Voices from the Colombian Left: Women and the Struggle for Social Transformation

Citation:

Gibbs, Terry. 2010. “Voices from the Colombian Left: Women and the Struggle for Social Transformation.” Labour, Capital & Society 43 (2): 57-84.

Author: Terry Gibbs

Abstract:

This article, based on interviews with representatives from various social movements in Colombia, focuses on the special role of women in articulating the vision of these movements—both violent and non-violent—and in determining the strategies to achieve that vision. Few of the women interviewed for this research came to their political positions from a gender or feminist perspective; most began their engagement due to a sense of the injustice of the broader socio-economic conditions in which a majority of Colombians live. With this in mind, the perspectives of activist women are placed in a broader structural analysis of Colombia examining the social, economic and human rights aspects of their political work. It is clear that across the political left in Colombia there are calls for a redistributive politics in which gender is an embedded element rather than incorporated after the fact as a political necessity. In addition, women see the forms of their daily participation in community and peasant organizations, social movements, and revolutionary groups as intimately connected to the kind of society they are seeking to build.

Topics: Gender, Women, Political Participation Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Colombia

Year: 2010