Another Economy Is Possible: Women and the Venezuelan Economic Revolution

Off Our Backs, Mar/Apr 2004 by Mantilla, Karla

Nora Castaneda is an economist appointed by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela to head the Women's Development Bank in Venezuela, a bank which offers microfinancing and other consulting services to poor women in Venezuela to develop their own businesses. Castaneda was instrumental in drafting the new Venezuelan constitution, which opposes discrimination of all kinds. Karla Mantilla of off our backs interviewed Castaneda in February 2004 during a six-city speaking tour in the United States on "Creating a Caring Economy in Venezuela," which was coordinated by the Global Women's Strike. Following are excerpts from that interview.

oob: Tell me something about the history of women in Venezuela.

Castaneda: The struggle of Venezuelan women is very long, beginning with the colonization during which Indigenous women were oppressed through being evicted from their lands and through being used as sexual objects by the Spanish colonizers

Later, the fight for women's rights took place in what is now Venezuela when a significant number of Black slaves were brought from Africa, of whom many were women. The enslaved women were used for manual labor for cocoa, cotton, and sugar cane crops. They were also used not so much as sexual objects, but more as a means of producing more slaves. During this period, Venezuelan women, including Black and Indigenous women, resisted. Many escaped into free populations, where they could be free from slavery.

As a result of this violence against Indigenous women and Black women, the majority of Venezuelans have Indigenous and Black blood in our veins-of which we are very proud. We also have the blood of the colonizers.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Venezuela became primarily a coffee exporter. We are one of the first exporters of coffee in the world. Then, our economy changed from a rural economy to a mining economy. Women continued to contribute wealth to society. Our poor women continued to have more children, creating additional domestic burdens for women-unpaid domestic work.

Women fought against the military dictators that ruled in the country. These women also fought for our right to vote and to be elected to political office.

Not until the 1940s did women achieve the right to vote and to run for political office. However, culturally, the patriarchal society continued so it was not possible to put the new rights into practice. Women were therefore a minority in municipal councils, legislatures and, of course, we have never had a woman president. The political discrimination continued, but it has been in tandem with cultural and economic discrimination.

In 1975, with the first World Conference of Women in Mexico, Venezuelan women became increasingly involved in the fight for our rights. This allowed us to create nongovernmental organizations focused on women. But the most important thing to emerge from this time was the creation of a network of organizations where women could discuss our problems and propose solutions.

Because we had many years to discuss problems and come up with solutions, by 1998, when the national constitutional assembly was convened, women already had concrete proposals to put on the table. So due to our work and to four months of picketing every day in front of the constitutional assembly, the new constitution, the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela which was approved in December 1999, incorporated almost all of our demands.

oob: Like what?

Castaneda: For example, nonsexist language. From the first to the last article of the constitution, women's presence is included: it is not citizens [ciudadanos], but women citizens [ciudadanas] and men citizens [ciudadanos], not presidents, but presidentes and presidentas, not old people, but ancianos and ancianas. In Spanish this use of language is very important; otherwise, the language renders women invisible.

We also achieved the incorporation of Article 88 into the new Constitution. This article states that because the unpaid work that women perform in the home creates economic worth and value, the state must offer social security benefits to women. And that means pensions but also food security, health care, decent housing, quality education and training for work and for living. This is an article that we consider revolutionary, and as far as we know, it is the first time in the world that language of this kind has been incorporated into a national constitution.

Another thing we achieved is Article 14 of the Land Reform Law, which establishes that women heads of household who want to carry out agricultural projects will have preferential rights to the land. Also, in the same article, it establishes that pre- and post-natal women will receive a government subsidy in order to guarantee their well-being.

oob: So is this happening already? Are pregnant women and women with infants receiving this subsidy?

Castaneda: Well, now we are working on the laws. Once a constitutional framework is established, it must be turned into laws and into public policy. The Women's Development Bank and the National Institute of Women are working so that the agencies that apply those laws apply them in the context of gender.