VENEZUELA: This revolution has woken women up

March 9, 2005
Issue 

Tamara Pearson

On February 7, Venezuela's governing party, the Movement for the Fifth Republic (MVR) established a 50% quota for women candidates for the National Assembly and district and municipal council elections. This will be applied to the upcoming district and municipal council elections in June and the National Assembly elections in December.

Since the 1998 election of President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's government has steadily implemented measures to eradicate poverty, and redress inequality. This process has included a growing fight against women's oppression.

Soon after his election, Chavez announced a new national assembly and a popular process of consultation to adopt a new constitution. In response, the Constitutional Front of Women of the Fifth Republic Movement (FCMMVR) was formed to promote female candidates for the new Constitutional Assembly and organise women to draft demands for the constitution. According to a two-part article published in January and February for Venezuela Analysis by Sarah Wagner, thousands of women were involved, including "feminist activists, former guerrillas, housewives, professionals and members of organisations such as Women for Venezuela and United Women Leaders".

The constitution, approved in December 1999, clearly stated that women are entitled to full citizenship, and addressed discrimination, sexual harassment and domestic violence. It is the only constitution in Latin America that states housework is an economically productive activity, entitling housewives to social security benefits (Article 88).

By allotting economic privileges to a job that was previously unrecognized as having economic value, Venezuela is breaking down societal norms and capitalist ideology which only sees value in profit-producing enterprises.

The constitution also avoids sexist language. References to people use both forms of the title, such as presidente (masculine) and presidenta (feminine).

Both the MVR quotas and the constitutional changes will remove some barriers to women participating more in the running of their country. They will also help to combat machismo ideology, as they help identify women as thinking human beings, rather than second-class sexual objects.

However, given that at least 70% of Venezuelans living in poverty are women, they cannot make a big difference unless there is economic change to combat the feminisation of poverty.

Although the proportion of women workers has increased in Venezuela, they dominate the 50% of the workforce based in the informal sector, which has lower-paying jobs, no benefits and poor working conditions. According to Wagner, government initiatives created to reduce unemployment, such as public works projects based on construction, employ far more men than women.

The creation of the Women's Development Bank, on March 8, 2001, is designed to ease some of women's economic inequality. The bank gives groups of women low-interest loans to help them start their own small, community businesses and earn their own money. It is a new concept of development: a social development that includes the community, and privileges women.

Wagner quoted Nora Castaneda, president of the bank, explaining: "by empowering women to exercise their rights and duties as citizens we hope to create social justice and peace as envisioned in our constitution".

Although the bank charges interest, it is somewhat different to a normal bank because of the social support it provides. It depends on a network of promoters who visit the 149 most impoverished and densely populated communities on a weekly basis, where they offer services of the bank to underprivileged women.

The promoters assist and orient the women in designing economically viable projects, selecting potential users and determining whether their projects are appropriate and compatible with their situations and the vision of the bank.

After assisting the women through the application process, a potential user's information is passed on to a committee, where it is evaluated and the amount of credit to be allotted determined. Upon approval of the projects, the promoters create cooperatives in which each user is given a personal account within her group. Each cooperative must then complete extensive training on how to manage their business.

Lending money to groups of women rather than individuals is a way of helping the community to develop, rather than just individual families. However, Wagner reports, at the start, there were some problems. One women told Wagner, "Many women say, 'No, that woman is not going to pay or that woman is not going to participate'. This is due to this mentality of individualism that we have conditioned in this country. This mentality of fear, of selfishness, is what we are trying to eradicate with the cooperatives."

Wagner explains that the bank provides workshops on personal development and sexism, and ongoing assistance and training to its users in managing their health and self esteem. These workshops also educate women on how to prevent and report all forms of discrimination and domestic violence.

In 2000, Chavez converted the National Council of Women (CONAMU) into the National Institute for Women (INAMUJER). The organisation has set up a free telephone hotline for victims of domestic violence, as well as a shelter for women who fear for their lives. INAMUJER is also developing education programs for police officers, lawyers, and doctors on gender and domestic violence issues.

However, on their own, these changes will not turn around the inequality of women. For example, the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh lends money to poor rural women, with the romantic aim that they will all become small entrepreneurs. However, the plan is small compensation for the privatisation of welfare and it lacks any understanding of how capitalism works. After eight years of borrowing, 55% of Grameen households still aren't able to meet their basic nutritional needs — so many women are using their loans to buy food rather than invest in business. The micro-credit solution to poverty relies on a consumer base that isn't there.

What makes Venezuela different is the huge mobilisation and political involvement of large numbers of women, and the fact that Venezuela's democratically elected government is promoting a process of self-organisation of the disadvantaged.

As Venezuelan women become even more educated and involved in thinking about how their country should be organised and making it happen, they will be able to make even more drastic changes to help their own liberation, and that of the whole country.

[For more information, Sarah Wagner's articles are available at <http://www.venezuelanalysis.com>.]

From Green Left Weekly, March 9, 2005.
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