Venezuela election: Is a vote for the opposition a vote against your mother?
| Caracas, Venezuela; and Boston
If you vote for the opposition, you don鈥檛 love your mother 鈥� at least according to one bold pro-government slogan in the leadup to Venezuela鈥檚 presidential election tomorrow.
What may sound like a schoolyard jab in fact touches on an important legacy of former President Hugo Ch谩vez鈥檚 14-year administration: Poor women were some of the main beneficiaries of the charismatic socialist leader鈥檚 welfare programs. Mr. Ch谩vez created scores of social missions, which brought services like adult literacy education, subsidized food, and free healthcare into many low-income neighborhoods 鈥� and, in the process, gave many women more influence and even political power.
鈥淭here is a before and after Ch谩vez when it comes to women in Venezuela,鈥� says Mercedes Chac铆n, editor-in-chief of CCS, a Caracas-based pro-Ch谩vez daily.
鈥淭he awakening of [poor] women started under chavismo,鈥� she says.
Although the 鈥渕ama鈥� slogan implies that聽voting for someone other than Ch谩vez鈥檚 handpicked successor, Nicol谩s Maduro, could put these programs at risk, both Mr. Maduro and opposition candidate Henrique Capriles say they don鈥檛 plan to dismantle Ch谩vez鈥檚 social missions, which were created by presidential decree and funded by petrodollars. But high inflation, lagging oil production, and issues of cash flow聽could mean changes may be unavoidable.
Ch谩vez鈥檚 Bolivarian revolution emphasized grassroots political change, and social programs like the missions were an attempt not only聽to lift up the poor, but also to engage them in the political process. The execution was often far from perfect 鈥� many programs were thrown together on the fly or left underfunded. At times Bolivarian missions were redundant and added a layer of bureaucracy or space for corruption.
Trusted government statistics and program impact evaluations are difficult to come by, but to communities that for generations had felt excluded or ignored, the acknowledgement of their existence and needs was a tide change.
'Central protagonists'
Every Tuesday afternoon in El Valle, a poor barrio in the southern part of Venezuela鈥檚 capital Caracas, some 200 women gather to discuss everything from access to healthcare and clean water to dealing with sewage. They are beneficiaries of the Madres del Barrio mission, which provides financial support and a space to share concerns for mothers living in extreme poverty.
鈥淢y life changed socially, economically, politically [under Ch谩vez],鈥� says Nancy Contreras, a mother of two.
鈥淣ow I can talk in public, I can say what I feel. Before I couldn鈥檛,鈥� she says.
Ms. Contreras says she and her neighbors are ordinary women and housewives turned community leaders. Whatever issues come up in the barrio, they discuss them during the meeting and find solutions.
鈥淲e all share our thoughts. We talk of what we need and what we can improve in our neighborhoods,鈥� says another mother, Nancy Hern谩ndez.
鈥淐h谩vez made popular women central protagonists in his politics,鈥� says Sujatha Fernandes, an associate professor of sociology at Queens College in New York and author of 鈥淏arrio Women and Popular Politics in Ch谩vez鈥檚 Venezuela.鈥� The government put up billboards representing mostly poor and mixed race women as social workers and doctors, for example. 鈥淚t was really important in giving women a sense of what they could achieve in life.鈥�
He tapped into established feminist movements in 1999 when rewriting the Constitution, including articles that guaranteed equal treatment for men and women and recognized domestic labor as an economic contribution. He even famously said there could be no socialism without feminism.
Targeting low-income women wasn鈥檛 an accident under chavismo. For starters, women tend to outvote men in Venezuela, says Rachel Elfenbein, a scholar at Canada鈥檚 Simon Fraser University. Ms. Elfenbein has spent the last year and a half studying an article in Venezuela鈥檚 Constitution that recognizes unpaid housework as economic activity, entitling citizens to social security.
