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Women take revolutionary strides

The National Institute for Women (INAMUJER) aims to fight for equal opportunity and equality before the law for Venezuelan women. Green Left Weekly’s Rachel Evans and Coral Wynter spoke to Corina Fumero, INAMUJER’s assistant for international relations, about the problems facing Venezuelan women and the work of INAMUJER. “Our main political program is mainstreaming gender into every sphere of Venezuelan public and political life. Within all government programs — health, education — we want everyone to know about and think about gender issues. We have done well on this front. Just recently, President [Hugo] Chavez approved a gender vision within the national budget. This means every department within the national budget has to include women’s issues”, Fumero said. “To give you an example, we have programs to build housing for the poor. But women specifically need this housing near to schools so they don’t have to pay for transport costs to the school. There is a suggestion that buses are to be fitted with room for strollers to enable mothers to get children to shops. This is what we mean by having a consistent gender vision. “Currently this vision is not law but this statement from the government and the president shows their good intentions.” Fumero explained that “INAMUJER operates as a government department. We have 100 workers within Caracas and more workers within the regional centres. We have 26 offices within Venezuela’s regional centres. We run three domestic violence shelters for women. This is an advance from the one centre we ran last year. We also provide a free legal service for women. “We are a grassroots organisation. We meet women in groups of five to 20 in barrio [neighbourhood] schools and communities. We inform women of their human rights and their rights under the constitution, which is a good constitution for women. We talk about women’s reproductive rights and involve them in the project ‘Heroines and History’. This is a project that reconstructs women’s history. We find and promote women who have fought against injustice, women who help poor children, who help with hospitals and with old people. We also provide training to prevent domestic violence. “Domestic violence is a big issue for Venezuelan women. We have come a long way [since the election of Chavez in 1998] but no-one talks about it. Gathering statistics on the extent of the problem has been hard.” Separate statistics for women have not been properly collected. “Last year we have started working with the National Institute of Statistics to fix this weakness.” Fumero described Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution as “a beautiful moment for us. People are gaining empowerment — talking politics on the street. There is power in the streets. We see this through the number of people coming to INAMUJER to ask for workshops. We don’t so much have to go to them anymore. Before, revolutionary institutions had to go to the people. Now people go to the institutions. The people are actually ahead of us; we are running to catch up.” Fumero said INAMUJER is also campaigning to make law the provision of credits for household work, which is contained in the constitution. Fumero said the issue of abortion is “controversial”, but explained “The women’s movement here is campaigning for decriminalisation of abortion”. Last year, the government initiated a discussion about decriminalising abortion. “The Catholic religious right led the opposition to this proposal, but there was not much active opposition in the streets. “We are trying to involve men in all these discussions and workshops around women’s rights, in particular domestic violence. Because of machismo, men are not very interested. We aim to change the ideas of people who are in charge of institutes and programs.” From Green Left Weekly, February 8, 2006.

This revolution has woken women up

by Tamara Pearson Soon after his election in 1998, 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 by Venezuelanalysis.com 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 unrecognised 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). Such changes 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. 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. Lending money to groups of women rather than individuals is a way of helping the community to develop, rather than just individual families. However, one woman 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>] Abridged from Green Left Weekly, March 9, 2005.