Chapters: Itziar Lozano Urbieta, “Woman: Key to Liberation”, 1979

In Latin America there is a population of over 260 million, more than half of which is women.

Their situation of margination and oppression, in a part of the world whose development is being curtailed by the growing avarice of advanced countries, arises from the complex role which has been assigned to women through many centuries. The contradictions created by the unequal needs of the economic, cultural, and religious structures claim that women find satisfaction and involvement as such, as women as family members. The suffering of these women is growing to intolerable limits.

It has become more difficult to resolve each day, and has caused crucial problems in the process of changing toward a more just society. It is our purpose in this study to point out some of the deep problems which we have encountered in our contact with women, at the same time to offer an analysis of the causes of these problems in the historical context in which we are living. We hope that this work will be useful in the reflection which the Latin American church is carrying on in view of its task of transformation. It is our conviction that the church, once conscious of its profound roots of the domination of women, and open to the risks which all change brings with it, will be able to convert itself into the most strong support of those in search of their liberation and of our whole continent.

The Work of Women

Traditionally, when one speaks of the work of women, work in the home is mentioned as the almost exclusive realm of her activity. Nonetheless, we know that 64% of the economically active population is made up of women. The proportion in Latin America is some 37% (International Organization of Work, 1975). Moreover, we ought to remember that the definition of “economically active” population tends to hide the work of a large part of our population, and in particular the type of work which women do. Therefore, the analysis of the role of women in the work force is essential in order to clarify many of the contradictions which surround the family system and which center around the role of women.

In their daily work, women are exploited on two levels:

1. Those who work outside of the home, work not 8, but 16 hours daily for the economy, as members of the work force and also as members of the family;
2. A woman is paid almost half of what a man would receive and is discriminated against in many other ways.

The salaried work of women generally is an extension of the work of the home and, as such, considered in a minimum category. In Latin America, with the exception of Cuba and Peru, the great number of women workers constitute the most exploited of the working class, and the majority find work only in those occupations “fit” for their sex, as an extension of housework.

They work as maids, cooks, or lastly as prostitutes. The International Organization of Work has brought together the governments of our countries, making them sign promises of protection for workers which they have not fulfilled because they are in opposition to the interest of the dominant classes.

There are various reasons why the work of women is so poorly remunerated.

a. The economic system as such agrees with and promotes it.

b. It is more difficult for the woman to unionize and to fight for her rights because of her double working day. The woman has to return from her work to her home in order to care for her children and her husband. If she chooses to get involved in the work of union organizing, this calls for a change in family life which usually the husband, because of patriarchal values which predominate, does not easily permit.

She has to carry a double work day and in addition to the work of organizing, require time and a physical intensity that are difficult to maintain for a long time.

c. On the other hand, there exists the deeply rooted idea that the salary of the woman is only a supplement to the salary of the husband. The evidence, however, indicates that thousands of families exist in which there is no man and where the salary of the mother is the only element of subsistence. The phenomenon of the family without a father in Latin America is not a passing situation but one which comes from differing pressures. The economic plans of the same industry, based on the supposition that the support of the children or rather, the reproduction of the workforce is carried out only by means of the salary of the father of the family, has as a result an unjust situation for women, and for the children who depend on her.

d. In Latin American countries, and in general in all the world, the type of industry in which women are concentrated tends to be first intense labor, before, if ever they receive serious salary reimbursement. The salaries occupy a relatively high percentage of the labor costs and for this reason, they are low. These are also the industries where there is the least automatization. Low salaries for women in these areas are not the only way in which the capitalist obtains great gains. They imply, moreover, that the preservation of a system of work, which is to say, that to give women equitable salaries to men in this sector would signify and also cause a possible transformation of the industry. (For example, it would force automatization).

