Teaching

Long Teaching Module: Gender and Health in Latin America, 1980-2010

Jadwiga Mooney and Bill Velto
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Overview

Several decades have passed since the conclusion of what the United Nations addressed as the “Decade for Woman” (1975-1985). In many regions of the world, patriarchal relationships between men and women have been toned down, and hierarchies in gender roles have become less rigid. What did these changes mean for women in Latin America? Although Latin America today is not as it was 30 years ago, the remnants of a rigid patriarchal order still shape people’s lives. A focus on women and health will serve as a prism to gain insights into some of the characteristics of Latin American gender systems and into the options and obligations assigned to women.

This long teaching module includes an informational essay, objectives, activities, discussion questions, potential adaptations, guidance on engaging with the sources, and essay prompts relating to the ten primary sources.

Essay
Latin American Life Experiences

Since Latin American women are hardly a homogenous group, understanding their diversity is a first step. Women’s experiences in the Americas are shaped not only by class and gender, but also by ethnic identities and the differences between urban and rural lives. Diverse groups of people experience different challenges when attempting to live healthy lives: urban women of the middle sectors often find it easier to protect their health than women in isolated highland communities in the Andes, or rural women who cannot rely on the proximity of medical facilities. Cultural differences are important markers as well: indigenous communities are often disconnected from “modern” approaches to health care not only by geographical factors, but also by a cultural and ethnic divide. Gender; ethnicity or race; class; age; and geography are all among the factors that shape human options in coping with the multiple obstacles on the path to health in the modern world.

Few women in the region could attain roles of leadership like Eva Perón in Argentina or Rigoberta Menchú in Guatemala. Eva Perón, or Evita, made a transformation from a poor suburban illegitimate child into to the most famous First Lady in Argentine history. Evita’s role in politics helped women gain the right to vote in Argentina—but by the time of her death in 1952, gender equality had not improved beyond suffrage. A Noble Prize winner and Quiché Indian peasant woman, Rigoberta Menchú became a ceaseless advocate for the human rights of the indigenous populations in the Americas. Her work showed that Indian women and men have suffered disproportionately in the civil wars and political tensions that were the legacies of colonial rule on the region.

The different life experiences of Latin American women serve as constant reminders that everyday life in the region is still shaped by the systems of stratification that survived the formal end of Spanish colonialism in the 19th century. Interaction among Americans, Europeans, and Africans in the colonial worlds led to the creation of new racial identities, differentiated social classes, and to redefined relations between men and women. The consolidation of colonial rule and the longevity of the system relied on the introduction of patriarchal family systems and on race- and gender-based mechanisms of establishing political hierarchies that last well into the 21st century. Due to ethnic prejudice, for example, indigenous women confront different challenges than women who claim Spanish descent. Concepts of health and disease in this historical context depend on specific notions about gender that are connected to the formation of nation-states in formerly colonial territory.

Defining Health: Old Concepts and New Meanings

In 1948, the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted a definition of “health” that has not been amended since: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” The WHO broadened the traditional understanding of health, ready to acknowledge a more holistic understanding of well-being that went beyond mere physical evidence of illness. The definition opened the door to new options for preventing disease—yet, as a global designation it could hardly address the multitude of factors that define health on national, regional, and local levels.

National and international forums provided activists spaces where they could emphasize that optimal health throughout the life cycle needed to be connected to gender equality in the household and the “public” sphere where political decisions are made. All approaches to health, they confirmed, needed to be placed within the context of gender equality and human rights, including the sharing of family responsibilities, economic development, and a peaceful political setting. In short, health depends on gender equality in social, political and economic relationships—and, in turn, women’s empowerment and their ability to secure gender equality depend on their health as a basic prerequisite.

While global definitions of health have not accounted for much regional and local diversity, they have addressed a number of health issues particularly relevant to women. Reproductive health is one of these issues. At the Conference of Human Rights in Tehran in 1968, the focus on health as a basic human right was made explicit. The conference defined reproductive health as the “complete state of physical, mental and social well-being—not only the absence of disease—on all levels related to the reproductive system and its functioning and processes.”

At the 1974 World Population Conference in Bucharest, 136 countries approved a World Population Plan of Action (WPPA), stating that “All couples and individuals have the basic right to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children and to have the information and means to do so.” Within these definitions, reproductive rights were explicitly recognized. However, while in theory reproductive rights are defined as the rights of women and men, the reproductive health and rights of women have been disproportionately limited due to a variety of cultural, political and socioeconomic factors.

Health and Gender: Analytical Approaches

Considering gender as a category of historical analysis illuminates the differences between the health challenges women and men may confront in the course of their life cycles. The study of women’s health concerns more than childbirth and reproductive health, and extends beyond biological differences between the sexes. Approaches that treated “Women’s Health” as mainly an obstetrical term relied on an understanding of the female life cycle that wrongly assumed the centrality of reproduction to women’s lives. Fertility does mark women’s lives, but the understanding of women’s health should not be confined to it. Economic status, the nature of the national health system she relies on, as well as a woman’s role in the family or community affect her health. Clearly, the relation between medical, social, cultural, political, and economic issues alike are critical to understanding the varied needs of women.

