidal, La ernarrcipacidt~rle In tn~ljer(Santiago, 19721.
302 I HAHR \LA1 I S A K D l t l bfCGEE L)EUT\CH
training their sons and l~ushanclsnot to he "u11 patron en el hogar," indi-
cating that other Cllileans hesides Altainirano linked authority relations in
society with those \vithin the f ~ ~ i n i l y . ' ~
This group included the feinale opponeiits of the government. Even
before ,Sllende's inauguration, sollie honrgeois \voineii had already de-
clared their opposition to him. The food shortages (whicli they helped
create), proposed changes in fanlily law, nationalization measures, and
harsh UP responses to their demonstrations reinforced their fears of hlarx-
ism. So, too, did the UP's ineflectual cainpaign for educational reform, in
which it planned to enlist schools in the struggle for social transformation.
Beyond vague rhetoric on the schools' role in the creation of the "new
socialist man" and the need to comhine work and learning, the ednca-
tional reform did not explicitly challenge the values of bourgeois hoines.
Nonetheless, middle- and upper-class parents regarded it as a governinent
atteinpt to indoctrinate ancl control their children. This was an exainple of
how they, like anti-Casti-o Cubans, described the UP'S inultiple offensives
against the class hierarchy as a hlarxist threat to the family. To combat
this perceived threat, bourgeois \vomen formed Poder Femenino (PF) and
other anti-,Sllende groups.""
Soine inemhers of P F fearecl that their title souilded feminist, an ide-
ology they opposed. They defined their ii~issioninstead in terins of tracli-
tional "feminine power": their task was to challenge lneil to he trul!. "mas-
culine" and defend woinen and children against the leftist onslaught. In
reaffirming the gender system they were hot11 nietaphorically and other-
wise maintaining the socioeconomic systen~.I11 their famous "inarchas
de cacerolas vacias," they criticized the governmei~t'seconomic policy for
hindering women froin pelforming their f ~ ~ n c t i oofn feeding the family.
Echoing Eva Perbn, they identified homes as the "trenches," \vhere the!
would oppose hfai-xisin by doing what Chilenas had always done-telling
inen what to do. Indeed, they spent much of their time denouncing mili-
tary officers and upper-class inales as cowardly, impotent, and homosexual

85. El Siglo, >lay 21, 1971, p . 3, and \la). 29, 1971, p . 5, Alsosee the followi~rgissues
of Pa2oi)zc~:1 (Nov. 14, 1972), 46-48, 4 (Dec. 26. i g p ) , 11: 22 (Sept 4, ig;3), 105. 109.
86. On the UP's fernale opponents. see accou~rtswritten by P F ~rre~rrbers: Do1roso
1,oel.o. Ida epopeya, and Maria Correa blorandc, La gr~errorle 10s ~tzrrjeres(Santiago, 1974).
Otlrer sources ilrclude Clraney, information on thc food shortages, Nathaniel Davis, The
Last T u o Yeci,m of Salocidor Alle~lde(Ithaca, 1984), 47-48, 65, 154-155, 196, and passim;
hlaria d e 10s .\ngeles Crumrnett, "El Poder Femenino: The hlohilization of \Vomen .\gainst
Socialism in Chile." Latin Ainerican Perspectires, j : q (Fall 1977). 103-113; >lichGle >fat-
telart, "Chile: The Feminine Side of tlre Coup Or \Vhen Bourgeois Women Take to the
Streets," N A C l A ' s 1,citin Anxerica ond Enxpire Report, 9:G (Sept. 1975). 14-25: Ercilla, 1989
(Aug. eg-Sept. 4. 1973). 10-13. 011school refor~rrsee Joseph P. Farrell, The National Cni-
fret! School in Allentie's Chile. The Rolr of Etiucc~tiollin tht, Destructioll of a Rcuolutiorl
(Vancouver, 1986).
GENDER AND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 303