On the other hand, the majority of women are not employed in manufacturing but in service occupations, a sector which is rapidly growing in our continent with the phase of a feminine work force which allows for considerable gains for many reasons:

1. Due to the fact that this area of service rarely is unionized, women consider themselves either temporary or trustworthy workers.
2. The benefits are less for women than for men.
3. Very frequently, one is not given the base salary although one may have years of working in the business. This occurs for example, to women who work in the toy, transistor, clothing or packing industry. 
4. Firing can happen at any time, without giving social security, compensation, paid vacation, or the time required by law for maternity leave.
5. Industry frequently refuses to hire married or pregnant women. Married women who urgently need a job have to lie about their civil state in order to get hired, with the result that the benefits if they exist would not be applicable for the family of the woman.
6. In many cases in industry which requires close hand work, the industry only hires women who are minors with the excuse that they are beginners; and pays them some 503-708 what it would pay adult women. When the women become adult workers, they are fired and the industry recruits another group of minors.
7. Consideration of the labor situation of women is worse when we realize that in cases where a union exists, it is controlled by men who practically never give priority to the demands of women as wage earners, adequate pay for maternity leave, etc.
8. The working condition of women would not be complete without mentioning the high percentage of the feminine population in Latin America which is employed in domestic work, which is poorly paid, which implies frequently a working day of all day, and the conditions of which depend on the “good attitude” or “bad attitude” of the employer.

All these conditions make possible for the workforce unskilled labor when it is needed.

Women are the first fired when the work decreases, thus comprising a reserve supply of work to cover the conflicts and contradictions of the economic system which we have.

As an example of the labor scene of women in different countries of Latin America, we offer the following data. (Research presented in the 2nd Latin American Women’s Seminar, Chile, October, 1972).

El Salvador:

27% of the farm workers are women. They work 14 hours a day and earn one fourth what is paid a man for the same work.

Venezuela: 

Discrimination based on sex occurs at all levels, shows itself clearly in groups over 35, in which the possibility for feminine employment decreases, and increases for the man. At this age the woman is no longer qualified for unskilled work and can aspire to a better salary and more responsibility, for this reason, the work force is no longer interested in her. (Census, 1950, 1961, 1967)

Guatemala:

Not only do women receive less salary than men, but they seldom have rights which protect their health and role of mother.

Argentina:

Of the 9 million workers, 23% are women. Of each 100 women who reach a higher position, 16 are employed in administration, 83 in production. In spite of having ratified the agreement of the International Organization of work, the salary differences between men and women range from 78 to 15%. This happens even in activities in which women predominate in the workforce. (International Organization of Work, 1974).

Brazil:

Is one of the countries with the lowest percentage of women with paid jobs. According to the National Institute of Social Security (1974) there are 6 million paid women workers, or 20% of the total workforce. In industry, the majority of factories employ women who are minors and who earn 50% to 75% less of the minimum wage. The work pays less, based on the supposition that women produce less than men.

Bolivia:

Women are employed as farm workers, textile workers, in the mines and in domestic service. The majority never arrives at, and no one ever makes over, the minimum salary set by the agreement of the International Organization of Work.

Colombia:

They earn less than men in every region, despite the fact that women participate with men in the work strikes. (Research obtained from information presented in the Second Latin American Women’s Seminar, Chile, October, 1972).

Mexico:

The majority of women are employed in the area of medical and social assistance,

(9.2% of the total active population) and in the preparation and sale of food (7.9%) the salary of women in these fields is some 70% less than that of men. (Census, 1975).

Women in the Family

The role of mothers, wives and housekeepers in a family has been the essential point from which women have been placed in the life of our society. Traditionally, this role has been assigned second place in whatever type of social participation and has come to be the exclusive and excluding function of women, even to the point that almost no other function is recognized as theirs.

In recent times, the family has come to be known as the basic natural unity, composed of father, mother, and children; the place where persons grow up, are educated, satisfy basic human needs, and fulfill themselves. It is said that the family is the ideal nucleus where one learns to relate socially, where children learn what is the role of a mature and responsible man or woman. From the Christian religious point of view, the family is the reflection and expression of the relationship of Christ and his Church, particularly in the relationship of matrimony.

Directly opposed to this almost ideal image, we encounter the reality of the family in Latin America. As we have pointed out previously, one third of all the families in our countries are headed by women, due to polygamy, abandonment or death by the husband and other similar reasons. There exist also thousands of families who spend all or a large part of the year separated by the necessity of looking for work. At times the father has to leave for another part of the country or a foreign country. The mother remains with the small children. The adolescent daughters go to the cities to become domestic workers. In Mexico, Guatemala and Peru, this is a particularly serious problem.

In addition, it is clear that the family has come to be, with growing frequency, the focus of intense and continual violence. Both industrialized and non-industrialized countries present similar statistics about the brutality of women and children at the hands of members of the family. In Mexico, it is estimated that 80% of the women who live with a husband or companion suffer direct physical violence at their hands.

