Political Equality for Women in Venezuela

There has always been a push for gender equality, especially for women. Women have been viewed as not equals to men for hundreds of years. But in the past couple of decades that has changed drastically. Especially in regards to women’s representation in politics in Venezuela. In 2015 the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, known as the PSUV, and Tania Diaz are pushing for 50/50 representation in the national elections. According to Isobel Finbow, a writer from a Latin American news organization, said that they have already reached an unprecedented feat by having nearly 38% of the National assembly being women. Diaz who is also a candidate claims that the push for 50/50 representation in the national assembly is because of the current president of the national electoral counsel of Venezuela, Tibisay Lucena. Lucena is a female feminist who is pushing for the equality in representation. In 2010 president Lucena stated, “I am a feminist. I fight and will fight without truce, because the Venezuelan woman occupies the space that she has to occupy: in the heart, in the soul of the new homeland of the socialist revolution.” According to Diaz the implementation of gender quotas has come from numerous women even in opposing parties who have struggled to gain representation in Parliament.

Maria Leon speaking at a conference

Preceding this election there have been many movements to equalize women’s representation in parliament. In the late 1990’s a campaign was launched by the Venezuelan government promoting 50/50 representation. However just a year after the campaign was launched in was deemed to be unconstitutional. In Article 144 of the Suffrage and political Participation Organic Act it states that 30% of parliamentary candidates should be women. This article was suspended in 2000 by the male majorities who voted against it. Maria Leon who is the president of the Natonal Women’s Institute has asked to have article 144 replaced by a new article with a 50% quota of female candidates. (Espina) Women have struggled to work their way into parliament because when a law is implemented it is often voted away or deemed unfair. Although women in Venezuela have legally been equal for some time now, they still face many obstacles when trying to earn representation. Women still are restricted by penal, civil, and labor laws in Venezuela to this day. However, the biggest obstacle plainly stated is that they have no representation to allow them into parliament. With such few women in parliament their voice is not heard because they are often outvoted by the men 70% to 30%. Oftentimes the vote isn’t even that because there are very few elections where women have even obtained a 30% candidacy rate.

Hugo Chavez

The largest aid in the women's rights movement was the election of Hugo Chavez in 1999.  Hugo Chavez who was a military leader and leader of the coup that overthrew President Carlos Perez. When Chavez was elected he had only one goal which was inciting a "social revolution" which was designed to eliminate inequalities based on class. This included women as they were considered not equals to men. Chavez, once elected, immediately set out to rewrite the constitution, restructuring of state institutions and cut militarized social programs. As Maria Leon stated,"We have a president who understands the problems of women. Chávez has supported this organization and its projects.  He never stops speaking about the problems of women.  For the first time, we are a social issue.  The speeches of and meetings with Chávez are always filled with women, in fact more women than men.  When our president speaks, he says Venezolanos y Venezolanas [Venezuelan men and Venezuelan women]. Women recognize him as their leader. One can see this because there are more women actively participating in this revolution than men.” Maria Leon being an outspoken aid to women's rights is one thing, but to have a man speak out for women is another thing. Not only a man but a man with great influence like that of Hugo Chavez. Maria Leon also believes that one of the greatest achievements to further equality for women was changing the wording in the constitution to incorporate gender perspective and non-sexist language. She goes on to explain how Spanish, like most languages, distinguishes between feminine and masculine versions of job titles. For instance when referring to a male president the word "presidente" is used and when referring to a female president the word "presidenta" is used. Now when mentioned in the constitution both terms are used. (Wagner)
During the time immediately following Hugo Chavez' election women organized themselves. Women now had a leader who supported them and they could accomplish more in just a few short years then they had in the past half a century.They began to organize and create a series of coalitions to support there cause by means of legal and institutional reforms that would strengthen their rights and representation in politics. The Constitution of 1961 decreed equality for men and women, however they stilled faced discrimination from other legislation. The civil code of Venezuela did not allow for women to have many rights. Women, particularly married women, had little to almost no freedom when it came to their constitutionally given rights. Married women could no make any economic choices or decisions about their children without direct consent from their husbands. They could not sign contracts or even own property. Many proposals to reform the Civil Code had been presented in the early 1960's and 1970's yet nothing in the way of progress had been made, until the campaign that had been pushed from 1979-1982. This was just an early step to women crossing the boundary into having political freedom.
Despite having been discriminated since the early 1950's women did not earn political freedom until around the turn of the century. Women banded together to form coalitions, and push for reforms of preexisting laws that limited their rights. With the election of Hugo Chavez and pioneer women like Maria Leon women had a voice. They rewrote the constitution to include both masculine and feminine words and pushed for equal candidate quotas. Although they have made an immense amount of progress for women's rights and representation in politics, the women of Venezuela are still pushing for equal representation to this day.

References

Finbow, Isobel. "Women the 'Vanguard' of the Venezuelen Elections." N.p., 18 Nov. 2015. Web.

Espina, Gioconda. "Beyond Polarization: Organized Venezuelan Women Promote Their       Minimum Agenda." NACLA. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

Wagner, Sarah. "Women and Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution." Venezuela News, Views, and Analysis. N.p., 2005. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

Rakowski, Cathy A. "Women"s Coalitions as a Strategy at the Intersection of Economic and Political Change in Venezuela." International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 16.3 (2003): n. pag. Web.