Patriarchy In Latin America In The 19th And 20th Century

In the 19th and 20th century, Latin America went through a huge period of progress when it came to gender norms and patriarchy. Prior to this time, the majority of households in Latin America had a very defined patriarchy, with men as protectors and providers. Women who could afford to stay at home usually did , caring for children and tending to the home. However, into the 20th century, we start to see more women not only getting educations, but also seeing the importance of education for their children. While it would be unfair to say that no women in previous centuries did this, it was definitely a lot less normal and more uncommon. The idea of social motherhood became more prevalent, with the community caring for children rather than just the mother. Women of the 1900s even began to get involved in politics
and revolutions. However, this does not mean that women suddenly had power, complete independence, and had dismantled the patriarchy by any means. This issue is actually quite a conundrum. Many of the readings and lessons we have gone over this semester help to prove that the 19th and 20th centuries were periods of modernization for the patriarchy, while at the same time reinforcing traditional patriarchy. Torn from the Nest by Clorinda Matto de Turner is filled with examples of the gender norms of the 19th century. It is clear that Matto was a feminist with a progressive view of the state of women. Her novel reinforces the view of a traditional patriarchy with the man as a the head of the household, however she showed a new understanding on it. The views she expresses throughout the novel are not those a typical woman in her time would have. The novel glorifies Lucia, and her relationship with Fernando. Matto compares and contrasts the protagonist couple with the other characters in the novel who fit gender norms more. Lucia is compassionate, generous and intelligent. Matto clearly thinks of her as the type of woman others should be, calling her “no ordinary sort of woman” because of her smarts and her strong education. Her marriage is also uncommon because of how much her husband supports her. Even in this marriage though, the conundrum of modernity versus tradition when it comes to patriarchy is still present. Lucia may have been respected by her husband, but there was still a clearly a man as the head of the household. Even with all the glorified qualities of Lucia, she still is portrayed as weak and naive at times, with her husband as the strong man. When Lucia hears about Marcela’s information at first, Matto describes her reaction by saying “It’s concluding words frightened the innocent dove, who was learning that civilized beings were nothing but monsters of greed and even of lust.” When her husband hears the same series of events, he does not seemed shocked at all, proving himself to be the more knowledgeable and less naive of the two. However, instead of just being a pawn to her husband, she works with him, showing the modernity side of patriarchy. This is shown when Lucia went to him about the debt Marcela owes in order to get her daughter. He supports her and helps her, rather than just telling her no, and for that, Lucia is grateful. For the evidence we have, it is likely that had Lucia’s husband had told her to drop the subject entirely, she would have listened. This is entirely contrasted by the antagonist’s marriage, which would be the more typical, traditional relationship for the time. Don Sebastian does not support his wife at all. He had all the power in his marriage, and he uses it. In fact, after hearing his wife’s concerns, he responds by saying “Frankly, women should stay out of men’s business and stick to their sewing, their knitting and their kitchens, do you understand?”. This shows the more traditional view of women as caretakers. Matto seems to have an almost disgusted tone when discussing Sebastian, his corruption, and especially his relationship with his wife, because Sebastian shows such little respect for her. It is clear that Matto feels that men should respect and support their wives in a way that Fernando does and Sebastian does not. While Matto does not challenge traditional gender norms, she does provide a good representation of how the patriarchy was changing while still reinforcing age old ideas through the two marriages. Women were constantly faced with the challenge of being modern while still maintaining tradition.
The Brazilian beauty queen Zeze Leone also had to find this balance. She was considered a symbol of modernity, mainly because of her European background, representing the convergence of immigrants to Brazil. She came from a working family, and her mother went to work giving piano lessons when the family was met with financial hardship. However, she was from Sao Paulo, where the women were generally thought to be innocent and respectable because they were focused on their homes and families. The reason she was so successful in the pagenet is because she was thought to be the picture of evolution while still meeting all the qualities of a traditional woman. Again, she is breaking some gender norms, making her own money and earning recognition while still having to align herself with the traditional idea of the patriarchy. Even after she had made money for her family, Leone’s father continued to work, while her mother stayed home. This is a clear cut example of how the traditional patriarchy was clearly present and how even Leone’s actions seemed to reinforce
it. Evolving views of women’s independence and patriarchy are probably best shown when examining the life of Benedita da Silva’s life in the twentieth century. When reading “Benedita da Silva’s Story of Politics and Love in Brazil” , it is clear how much she admires her mother as a central figure, while barely mentioning the men in her life. She tells a story of her mother telling her father that she was taking the children and moving to Rio, saying she will send for him when she has everything settled. She does just that, moving to a favela in the mid 1900s, opening a storefront to wash clothes, and buying a shack. It is then that Silva’s father comes to meet them. Both Silva and her mother are exemplary examples of the battling patriarchy. Regardless of how poor they were, Silva’s mother saw the importance of an education, pushing her daughter to be something other than just a wife or a mother. In earlier times, we see women being pushed to just be these domestic beings because that is what is honorable, but nothing more. Here, there is this feminist view of a woman’s intelligence and power, with her mother pushing her to have a career of her own, and she went on to become the first Brazilian woman senator. da Silva does just that, getting her first job at only seven years old and proving herself as a hard worker. She manages to go to university, and graduate. Not all women involved in Latin American politics in the twentieth century held such radical views however. For many women, there was a very delicate balance between being the ‘traditional’ woman who is matronly and a strong feminist leader. One example of this would be Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, the second female president in Latin America. While her achievement of this position cannot be accredited to any single factor, how she portrayed herself definitely played a part. She had control of a major newspaper and managed to use this in her favor by consistently making sure she was represented as a traditional woman. She connected with the Catholic community, wore white to appear virginal, and made a point to discuss how little political experience she actually had. The newspaper went as far as to describe her as “without vanity, without pride, without ambition, a home-loving woman… she is not a feminist nor does she aspire to be one.” This relates to the patriarchy because she had to play the part of traditional wife and mother to advance her career. Being too modern or having too radical views would have hurt her political career, because having a woman in power was already an immense change. A woman as a president was actually such a modern thing, defaming the patriarchy by having a woman in power. However, in order to remain relatable she needed to present herself as exactly the opposite of modern. All of the progress made was met with oppression, which she learned to work around. The statement that she does not which to be a feminist seemed to ring true at least. Once in office, many of her policies did not actually support mother’s at all. In fact, many of her spending cut negatively affected poor single mothers the most. She did not push for the advancement of women. Under her rule, many women in power stepped down in order to be at home taking care of their families because of her policies. In conclusion, the alteration of the patriarchy through modernization by women is so obvious in so many cases. Women continued to make changes and step out of the norm, however they were still continually met with oppression. In order to really accomplish things, women learned to work this. They portrayed themselves as traditional, when in reality, their actions did not always match up to this view. For women in the public eye, their newfound power may have been modern, however we very rarely see them actually challenge the patriarchy. We see couples beginning to work together and support each other more, but in no way is there a dismantling of the patriarchy. In fact, the patriarchy stood as strong and as important as ever, with men at the head of every strong woman’s household.