for not overthrowing the government. The rightist \vonien left the actual
counterrevolution to men, hut as Gen, Augusto Pinochet recognized, they
had summoned the n1e11 to action.'7
The traditionalism of PF and, indeed, of many Chileans influeilced tlle
UP's gender policies and statements to some extent. A precarious govern-
ment that did not control the senate, tlle courts, the armed forces, and the
media, unlike tlle Cuba11 regime, perhaps coulcl not afford to place itself
too far ahead of popular opinion. Yet the leadership pressed other divi-
sive issues. such as the restructuring of tlle economy and agriculture, in
spite of tlle difficulties caused. A consideration as iniportant to U P leaders
as limiting opposition was keeping their unruly coalition together. The
MIR and some illemhers o f t h e alliance, including the Christian Left, one
faction of the Socialist party, and groups of workers and landless peasants,
urged the governnlent to take illore radical stands and carried out pro-
vocative actions in the hope of forcing their will on Allende. Others, such
as the Cominunists, advised restraint. Caught between these diverging
viewpoints \vithin its own ranks, to say nothing o f t h e opposition froin out-
side, the regime tried desperately to conciliate and unite its beleagiiered
forces." The diverse opinions on gender may well have reflected these
divisions. The UP's atteinpted seduction and conquest of women seeillecl
to serve as a paradigin for this larger effort to maintain the coalition.
Ultimately, the former proved no inore successful than the latter.
This review of gender notions in the lillende years underscores the
contradictions of the democratic road to socialism. Regarding Scott's first
l~roposition,Arinand and k l i c h ~ l eMattelart had warned the Chilean left
in the late igGos that a successful revolution ~voulddepend on integrating
hot11 \vonien and illen into revolutionary 01-ganizations, using education
and the inedia to destroy sex roles, and ending tlle excessive familism of
bourgeois society. For various reasons, tlle U P was unahle to achieve these
ends. In terms of tlle second proposition, that its gender policy nlirroi-ed

87. Augurto Pinochet Ugarte, ,2lerlscqe (1 /a ~ n ~ t j echilena

r (Santiago, 1976[?]), 5-7.
Women played roles similar to those of the P F in other Latin American countries. For fenlale
participation in the events leacling to the coup of 1964 in Brazil. see John 15'. F . Dulles,
Cnrest in Brazil. Political-Jli/itc~,-y
Crises 1955-1964 (.\usti~l, i97o), 173, 189-190, 261, 267-
268, 272. 275-278, 341-342; Heloisa Xldria Xlurgel Starling. 0 s senhores rlas Cerc~is:0 s
nocos inconfirlentes e o golpe de 1964 (Petscipolis, 1986), 151-192; Sola~lgeD e Deus Sim6es,
"Dells, Pitria e Familia: As mulheres no golpe cle 1964" (blaster's thesis, Universidacle
Federal de Milras Gerais, 1983)
88. Davis, Allende, 403-405, stressed government indecision and inal~ilityto restrain
some of its allies; Farrell, School. emphasized its f:~ill~re
to con~promisewith the opposition;
the various authors in Allencle's Chile, tid. Philip O'Bricn (New York, 1976), Eaultecl tile go\-
ernment for its moderation; Peter \Vinn, '\17~acersof Reco/~rtioi~. The l'arnr Workers onri
Chile's Road to Socialisnl (New York, i986), esp. 184-195, described .\llende's conHict with
workers who took over a factory.
304 I HAHR I \MY I SANDRA SICGEE DEIJTSCH
its inability to unite its supporters and govern effectively is not surprising.
IVhat is, perhaps, slirprising is that the right, unlike soine of the left, saw
the nexus hetween gender change ancl broader socioecoi1oinic change,
however incompletely the LTP had realized these goals. When General
Pinochet took office h e iinmediately ordered women, including the PF, to
return to their homes. While he dismantled most of the LTPref'orms, h e
retained some of its programs for wolnell and children, thus tightening the
identification between womanhood and motherhood. At the saine time,
his government prolnoted the figure of the soldier as the male ideal and
the patriarchal family as the nlodel for the new political order."" I11 this
lnanner Pinochet's regime removed whatever creative ambiguity existed
in the definitions of masculinity and femininity in Allende's Chile.

