RESEARCH ON WOMEN IN LATIN AMERICA Gloria Bonder an urban or rural environment, in their housework, feminist theorizations on class, and especially in their family. 2 gender issues, the emphasis upon Comme ['indique Gloria Bonder dans cette The majority of research projects on women's every-day experiences as reveal­ evaluation du progres de la recherche faite sur women during this period concentrated ing of their condition, and the notion of les femmes latino-americaines au cours de la on research areas already well established the patriarchy, form a group of notions Decennie pour les femmes de ['GNU, cette in Latin American social sciences: labour, that, in diverse levels of theoretical de­ recherche est une tache extremement difficile population and development. Social velopment, suggested new research if accomplir. Les conditions repressives im­ inequalities between the sexes are per­ directions. posees par les dictatures militaires dans ceived as the product of the socio-political The most significative consequences of beaucoup de pays latino-americains, ainsi que system. There exist few studies in other the new feminist-influenced research cur­ la crise economique, ont eut des effets nefastes areas. Feminist analyses had not yet exer­ rent are: pour la recherche sur la situation des femmes. cised any influence. From the mid-decade • There is a new awareness of the L'auteure evalue le travail accompli jusqu'if of the 1970's on, we can observe the sexist character of the prevailing cette date et propose des priorites pour les appearance and development of another theories in each discipline, and projets de recherche if ['avenir. research tendency on women's issues there is a consequent need to sub­ in Latin America, already considerably mit the theoretical assumptions that Research on women in Latin America influenced by feminist methodologies have distorted or omitted women to has been marked by a continuous and ideas. criticism and revision. development since the beginning of the The first UN Conference on Women, • There is a proposal for a research 1970's. A survey of the most important held in 1975 in Mexico city, signalled the model based on consciousness­ examples of research on women de­ growth and expansion of the femi­ raising and the transformation of veloped by Latin American social scien­ nist movement in Latin America. The gra­ women's situation. tists during the first five years of that dual diffusion of North American and • The criterion of objectivity for the decade reveals some common character­ European papers in the region contri­ evaluation of traditional theoretical istics. I The studies originate in the indi­ buted to slowly sensitizing women and methodological approaches is vidual initiatives of women who partici­ towards different research fields - in their under scrutiny. pate in centers of social research, both theoretical assumptions, as well as in the • New forms of methodological private and governmental. They concen­ selection of research issues, subjects and approaches are being developed trate on the development and composi­ methodological approaches. The concepts (for example, participant and tion of labour power, and are strongly of the sexual division of labour, public and action-oriented research). influenced by the theoretical perspective private domains, social production and • The debate about gender and class of Latin American social scientists for the reproduction, the re-conceptualization of relations has deepened. comprehension of the region's social and economical situation: the theory of the dependence of peripheral countries on central ones. Finally, they ignore and/or do not wish to be identified with feminists currents. Marysa Novarro describes the work of these researchers: The main objective of most Latin Amer­ ican social scientists working on women is to analyze Latin America's social for­ mation, to understand how the capitalist mode of production in its dependent form operates. They do not view women as avalid category of analysis but as afocus that can be used profitably insofar as it increases our knowledge of the social formation. For them, focusing on women means that they cannot be studied in isolation from socio­ econOll1ic conditions ... Women must be studied in each Latin American country, in 148 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME • "Private" issues such as sexuality, motherhood, every-day life, etc., have begun to acquire public relevance. • 11 Academical characteristics" of research on women have begun to be questioned and consequently dissolved. It is mostly within the areas of action­ oriented and participant research that the development of new methodologies can be observed, for data-gathering and data­ analysis. These methodologies emphasize personal inter-action between researchers and researched women, as well as the active participation of the research sub­ jects in different stages of the research process and the use of diverse techniques to carry out consciousness-raising, train­ ing and/or organization of the women participating in the project. The tech­ niques which are commonly used include: • Workshops or group discussions with the objective of exploring and analyzing women's common pro­ blems, with the researcher in the role of discussion-facilitator. • Life histories, developed within a context of close and frequent in­ teraction, which enable researchers to capture women's past and pre­ sent experiences related to the areas they want to explore. • Women's testimonials which reflect the particularities and complexities of women's experiences. • Games, dramatizations and role­ playing, which enable the expres­ sion of women's personal expe­ Illustration: Monique Dussault (huile sur papier) Photo Credit: Monique de Longeville riences and opinions about their experience. searchers, using these methodologies agendas and priorities are strictly linked to • Audiovisual stimuli to help women with little or no training and experience the financing policies of national and in­ produce less structured responses. in other methodologies. Many young ternational organizations that support In these new methodologies we can researchers of Latin America who have projects on women in Latin America. observe the influence exercised by the gone through this "initiation rite" of using Usually, the agencies define their tradition of popular education techniques qualitative research on women may have financing policies for research without the in Latin America, and the qualitative been negatively affected by the difficulties advice or participation of Latin American methodologies used in anthropological they have had to face during this process. researchers, who know the needs and studies, as well as the increasing influence Our exchange with women's studies cen­ priorities of their region. Consequently, of psychological and psychoanalytical ters carrying out this kind of research in research on women in Latin America is techniques and perspectives to approach Latin America has confirmed this as a usually based on issues and perspectives women's subjectivity. common concern. We believe that the that do not favour the formulation of poli­ Nevertheless, we must point out seve­ development and deepening of this new cies for the transformation of women's ral critical aspects of this kind of research. methodological perspective within re­ condition in society. Finally, we can con­ First, many of these projects have counted search on women is now facing a critical firm that it has not yet been possible to on short periods of time for their ful­ period. carry out a systematic evaluation of this filment, and most of the cases have lacked The third element that must be taken kind of research. In other cases, once a a follow-up, and consequently, an evalu­ into account is that this kind of research research term has been completed the ation. Secondly, most of these projects project has not always constituted a per­ final reports are not distributed in the have been carried out by novice re- sonal or institutional option: research region and sometimes not even in the VOLUME 7, NUMBERS 1 & 2 149 country. Only in rare cases can we count as abortion, prostitution, violence, rape, vists. We stressed the need for building on publications that provide informa­ sexual. roles and even legal issues, have new channels for interchange and recipro­ tion, or can we eventually have access to not been systematically studied. cal stimulation between the feminist informal information through personal At the the meeting we made two impor­ movement and the centers that carry out contacts. tant recommendations: 1) We consider it research on women from a feminist per­ Participant research on women, which essential that the research agenda in Latin spective. 2) While keeping in view the has been used in Latin America during the America mustbe the result of a jointaction objective of the community's awareness past few years, emphasizes. important between feminist researchers and acti- of women's status in society, the develop- epistemological, theoretical, political and ethical issues, which we should develop: • Are we building new methodologi­ FOR THE HOMELAND SOVEREIGNITY cal criteria with new concepts of validity, reliability, objectivity and generalization? WOMEN AT THE FRONT OF THE STRUGGLE • Who are the beneficiaries of re­ search on women? • What do we understand for partici­ pation? Who participates? How do they participate? What do they participate for? • Which are the study