Neighborhood feminism in the construction of the city and citizenship
Introduction
In this essay we propose to publicize a little of feminism mainly today being that most of the ideas have taken them from several authors I hope it is information that provides certainty to the one who reads it. Feminism was born from patriarchy, because this fact subordinated women both in political, social, cultural, religious, legal, etc. In the nineteenth century it was that feminist consciousness began to be transmitted as a woman in a woman and feminism began as a political social movement.
Mary Wollstonecraft wrote the book vindication of women’s rights, is a writing that speaks without fear. It was written before the nineteenth century, which is still alive among women, in political, racial, human rights movements and even in the internal struggles of a family where women want to live in equal circumstances that her husband.
In his text, Mary Wollstonecraft crumbles one by one the prejudices that make equality, still a battle. Published at the end of the 18th century, the philosopher travels through the social impositions of its time, from delicacy to submission. With irrefutable arguments he makes his anger feel before the state of alleged ingenuity in which he intended to keep women.
Developing
A first problem when talking about feminism in Bolivia is the date, or rather, in which it is considered born in Bolivia. It should be remembered that feminist historiography considers that this ideology was born within the illustration, in the 18th century, regarding the debates on human rights, in general, and of equality and difference between the sexes, in particular (in particular (Valcárcel, 2001). Subsequently, women’s struggles for their political and twentieth centuries, and a second wave to the so -called feminist movement of the twentieth century (decades of 60 to 90) is called first wave (60 to 90).
However, the participation of indigenous and mestizo in the rebellions in the time of the colony is notorious, and there are already indications that their intervention had motivations not only of an ethnic nature but also of gender (Arze, Cajías and Medinaceli, 1997).
Nationalism in Bolivia intervened directly into Marxist ideology and movements, and from that aspect modern feminism in Bolivia is born. This ascription also brought other disputes, although inspired by the understanding of ‘the feminine question’ of Marxism worldwide, with its specificities in Bolivia.
The testimony of Minera leader Domitila Chungara (Viezzer, 1977) illustrates these disputes very well. In her if they allow me to speak (1977), she opposes socialism with machismo and feminism and qualifies these last two as "weapons of imperialism’ (p. 8). In this testimony, Chungara clearly exposes an idea that circulated in the Marxist parties of that time: that women would achieve their rights only in socialism;Meanwhile, any other female claim ‘distracted’ the general struggle of workers and, therefore, became an instrument of the reaction.
For these reasons women are the most represented actors in these mobilizations by insurgent citizenship, so it is important to clarify the role they have played with their mobilization both in the democratization of society and in the urban-spatial development of its cities. On the one hand, the "informal" character of the neighborhoods must be lifted, but without identifying the meaning of the "informal work" of women in the construction of "the informal city". On the other hand, clarify the activism of women in the neighborhoods and their role in what Holston Acuña as insurgent citizenship.
On the one hand, the work of women in the informal economy and the care and the way this work is closely linked to the urban construction of the popular neighborhoods must be recognized. On the other, it is to expose the way the insurgent citizens of women materialize in diagnoses on urban innovations to improve the quality of life of all inhabitants in popular neighborhoods. Finally, it is how the informal work for building the neighborhoods and urban diagnoses of women take place in forms of planning and formal management of the city, such as insurgent and communicative cohesion.
It is worth highlighting the productive and reproductive work of women in the construction of popular neighborhoods, their mobilization for the exercise of citizen rights and their active participation also in the formal planning of cities. As regards his work in the neighborhoods, it is known that the unpaid is mostly assumed by women within the reproductive sphere and care. In addition, and although notoriously invisible in literature on popular mobilizations, women’s mobilization is also notorious in struggles to demand better quality of life.
Housewives have historically led the struggles to position consumption and commerce as an activity of equal value as production and finance, which have traditionally been under male control (Smart, 2010). Within their work for improving the neighborhoods, struggles that range from their opposition against the chemical manipulation of water (Whiple, 2010), against the increase in milk (Guard, 2010) and in general of food for the labor-sectors-Popular from Argentina (Milanesio, 2006) and England (Hunt, 2010), to the reconstruction of the care economy in Japan to face the cuts agreed by neoliberal reforms (Kimura, 2008).
In recent years, their struggles for access to drinking water have been notable and intense especially in "the most overwhelmed countries" by neoliberalism (Galeano, 1998). Women have been leading two fighting fronts in this regard. The first against water privatization policies, and energy with protest movements initiated from cities such as Monterrey, Mexico (Bennett, 1998), Quito, Ecuador;El Alto, Bolivia (Dosh, Kigerman & Lerager, 2010) and Cochabamba, Bolivia (Bustamante, Peredo & Udaeta, 2005) and that have historically intensified in South African cities such as Johannesburg (Lee, 2006). The second fight against its participation in the democratic administration of these resources from African cities such as Lagos (Slar, Sridhar & Olaseha, 1998) to Asians such as Katmandú (Shrest, 1998). Part of the Latin American contributions in this regard are submitted later from the developments that take place in the cities of this study.
In what has to do with what Holston calls an insurgent citizenship the form of women to mobilize for their rights had also been observed by other authors (Lind, 1997). Here your leadership also shows impact on forms of popular participation that contradict previously established gender patterns. For example, collectivizing private activities, and in general creating alternatives to organizational forms until then predominantly masculinized, as studied in Venezuela (Fernandez, 2007). Similar trends in relation to political activism as part of the daily life of popular neighborhoods have also been documented in Argentina (Borland & Sutton, 2007).
