Old Practices in New Times: Gendering Inside and Outside Strategies for Democratic Resistance in the Americas

Rising autocratization and democratic backsliding threaten the past decades of women’s rights gains, but women’s movements and gender equality activists are not meekly retreating from public and political space. Drawing on case studies from Latin America, this paper analyses two modes in which women’s rights advocates are resisting de-democratization. First, women mobilize and advocate as outsiders, via social movements. Second, women exert leverage as insiders, via the institutional channels that remain even as checks-and-balances are undone and normal policymaking routes are collapsed. Yet these present-day democratic defence and resilience strategies are not necessarily new: they have their roots in longstanding advocacy practices. The paper argues that, in contexts where democracy always has been fragile and incomplete, actors already have considerable tools at their disposal. For the Global South, the task of protecting democracy is daunting because of the stakes, but not because—as perhaps compared to some Global North contexts—it is new. Latin America women long have faced extreme opposition in their defense of democracy and of women’s rights. During the third wave of democratization in the 1980s, pro-democracy movements and feminist movements co-evolved. Chilean feminists marching against the military dictatorship demanded ‘democracy in the country and in the bedroom’, for instance. This mobilization occurred despite the very high costs imposed by state security forces, including arrest, imprisonment, and torture. Even after many countries formally transitioned to electoral democracy, pro-democracy and feminist movements continued to mobilize, seeking social justice for groups that remained marginalized and redress for crises posing threats to peace and stability. Since the 1990s, Latin American women have been peace activists, human rights defenders, and environmental advocates. Even during nominally democratic times, human rights movements and environmental movements have faced oppression and violence from right-wing forces. From Mexico to Colombia, women human rights defenders have been kidnapped and killed. Despite the obstacles, women activists persist by reminding themselves that inaction costs more than action and by crafting communities of solidarity and care. Latin American women also have considerable experience with watching newly-elected governments roll back previous administrations’ gender equality policies, whether these new presidents come from the programmatic right, the populist right—and even the populist left. Anti-democratic leaders cannot fully dismantle the state overnight nor can they immediately eliminate all checks-and-balances. Drawing on examples of femocrats seeking to protect reproductive rights and anti-violence against women policies, the paper notes that feminist elites have used institutional channels to curb or soften repeals—or even pass new policies to mitigate the damage done. Women who are regime insiders form important bulwarks against de-democratization, holding the line on the inside while their colleagues demand accountability from the outside. While debates about insider and outsider strategies long have caused tension within feminist movements, the need for a multi-fronted resistance to de-democratization has helped bridge insiders and outsiders. For Latin American women’s rights advocates, then, countering rising autocratization and democratic backsliding in the present moment extends their longstanding efforts to ensure gender justice through policy and practice.