Indigenous and Feminist Movements at the Constituent Assembly in Bolivia: Locating the Representation of Indigenous Women

The Cultural and Political Intersection of Fair Trade and Justice

“…The women needed to be united in order to have their voices heard. A Pacto de Unidad (Unity Pact) is formed among indigenous organizations that sought to lobby the CA through a coalition of feminist and women's organizations Mujeres Presente en la Historia (MPH, Women Present in the History) (Rousseau, 2011). As mestiza and indigenous women came together under MPH, however it was soon realized that the women are present in many different ways.…”

“…As mestiza and indigenous women came together under MPH, however it was soon realized that the women are present in many different ways. Indigenous women build their collective agency seeking indigenous autonomy and self-determination while middleclass mestiza women since the 1980s had been promoting women's rights, liberation, political representation, and gender-sensitive policy through NGO development based on popular feminist theory that did not reflect the indigenous ways of being (Rousseau, 2011).…”

“…Many are associated with the middle and upper classes, dress in Western-style fashions, value European and US culture, favor neoliberalism and fear the "backward ways" of their indigenous women counterparts (Rousseau, 2011). Many indigenous women view mestizas with disdain, seeing them as influenced by colonial imperialism.…”

“…Duality of gender takes place in different spheres, that of education, political participation, incomegeneration, and household care. Complementarity refers to the duality of gender that is represented in all of the spheres and in all contrasts in the world around (Rousseau, 2011).…”

Chachawarmi: Rhetorics and Lived Realities

“…The MAS government has achieved unprecedented milestones in terms of gender representation at the political level, and the chachawarmi discourse has been prominent in achieving these aims. For example, the members of the Assamblea Constituyente of 2009 are 33 percent women (Rousseau, : 12), and in January 2010, President Evo Morales appointed a Cabinet in which 50 percent of ministers are women. In announcing the new Cabinet, the President stressed that this was achieved in the name of chachawarmi —‘or, as the mestizos say, gender equality’ ( La Jornada , ), delimiting an important distinction between the complementary ideal of gender equality in the Andean symbolic universe and ideas of gender equality associated with Western discourse and predicated on individual rights.…”