The Mother of the Nicaraguans: Dona Violeta and the UNO’s Gender Agenda By: Karen Kampwirth

1. Prepared by Nhia Vang ANTH/SOC 3602 Feburary 5, 2010 The Mother of the Nicaraguans: Dona Violeta and the UNO’s Gender AgendaBy: Karen Kampwirth

2. Kampwirth • Examined how and why gender relations contested in Nicaragua during the 1990 election to 1992 • Argued “Nicaragua debates over gender take place with reference to the revolutionary mobilization of the 1980s: rejecting it, embracing it, or, most often in ambivalent relation to it.”

3. Kampwirth • Focused on politics surrounding gender relations • Political alliances that formed regarding gender • The image of Chamorro

4. Context • The ideal woman was • Loyal wife and widow • Reconciling mother • Virgin Mary • She was elected president in 1990 • 1992 women organizations were mobilized • In an interview she stated • “I am not a feminist nor do I wish to be one. I am a woman dedicated to my home, as Pedro taught me.”

5. Context • Widow of Pedro Joaquin Chamorro made her an ideal candidate • He was assassinated in 1978 • During her campaign she used her status and to her advantage • She was seen as the good mother • She was the good and traditional wife • She was seen as the Virgin Mary

6. Her symbolism to the traditional women resonated with other women • 54.7 percent of elderly women voted for her • However, this can be a reflection of those who supported the traditional hierarchical model of the family

7. The gender agenda as policy • Three executive branches • Education • Day care/social services • “Economic conversion” • The UNO aimed to restore the family structure back to its “traditional nucleus” order through structural adjustment

8. Education • The UNO financed $35 million U.S. dollars to publish a series of books called “Morals and Civics” • Discussed “correct” gender and generational relationships • Mother cooking • Fathers engaged in paid employment • Middles class social class ideal • The authors of argued the purpose of the books were to recapture the family values of the Somoza’s time

9. Day care/social services • Limited services for children • Reduced funding caused local families to keep their local Child Development Centers afloat

10. “Economic conversion” • Females were entering the work force • UNO believed that mothers should be dedicated to their homes • Economic conversions were created to reduce the size of state bureaucracy • Reduced Sandinistas in bureaucracy and encouraged women to play their traditional roles

11. Political alliances • Split within the UNO • Social conservatives and the laissez-faire conservative between laissez-faire conservatives in the National Assembly and left-wing activists of the women’s movement • These groups organized around the same interests in gender relations

12. Example • The Commission on Women proposed revisions of sex-crime legislation in 1992 • It was similar to the 1979 criminal code • Only women could be raped and it had to be vaginal penetration • 12 men and women Sandinista representatives signed the drafted bill

13. The original Act aimed to • broaden the definition of rape and strengthen penalties • Eliminated antigay language • However, in the National Assembly version • strengthened antigay language • Denied raped women the right to abortion • Both were supported unanimously by the UNO , but rejected by the FSLN

14. The woman's movement questioned Dona Violeta’s representation of gender relations • Her symbolism political policies places restrictions on the women’s movement • Her image promoted ascribed roles of women • Her campaign demonstrated these gender roles