Conclusion
The immediate, natural, and necessary relationship of human being
to human being is the relationship of' man to woman. . . . In this
relationshiu is sensuouslv revealed and reduced to an observable
fi~cthow far for nlan his essence has l>ecome nature or nature has
become man's human essence. Thus, from this relationship the
~vllolecultural level of man call be judged. From the character
of this relationship we can conclude how far man has become a
species-being, a human being, and conceives of himself as such.""
-Karl klarx, 1844
As Marx indicated, gender analysis is a useful nleans of' determin-
ing the true character of a particular regime, movement, or society. The
notions of both components of gender expressed by the governments under
study generally matched the nature of the administrations as a whole.
The Carrillos, Galindo, Castro, and Unidad Popular helieved that the new
order could not coexist with the subordinate status of women. Govern-
ments and individuals that genuinely aspired to transcend authority rela-
tions in the puhlic realin attempted to do the same in the domestic realm,
as shown in Cuba, in Yucatan under Carrillo, and to a liinited extent in
Allende's Chile. Their egalitarian gender policies and, in some cases, gen-
dered rhetoric expressed ancl symbolized their overall aims. The belief in
social hierarchy of'the Percins, Alvarado, Carranza, and hlexican govern-
inents of'the ~gzos-and of Castro's and Allende's opponents-translated

89. Chabkin, Storrn, 207; hlattelart dllcl hlattelart. La nmjer, 215-217, Pillochet. .\Jell-
saje, Franz Hinkelmart, "La ideologia cle la Juntd klilitar," in C l ~ i l ebajo lo J I I I (Ecornonzin
I~~
y mciednci e n la ciictc~citrrclmilitclr- chileuel), ed. Luis Vargas et al. (hladrid. ic~7G\,iGc~-igi;
hlaria Eleira Valenzuela. I,ci nlujer en el Chile rnilitclr. (Santiago, 1987). e r p 87.
90. Karl hlarx, "Economic and Philo~o~lricalhl;~nuscri~ts," (1844) in Karl hfaru:
Selectecl WI-itings,ed. David hIcLellan ( K c w York, 1977). 88.
GENDER -4ND SOCIOPOLITICAL CHANGE 305

into more conservati~egender notions, and in turn the\, used tr,~ditional

gendered imagery and prograins to clescrihe their political views. The
study highlights the contradictions of the UP administration's record on
gender issues. As it followed the Cuhan revolution, the Chilean case also
reveals that governments did not necessarily adopt inore progressive gen-
der policies and gendered language with the sinlple passage of time or
through familiarity with other socialist experieilces, although some of the
obstacles the UP faced were beyond its control.
The essence of'the political right is its helief in a given order of things,
in the immutability of the social hierarchy, the econoinic system, and the
definitions of manl~oodand womanhood. In contrast, the left does not
accept the status quo as natural or given, and it seeks to reshape exist-
ing institutions and ideas to construct a more egalitarian and just society.
Yet to soine extent even the most innovative governments and individu-
als under study have accepted the roles and personalities customarily
assigned to inen and wornen. Their belief that wonlei1 possessed revo-
lutionary traits inay have distinguished Altamirano and Castro fi.0111 the
Mexicans, Argentines, and Chileans who categorized women as conserva-
tive; nevertheless, like the latter, they eciuated womanl~oodwith mother-
hood. Expediency teinpered all the programs oriented toward woinen and
reduced the possibilities for gender change. The perceived need to har-
ness women's services for the revolution and to neutralize their potential
opposition often outweighed the goal of altering kinale roles. hloreover.
the inability to address the issue of male roles has hampered even the inost
radical efforts to change \voinen's status. V'hile Per6n's iinage in sonle
ways challenged the old definition, only the Cnhan Revolution atteinptetl
to redefine manhood, and harely so. I11 the other cases, politicians and the
masses inay have justified political and socioecononlic reforins as having
restored traditional manliness. Also. to some extent in all four countries,
the absence of explicit appeals to illen indicated that they, unlike women,
were the legitinlate occupiers of the public sphere and did not have to
alter their roles.
Change has been limited not only in the first coinpoi~entof gender
but in the second as well. Official spokespersons in the four countries
continued to validate aiins of political consolidation and economic devel-
opnlent in terms of traditional manhood and womanhood, and in \'lexica,
Argentina, and Chile, of the well-ordered fhinily. Of' all the revolution-
ary leaders, only Altainirano appeared to consciously grasp the idea that
gender expresses power relationships, although the Rlexican leaders of
the igzos, the Per611s, and the opponents of change in Cuba and Chile,
possibly unconsciously, appeared to use this notion effectively for conser-
vative ends.
306 I HAHR ( l L 4 Y / SANDRA XICGEE DEUTSCH