With reference to child abuse, only advanced countries have presented data relating to its occurrence. sciousness of the problem. Nonetheless, Latin America is growing in con-In Mexico, for example, it is estimated that the number of children who suffer from child abuse is very high. (First National Symposium on the Syndrome of Child Abuse). In the majority of cases, it is the mother who abuses and who even kills her children (Child Abuse, Jaime Marcovich, 1978). We have to conclude that the family which we know today, fragmented by internal violence and torn by stress of all types, is not necessarily the ideal nucleus of society.

In order to find out the cause of all these contradictions in the family, we ought to analyze the role of the family in differing economic and social systems. It is important to consider particularly the role which the family has today, so that the family understands itself as an integral part of society which changes as a whole.

Looking once again at the analysis of industrialization in advanced countries, we observe that in a first stage, thousands of families functioned as economic unities. They went to the manufacturing factories to work in production. All of the family contributes to the economy and thus the number of children is important.

As industrialization advanced, the needs of the economy changed. By the beginning of the 20th century, when work by hand was no longer needed, they began to eliminate jobs. The new unions instead of helping both men and women in their demands for better working conditions and for control of the process of production, decided to eliminate the problem of unemployment by supporting laws which are restrictive to the work of women. The family, as such, remains deprived of its socially productive functions. The bourgeois women, kept at home, reach a more elevated status at the cost of their liberty, in a family which has been defined as a divinely established institution. The proletariat woman also remains at home, having to depend on the reduced salary of her husband. Women who are so poor that they have to leave to work, accept whatever job that they can obtain, but at the price of scorn and condemnation from society which has dictated that the place of woman is at home with her children. For the single woman both independence and the possibility for work disappear.

There exists another aspect in this change in the family. First, in the bourgeois and later in the proletariat environment there takes place a process of individualization and exaltation of personal life. The bourgeois searches in his personal life for the expression and enjoyment of his profits. The worker who does not have private property in the world of

production, goes on accepting the existence of a private world, that of “his home” which he sees as his own space, where he can have his private property–wife, children, possessions–to escape the frustration of his condition of worker and to satisfy his need to be “someone,” that is to say, of not feeling alienated.

And it is precisely around the woman the personal family life is made to center, setting her apart from the rest of the world. It is the woman to whom it falls to create the personal space for the worker and who comes to be the center of his private property. Thus, the woman has an essential role for the survival of the capitalist economy. In this system, to the woman falls the role of renewing the energy of the worker who returns to the home in search of food, clean clothes, and rest. This saves the expense of these items if the worker had to pay for these tasks from an outside person. The woman administers and organizes the smooth running of the home for the worker. It is her role to have children, and in this way reproducing the workforce of the future. Ultimately, to the woman falls the task of educating these children and of transmitting to them the predominant ideology in the system in order to fit in as they should in the future.

The socialization of women for the role which has been assigned them is carried out in many ways. From the day she is born, the little girl gets the social message that she ought to be submissive, passive, dependent, emotional etc. These characteristics, imposed from so many centuries of oppression, have evolved by considering the “natural feminine ideal” as the only acceptable character for the woman. Immediately, one is taught the role which is hoped she play in society as wife, mother, housekeeper. woman-child learns her role through the activities she performs, sometimes in play, sometimes in actual domestic work helping her mother, and above all in sexual repression. Sexual repression is taught to the young girl in the name of reproduction and chastity, and thus takes place a process of development in which the woman is kept removed from her own body. She grows to consider biological processes such as menstruation, sexual relations, etc. as something dirty. In addition, all of this is treated as something very private, it is not discussed openly. And virginity, which is a symbol of the relation of private property within the family (that the woman’s body belongs to one man) is valued highly and given first place.

The message of adaptation needed for little girls and women appears on all Sides, (literature, radio, television, etc.). The means of communication, instrument of the economic and patriarchal system pays special attention to women, reminding them of their obligation as consumers for their family and of their dependence with respect to men, who if he is not attracted to her sexually, will not take care of her economically. The communication system reminds men that the meaning of his life, his identity and vitality lie in his possessions, even though he does not own the means of production. Rather his personal environment is his possession. In possessing objects, he will arrive to possess the woman who also wants these things.

Nonetheless, the frustration of the man, not really satisfied in his job, does not resolve itself easily, and frequently he descends on the home, on the woman–his property–in a violent manner. For her part, the powerlessness of the wife who resents this attack and her condition of property, increases as she sees her sons changing into agents of aggressiveness and destruction.

