Supermadres, Maternal Legacies and Women's Political Participation in Contemporary Latin America

Abstract

Elsa Chaney once argued that Latin American women turned to motherhood to justify their political participation. Now that Latin American women have gained unprecedented access to national-level office, we ask whether these cultural narratives of maternalism still condition female politicians’ access to political power. Using public opinion data, media analysis, and elite interviews, we conceptualise four strategic frames deployed by elite women to justify their national-level political careers: the traditional supermadre, the technocratic caretaker, the macho minimiser, and the difference denier. We argue that while today's female politicians have developed diverse responses to maternalism, their access to public office remains profoundly shaped by structural constraints and cultural narratives that privilege traditional feminine ideals of caretaking.

From Thin to Thick Representation: How a Female President Shapes Female Parliamentary Behavior

“…In extension, female perspectives may be perceived as more valuable in democratic deliberation. Women in power have often drawn on maternal or matriarchic imagery to legitimize their leadership (Franceschet, Piscopo, and Thomas 2016). Such strategies were apparent in Joyce Banda's rhetoric, stating for instance: "where I come from it is the woman who shoulders the biggest responsibility of supporting the family, through her contributions of labor, time, emotions and energy" (Banda 2013).…”

Women Mobilizing Women: Candidates’ Strategies for Winning the Presidency

“…Kampwirth (2010) shows how male populists have leveraged shared understandings of masculinity and femininity to obtain power. Other research demonstrates that organized women and female politicians have used maternalism to broadly justify their political participation (Franceschet, Piscopo, and Thomas 2016;Miller 1991). However, this research has not explained how and why female presidential candidates might try to leverage their identities as mothers to specifically galvanize female voters and how male candidates might respond to this tactic.…”

Proveer, cuidar y criar: evidencias, discursos y experiencias sobre paternidad en América Latina

“…El maternalismo se evidencia como una arquitectura de infraestructura pública, arreglos institucionales y legislativos construidos alrededor del supuesto de que las madres son y deben ser las cuidadoras primarias.La construcción inseparable del binomio ma-dre-hijo y mujer-madre fueron centrales a la incorporación de mujeres a los sistemas de bienestar en la región (Molyneux 2007) y a la formación de un tipo de ciudadanía femenina (Goldsmith 2017a), y estas ideas han tenido un efecto que permea (Gideon 2015) y ha sido resiliente al cambio (Goldsmith 2017b). Se ha documentado como concepciones maternalistas persisten en políticas de salud (Gideon 2012), están implícitas en programas de microcrédito (Martínez Franzoni and Voorend 2012) e incluso condicionan la política electoral (Franceschet, Piscopo and Thomas 2016).…”