Democratization and State Feminism: Gender Politics in Africa and Latin America

Abstract

This article addresses the link between state feminism and democratization in the global South. The authors use the contrasting cases of Chile and Nigeria to show some of the factors that encourage women to exploit the opportunities presented by transitions to democracy, and link the outcome of state feminism to the strategies and discourses available to women during democratization. Based on evidence from the cases analysed, the authors propose that the strategic options available to women are shaped by at least three factors: (1) the existence of a unified women's movement capable of making political demands;(2) existing patterns of gender relations, which influence women's access to arenas of political influence and power; and (3) the content of existing gender ideologies, and whether women can creatively deploy them to further their own interests. State feminism emerged in Chile out of the demands of a broadbased women's movement in a context of democratic transition that provided feminists with access to political institutions. In Nigeria, attempts at creating state feminism have consistently failed due to a political transition from military to civilian rule that has not provided feminists with access to political arenas of influence, and the absence of a powerful women's movement.

Democratization, Women's Movements, and Gender-Equitable States: A Framework for Comparison

“…In Latin America, women protestors often strategically incorporated authoritarian regimes' gendered discourse of women as pious, self-sacrificing mothers into the framing of their own claims against the state. This left authoritarian regimes in the uncomfortable position of justifying the repression of grieving mothers to local and international audiences (Alvarez 1990;Okeke-Ihejirika and Franceschet 2002;Ray and Korteweg 1999). With democratization, however, new political players on both the left and the right used women's own framing of innate gender differences to encourage women's return to the home (Chinchilla 1994;Fisher 1993;Friedman 1998).…”

What makes advocacy work? Stakeholders’ voices and insights from prioritisation of Maternal and Child Health programme in Nigeria

“…Social movements are more likely to achieve change policy outcomes if tailored to local political discourse, gender ideologies, and cultural contexts; and we propose that MCH policy in Nigeria is a "gendered opportunity structure" for policy in uence [52]. In pre-colonial Nigeria, particularly in Yoruba and Igbo ethnic groups, women had some economic and political in uence strongly linked to their maternal responsibilities, which was further weakened by the colonial period [53]. Maledominated political administrations were implemented by the British colonialism, negating any indigenous female political power and…”

Women’s Policy Agencies and State Feminism

“…Nijeholt, Vargas, and Wieringa (1998) take on agencies in Latin American and the Caribbean, but in single-country studies on Peru (Anderson 1998), Jamaica (McKenzie 1998), Brazil (Pitanguy 1998), Mexico (Lamas 1998), and Chile (Molina 1998). Okeke-Ihejirika and Franceschet (2002) compare state feminism in Africa and Latin America. There have been quite a few monographs of state feminism in certain but not all Latin American countries (see, e.g., Alvarez 1990;Baldez 1991Baldez , 2001Matear 1995;Schild 1995;Lievesley 1996;Waylen 1996;Friedman 2000aFriedman , 2000bFranceschet 2003;Richards 2003Richards , 2004 and some recent work on sub-Saharan African countries (Ghana-Madsen 2010; Cameroon, Mozambique, and Uganda- Tripp, Casimiro, and Kwesiga 2009).…”