In this way, the family has been called to serve as a substitute for the many needs of men and women–and enters into profound contradiction because by its very structure and because of the social pressures to which it is subjected, it can’t satisfy these needs. Therefore, instead of setting the objective of family unity which is unreachable at this time, it is important to search for new forms of socialization in the care of children, in the housework chores, in the creation of dining halls and other forms of community life in which the structure doesn’t promote a sense of private property, hierarchy, and the perpetuation of regressive sex roles.

Family and the Politics of Population Control

Another pressure which has been on the family in later years is the politics of population control developed by the governments in our continent. The project of attempting to lower the birth rate in the Third World, under the pressure of the International Monetary Fund, is resulting in numerous abuses of the right of woman to decide about her family.

In Mexico, the purpose of the campaign and the practice of birth control result in a lowering of the birth rate from 3.5 in 1978 to a 2.5 for 1980. It has been the cause of many involuntary sterilizations and numerous health problems for women who use inadequate birth control methods.

In Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and the United States with the Chicana and Native American Indian women, there exists the practice of imposing almost massive birth control methods, using poorly researched systems and taking advantage of the lack of the language and the predominant culture of the woman. It is estimated for example, that more than 35% of all the women of puberty age in Puerto Rico have been sterilized, the majority of them without their consent. (Bonnie Mass, 1977).

The population campaigns started by the governments of Latin America are the results of a situation of economic, cultural and technological dependence with respect to the advanced capitalist countries. This dependence fosters unemployment, malnutrition, sickness, in short, the misery of the Third World countries. Movements which attempt to reverse the situation threaten the stability of the transnationals who live in dependent countries. They put a pressure on the legitimacy of the governments, and in general, they question the whole social order. The reaction of the dominant countries is to reduce the number of births so that in the future there will be fewer adults who will threaten to seize back their rights violently.

In spite of its gravity, it is not sufficient to denounce imperialism and the lucrative projects of international pharmaceutical companies. The reappropriation by the woman of her own body is indispensable in order that Latin American women be able to resist attack. It is necessary to de-

ideologize the population campaign–the poor are not poor because there are so many of them, but because riches are badly distributed. And every day will be worse under the present system. But it is also necessary to de-ideologize woman’s body. This body does not belong to the family, not to the husband, nor to the state. It belongs to the woman herself. Therefore, she must be her own owner, to use or not to use the methods of birth control, to be sterilized or not, to have or not to have sexual relations. And this de-ideologization is intimately linked with the active promotion of the consciousness of her rights, to the support of her labor demands, to requests for day care for her children. It is intimately related to the necessity of controlling transnational pharmaceutical corporations so that they do not experiment on women’s bodies. It is linked to the demand for more effective contraceptives which permit maternity really to be an option. 

Women, Industrialization and Programs of Development

In past years, there have been many calls to modernization and industrialization of countries as a means of promoting the well-being and advance of the people. The evidence which has been presented about the effect of industrialization, agrarian reforms, and development programs for women, indicates nonetheless that their results have been very different, and they depend on the new mode of production adopted, on the opportunities which the woman has to participate with it, and of the degree of consciousness reached by the different groups.

An important change, for example is the change from the large hacienda to the smaller land portions, which was caused by agrarian reforms of differing types, as that which took place recently in Peru. In this change, the woman improved in the sense that freeing herself from servant roles, she has more control over her own life. Women now are salaried or they dedicate themselves to produce what is needed for the internal consumption of the family. Nonetheless, it is important to point out that in some cases in Peru as well as other countries, when the peasants have had the lands in a cooperative, the women have had more work than before on the hacienda and their participation in decisions which relate to their work has not increased Only the men control the decisions in the cooperatives. 

Sexual attitudes and the lack of knowledge of the actual activities of Third World women have made it a reality that programs of development, which are pushed and promoted by national or international organizations are mainly directed to the giving of technical assistance, education and the right of evaluation to men. This process has taken away from women’s participation and has fostered a situation in which women are set aside, so that they have less participation, less decision-making and less economic capacity than ever. (Boulding, 1975).