Regarding the participation of neighborhood houses in the participatory and formal planning of the city they face two forms of participation. The first is the planning that is largely based on the concept of Holston insurgent citizenship called as a radical or insurgent planning (Sandercock 1998; Friedmann, 2002; Irazábal, 2008; Miraftab, 2009; Meth, 2010). This planning has been erected in an increasingly widespread urban resistance practice in societies subject to neoliberal ideologies from South Africa (Miraftab, 2009) to a good part of Latin American cities (Holston, 2009).
The second is the communicative planning, based on the theories of Jürgen Habermas on communicative action (Healey, 1997; Forester, 1998; Ines, 1995) and that in Colombia has taken a cohesional cut under the rubric of social urbanism (Pérez Fernandez,2010). Both planning slopes still show the way women participate in their processes.
The "informal" work of women: to "make destiny" to make the city
“Being in the house, domesticadites, enclosures, ironing, attending to the husband, washing the clothes well, yes? That is "destiny" (Lucrecia Ramírez, 2010-03-08). Ramírez thus called attention to one of the ways of being a woman who since 1970’s in Marxist circles has been seen as a way of subsidizing capital by reproducing the workforce (Roy, 2001: 115). This version about "destiny" is naturally critical of home or "domestic" work, especially when it is not paid, and which in turn is considered a sign of the subordination of women in patriarchal and capitalist society. The subordinate character of these tasks has stigmatized work as a "domestic employee" that is one of the most common trades in which women in popular neighborhoods are occupied. As "domestic employees" many of these women work wardlessly also making "destiny" in middle -class and high families."
Popular women have made their work recognized in the Constitution of Bolivia (art.338) where it must be valued and quantified (Castro, 2006) as part of the democratization of responsibilities within the home (Uriona Gamarra, 2010). But women make an even more important contribution. The subordinate nature of paid work and women’s home has been framed within a dichotomy between productive and reproductive work in the capital relations of our patriarchal societies. However, women break that dichotomy when their reproductive work is linked to “the destiny” that women perform as producers of the urban environment. In this role of managers the "housewives" are distinguished as a subject that at the same time leads the organization of their family, is articulated with other housewives in the construction of their neighborhoods and therefore of its cities.
In Cochabamba the housewives of the neighborhoods found a similar way to converge to train in the Iffi, Institute for Integral Female Training. Like we are going, neighborhood activists have made use of this training platform to gestate the development of their communities. Inés Morato, women’s leader in one of the neighborhoods in the southern zone of Cochabamba, confirms this relationship in the following terms.
“When I arrived in this sector, believe me, with my daughters studying at the university, this whole sector was full of land, this entrance, the streets, all that. So as I attended the iFFI, I said: Where are there women we gather! Whatever you do? "I hair peanut", "I’m in my house" … well, we’ll meet, we’ll register. We have to do something like women in this sector. And we have already reached 20 women in the neighborhood, who peeled peanuts, so every day they sat down and the guaguas were there abandoned, playing, barefoot, all that. It was sorry. Then we organize, we work with something of the UCS political sector, I got fabrics, I got wool, buckets, certificates. The ladies learned to build comforters, for the beds. Then we did a fabric course, so they can weave and sell. Because that of peeling too, the hands very much to the contact of the water hurts the woman too. Then we also did a workshop with cut and clothing. All with certificates so that the ladies can work anywhere. And so these women’s organizations grew. To the latter we already had 76 women already doing those courses. Then we organize ourselves in a committee, cleaning the neighborhood, and bringing machinery to level, and opening the streets, all that. That way I was chosen as the leader of the neighborhood six years ago, basic services have been carried out, then we have entered cobbled. After the cobblestone we have entered asphalt. He does not miss an asphalt street now in my neighborhood. We have made the courts, multiple court and a soccer field seven. It is with stands, and I still had this grass /… /. It is the work that is also done from the women’s initiative ”(Ines, Cochabamba, 2010-04-25).
As Inés expresses women women begin their organization seeking economic autonomy by developing their business training and then organizing to manage the urban improvements of their neighborhood. The way of socially activated to be formed to promote urban space management distinguishes neighborhood houses from the different slopes of women in cities. Many of the specific activities within that “making destiny” alluded to are directly related to the use of water, which further distinguishes neighborhood houses from other women for the differentiated access they have to public services.
conclusion
In the feminist movement, there are proposals for women to try to generate their own income through different alternatives such as bartering, fairs, small productive projects. That is recognized for the entire movement. Health problems are also recognized. It’s like transversal to the entire movement. The problems of education, violence against women are also transverse. But this issue of water and public services is a topic that has been difficult to find consensus.
To rebuild their citizenship before these neoliberal innovations, women of popular neighborhoods also build alternative infrastructure. Such is the case of the Assicur’s Community Water Systems Association that with its 50 affiliated organizations provide drinking water at 150.000 people from the peri-urban neighborhoods of Cochabamba, becoming a referential technical entity for the design of proposals leading to strengthening the national service for the sustainability of basic health services, Senasba (UN-Habitat, 2010. In summary, the work of women to build their neighborhoods, from its foundation to its provision of public services, constitutes the identifier of neighborhood feminism, with insurgent visos that also creates important administrative novelties that answer the ideological hegemony of neoliberalism.
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