Perhaps, as Marx suggested, people creating a new societ! justify the

changes hy cloaking then1 in traditional dress hecause they have not yet
liberated themselves completely from old ways of thinking." O r perhaps
even the nlost radical leaders have feared that colllplete liberation fro111
ger~derroles would threaten the nlodel of rule from above. The ambiguity
and disorder characterizing a revolutionary process contain potential for
change, a prospect that alarnls the right and, at least in theory, pleases
the left. I11 practice, by reducing the ambiguity in women's new roles, the
governnlents under study may have diminished the possibility of innova-
tion. I11 addition, they all curtailed female-and male-autonomy. Even
the avowed socialists Castro and Allende failed to delegate control over
change to the subjects of change. Some Chileans used the imagery of Inale
concjuest to express this attelnpted domination: Mexican and Argentine
leaders employed the sanle symbol as well as that of parent-child. Thus
in at least three of the four cases, governments resorted to gendered lan-
guage to signify limits on initiative from below. To what extent change
from above is ultimately possible remains an ~lnsolvedquestion for Cuba."'
This review has also indicated the state of the art of gender studies
in the four cases. The absence of work on lnen is striking; perhaps the
notion that thev are the subjects of historv, as mentioned above, and the
fact that history once concentrated largely on male leaders, have led re-
searchers to assume that they need no additional attention. By confining
their search to policies and messages directed toward women, niost stu-
dents of gender have overlooked the equally significant, albeit less obvious
ones aimed at men. Only tllro~lghcareful examination of both can one see
how pervasively gender constructs politic^."^ Further study of the second
con~ponentof gender in Latin America \vollld surely reveal other po\verful
examples of this phenomenon and thereby enhance our understanding of
the region's past.

91, Karl Mars, "The Eigliteentl~Bsuniaire of 12011i5Bonapal-te." (1851) in Selected N7r-it-

ings. 300. Also see Eric Hol~sh'~wm, "Introduction: In\enting Tradition," in Tlte Ii~ccntiorl
of Tradition, ed. Hobsba~vmand Terence Rarrgel- (Cambridge, 1983). 2 , Scott discussed the
use of conservative gendered language to justif) radical change hut did not delve into the
contradictions, in "Gender," io73-107+
92. These t h o ~ ~ g hhave
t s been influenced by Mosse, Satiorlc11is1)z;Taylor. 21!ytlls; Smitli-
Hosenberg, Disordrrly Condrrct: and especially SIary Douglas, Purity n11d Dai~grr-:At1
At~ulysisof Coizcepts of Pollt~tioncrlttl T(111oo (Middlesex, England, 1966), 114, 191. Also see
Scott, "Gender," 1073-1075.
9 3 Stoner, e d . , Latillas ofthe A~,lericas:A Sor~rceBook (New York, 1989) provides the
most current infor~nationon tlle state of the art of Latin Arneric'111 women's studies. Smitli
and P a d ~ ~ l "Twenty
a. Questions"; and Vir-ginia H. D o m i n g ~ ~ e "Sex,
z, Gender, and Kevolu-
tiorr: The Proble~nof Constr~~ction and the Con5truction of a Problem," C ~ l b a nStutlies, i j
(1987), 7-23, posed interesting questions about men in revolution^^-y Cuba.