Another type of change which has been discussed previously is produced by the transnational companies which are installing in their industry, intensive piece work in the poorest countries of Latin America and the Caribbean like El Salvador, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Mexico and others. These companies of which the textile and electronic ones predominate, frequently have moved to Third World countries looking for cheap hand work, thus causing the double phenomenon of the exploitation of women in the advanced country which is left without jobs by moving the factory, as well as the women of the Third World who with their low salaries serve to multiply the gains of the capitalist. This very type of piece work job takes place in the agro industry, which uses a large number of women in the picking of crops, and which is growing in strength in countries like Brazil, El Salvador, Mexico, etc. Thus, we find the contradiction that the number of jobs open to women increases, the exploitation is each day worse.

In this type of situation which we have just described, the only out for the woman is in organizing herself to the socialization and care of children in day care centers, communal dining facilities, youth centers, etc. in such a way that the mothers do not have to bring their children to the field to work, and that they may have at the same time, the space and energy in order to create working unions which will defend their rights.

Women and Education

Consideration of the discriminatory practices in programs of development and in the world of work brings to a higher level the situation of women with respect to education. In general with reference to literacy, the view is similar to that of the work. UNESCO research reveals that in Guatemala the feminine illiterate rate is up to 68%, in Brazil 42% and although Chile,

Argentina and Uruguay seem to have lower literacy levels, it is because they consider literate those who hardly know how to write their names or have 2 years in primary school. In Latin America, to the global level, 40% of the women are illiterate. In some of these countries, the levels are very high–85% in Haiti, 70% in Bolivia.

The causes of the low educational level of the woman with respect to the man of the same social class are also the same causes which explain her condition in the workforce. If the prime role of woman has been defined as spouse and mother, then formal and technical education passes to a second place, the learning of domestic tasks takes precedence. Young girls tend to leave school before their brothers in order to help with the domestic chores. This practice becomes the cause that women, being not fully qualified, only find themselves in difficult, poorly paid and unpleasant jobs that they will have to leave as soon as they can. Thus they add to the stereotype that women only work when there is a real need and they earn less than men.

The legal situation of women in the majority of the countries offers little help in her effort to change her condition. There are advances in the formulation of laws which defend their rights. In reality these laws frequently are not enforced because of the lack of women’s political organization and because the whole system is at the service of a class that maintains economic, social and patriarchal control.

Conclusions

The data presented here conclude that the situation of women is neither a simple consequence of ignorance or discrimination in one or another determined area. Many interrelated factors contribute but all are conditioned by the position that has been given to women in the family; a position which though not entirely new in capitalism, was reinforced and made more profound due to the crucial role that the family has played within this system.

While the woman carries all the responsibility for the care and socialization of the children, and while this socialization is carried on in the private environment, individualized in the home, the strength to change the situation of women will have few results. The low level of consciousness produced by the individualization of domestic work, and the lack of energy which results from the double work day make extremely difficult the organization of women in labor and politics.

If the economic system, by reason of its vested interests is not going to change to meet the demands concerning the family and the exploitation of woman–from where will change be able to come?

We think that educational institutions can promote and change, revising their own concepts of woman in the family and the economy, destroying myths about woman’s nature; raising consciousness about the rights of women and men regarding socialization of domestic work and care of children; promoting , knowledge and control on the part of women regarding their own bodies by effective health services; seeing to it that programs for the education and development of women actually reach them. Finally educational institutions can raise the consciousness of all with respect to the real nature of the economic and political system in which people live, and can support efforts to change it.

The moment is critical for the situation of our people. Massive participation of women in the struggle for change, could be the key to liberation!

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Women in Dialogue: Inter-American Meeting. Notre Dame, Catholic Committee on Urban Ministry, 1979

January 27 to February 13, 1979, in Puebla, México, gathered the bishops of the Latin American and Caribbean Roman Catholic Church for a conclave that would decide the future of Christian commitments on the continent. Meanwhile, “an international group of Catholic women met for three intensive days in Cuernavaca, Mexico [… working] over the preliminary Working Document the bishops would be using. The sessions continued in Puebla, during which many more Latin American women participated in the dialogue” recalls Ruth McDonough in the Forward, “We named ourselves ‘Mujeres para el Diálogo’.” That group bussed to Puebla city to intervene and make sure that women would not be ignored in the episcopal conference as they had been in the past.

The English translations here were the work of The [U.S.] National Assembly of Women Religious, in collaboration with the Catholic Committee on Urban Ministry, who published this text for English-reading audiences who might join in solidarity with the women of the Latin American and Caribbean churches facing violence on all fronts.

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