472 UNIT 4 MESOAMERICAN CULTURAL FEATURES
Box 12.7 Women’s Organizations in Contemporary Central AmericaAt the beginning of the 1990s, women’s organizations turned their attention from supporting in-
surgency movements to advancing agendas for women in the transition to democracy. They
pressured their governments to create specific institutions for women, such as special offices
and national institutes to denounce discrimination and violations of women’s rights and to in-
vestigate and prosecute crimes against women. Laws against intrafamily violence were enacted
as a result of the demands of women’s organizations. Although these laws have not been fully en-
forced, their existence represents a major victory; they tear down the boundaries between pub-
lic and private, and force the state to assume responsibility for what happens inside the walls of
the home. Women’s proposals for other important laws regarding reproductive rights, sexual ha-
rassment, equality of opportunities for women, and protection for domestic and maquila work-
ers have yet to become a reality.
Over the past decade, many women’s organizations have dedicated their efforts to helping
women become political subjects. This effort is a major contribution to the democratization
processes in Central America. In Guatemala, for example, AMVA (Association Woman Let’s Move
Forward) offers workshops on gender, leadership, and political awareness to hundreds of in-
digenous and rural women. When these women return to their villages, they organize local
women’s groups. AMVA began by assisting women to obtain their ID papers, a process that took
several years to complete and became a sine qua non for the political participation of women
(Castillo Godoy 2003).
Women’s groups are having a major impact at the local level; women are making their voices
heard within and outside their communities. They are presenting proposals, demanding ac-
countability from authorities, and voting and participating as candidates in elections. In addi-
tion, organizing in groups has empowered women to search for economic avenues to alleviate
the precarious conditions of their households. Many groups have created links with NG0s to pro-
cure microcredit or find markets for their artisan products.GENDER AWARENESS AND CONTEMPORARY
WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS
Women’s organizational efforts in Mesoamerica have been increasing in numbers
and complexity since the 1950s. Women’s organized activities on local, state, and na-
tional levels demonstrate the integration between their “feminine” or practical needs
as mothers and wives with their feminist or strategic goals of transforming public
spheres (Stephen 1997).
Although charitable and politically active women’s groups began to emerge in
Central America after the 1950s, women’s groups did not appear in great numbers
until the 1970s (Box 12.7). The impetus to create these groups originated in the in-
ternational sphere, with the United Nation’s declaration of the Decade of Women.
Professional women’s organizations proliferated in the region, and several women’s
groups emerged to support the insurgency movements in the area.
Political activists and insurgents in Mesoamerica in the 1970s and 1980s expected
women to subordinate the quest to further their rights as women to the larger revo-
lutionary goals of class struggle. Yet, in the process of facing the limitations imposed
by machismo and gender discrimination, women have come to realize their strength,
competence, and worth in a variety of contexts, and to confront the male bias of