And Ch谩vez was wildly popular with the poor and working classes, who were long excluded by the two parties that dominated politics. Through this base, Ch谩vez was able to clinch four presidential election victories in 14 years. Just under half of Venezuela鈥檚 poorest people are women, according to the World Bank, and this share of the population stood to gain the most from welfare changes.
鈥淚n the absence of the state it is often women who take on social responsibilities鈥� like searching for water, caring for the health and education of family members, and putting food on the table, says Elfenbein.
鈥淸Poor] women and men experienced chavismo differently because of the different gender roles in society,鈥� she says.
Decisionmaking
Poor women not only benefited from missions, but served as their vital backbone. The government was able to engage neighborhood women in the distribution of services and rolling out missions, and in return, often received free labor.
鈥淚n a lot of communities it鈥檚 women holding these programs up,鈥� says Elfenbein, while noting that their involvement has not necessarily created pathways into the formal labor force, or toward greater gender equality.
鈥淚 think the difficulty is that the political empowerment hasn鈥檛 necessarily been accompanied by providing other means of real economic empowerment,鈥� says Claudia Piras, an economist at the Inter-American Development Bank who focuses on gender, labor markets, and entrepreneurship in Latin America. 鈥淟ike increasing not only their rights but their means to really be able to participate in the labor force and have better jobs and a more decent living.鈥�
For example, Venezuela has one of the largest gaps between men and women with bank accounts at formal financial institutions. There is a 16.9 percent difference in the number of female and male account holders, compared to the average of 9 percent in Latin American and Caribbean countries as a whole, according to the World Bank.聽
Though female participation in government programs was noticeably high under chavismo 鈥� take the 200-woman turnout a week for Madres del Barrio in El Valle 鈥� the inherent locus of decisionmaking power did not noticeably shift.
鈥淚 would sit in on a health committee meeting in the barrio San Agustin, and there would be 35 women and two men,鈥� says Ms. Fernandes. But聽鈥渢he two men were the [ones] making the big decisions.鈥澛�
鈥淭he structure of the patriarchy is still present,鈥� she says.聽
And Elfenbein points out that despite the chorus of chavista women celebrating their increased voice during the Ch谩vez era, there is a built-in hurdle to being critical of the government.聽
鈥淲hen you鈥檙e reliant on the government for social benefits for the survival or your household, how free are you going to feel? 鈥� Would they feel free to discuss how the government isn鈥檛 meeting their needs in front of government authorities? I don鈥檛 know.鈥�
On a national level, the image of a male-controlled society is visible in the national assembly, where less than 20 percent of the elected representatives are female. And only four of Venezuela鈥檚 24 states have female governors. But three out of the five branches of government have female appointees heading the judicial, electoral, and so-called citizen branches. Several women also direct ministries, including Edm茅e Bentacourt, the minister of trade, and Nancy P茅rez, who heads the ministry of women, created in 2009.
An opportunity?
Maduro, Ch谩vez's choice to succeed him, is believed to have a leg up in tomorrow's election with a strong and access to state media reflected in his average . But neither he nor Capriles has Ch谩vez鈥檚 charisma.
Maduro might create an initiative, says Fernandes, 鈥渂ut without Ch谩vez there to inspire and motivate the masses, participation could drop.鈥�
There鈥檚 another lens through which to view the future, however. Without Ch谩vez dominating the conversation, a new political sphere may yield fresh opportunities at the community level, Fernandes says:聽鈥淎 new kind of decisionmaking could open up.鈥� 聽
The next administration could present 鈥渁 real opportunity,鈥� says Elfenbein. 鈥淐havez was an amazing catalyst for the Bolivarian process, but he was also the Achilles heel.鈥�
It鈥檚 unclear, she says, to what extent women were 鈥減articipating in political decisionmaking versus showing up at marches, rolling out social programs, and filling a seat.鈥�
鈥淭his is an opportunity not to rely on the president, but to rely on their own power and their own organizing to achieve political change.鈥�
鈥� Irene Caselli contributed reporting from Caracas.