Historical documents on Latin American life in the 20th century are marked by an absence of women’s voices, and a presence of the more powerful to speak for,—or, on behalf of—women. Our focus on Gender and Health adds an additional challenge to the search for women’s voices in historical documents, as health, for many, is rather personal and not easily discussed in public. The voices that remain absent from public debates on health are often the voices of the least powerful, so one must consider the primary sources in that light.

First, legal debates concerning women’s bodies are an important factor in understanding women’s challenges. Laws and legal decrees passed by mostly male policymakers not only set the legal margins in women’s lives, but also give insights into dominant gender roles. Second, testimonial accounts by women offer very private insights and provide invaluable information about less powerful communities. Third, texts written as fiction provide informative source material. We can learn to read between the lines of poetry and novels to discover women’s views in spaces that are less censored and controlled than the official realm of politics.

From Historical Roots to Contemporary Challenges: Women’s Lives

Contemporary experiences of Latin American women, testimonial accounts, and descriptions of women’s activism illustrate the variety of challenges different groups of women have to confront. Their accounts reveal desperation, anger, poverty, and the inability to control their lives—but they also demonstrate creativity in addressing problems, courage in challenging oppressive and painful systems, and the desire to act and engage in activities that improve their lives. Rural isolation, urban poverty, and the widespread lack of access to political channels and power encourages admirable and surprising ways women find to resist. After all, it is important to keep in mind that the topics of gender and health are closely connected to contemporary real-life experiences, to women who experience the ups and downs of modernity. The study of the historical roots of gender- and health-systems offers learning experiences that can be moved beyond the realm of academics to guide future thought and action.

Sources
Definition of Reproductive Health, (New York: World Health Organization, Office at the United Nations, 1994).

Marsha Freeman, Women's Rights and Reproduction: Capacity and Choice (Minnesota: Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, 1991), p.2.

Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948.

Primary Sources

Life Histories (Chile) Table

Annotation
Women all over the world may undergo life-course transitions from daugtherhood to motherhood, a great similarity that shapes their lives due to what is perhaps the biological difference that most distinguishes women from men: their childbearing capacity. The circumstances under which women experience transitions, however, vary greatly. Female life histories—and meanings of motherhood—are shaped by multiple factors. Access to education is one of these factors. The following table presents an overview of case studies gathered in an effort to promote education among women. It introduces information in comparative perspective and sheds light on women’s life cycles in poor sectors of 20th-century Chilean society. Most of the life histories presented here introduce women who have not had a wide range of choices in their lives. In reading this source, consider the major experiences and factors that have shaped women’s decision-making patters regarding their health and well-being. Similarly, one should reflect on the ability of women to make independent and informed decisions. This source is a part of the Gender and Health in Latin America, 1980-2010 teaching module.

Gender and Health in Latin America: Official Document, Women’s Status (Latin America)

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Annotation
The right to life is a basic prerequisite to definitions of the right to live a healthy life. However, because of violence against women and various other stringent challenges to their daily lives, neither women’s health nor their daily lives are fully secure. This document offers insights into the work of the Organization of American States (OAS), an international agency which helps establish regional guidelines on human rights, health, and gender equity in the Western Hemisphere. While addressing health and healthcare on this level, the organization has long made reports on the status of women a priority. The reports are significant as standard-bearers to measure the state of human rights and health. Although they are not legally binding for the nations which are part of the OAS, these guidelines allow us to measure the progress in the effort to secure basic women’s rights as human rights. The document encourages conclusions regarding the state of women’s health reflected both in the text of the document and “between the lines.” Consider what achievements have been made and what areas in women’s health still need to be addressed. All of these issues, including but not limited to issues of implementation of health standards, are tied to the politics of globalization, the status of nation-states, and the place of Latin American countries in this context. This source is a part of the Gender and Health in Latin America, 1980-2010 teaching module.

Gender and Health in Latin America: Committee Hearing, Sterilization (Peru)

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Annotation
Eugenics, defined as controlled human reproduction based on notions of desirable and undesirable populations or genotypes, have gained attention predominantly in the context of European fascist regimes that aimed at eliminating or controlling populations. Hitler’s campaign to eliminate Jews is perhaps the best known case in recent history. The concept of eugenics, however, has (re-)appeared in many different settings. These published transcripts of Congressional Hearings on Human Rights document the voices of women who have experienced attacks on their health and human rights as a result of sterilization campaigns. These women’s personal experiences with sterilization programs in Peru provide insight into healthcare programs that have discriminated against particular groups in Latin America. These Congressional Testimonies reveal a number of assumptions about the characteristics of the population targeted in the sterilization programs, and suggest that there is evidence of human rights violations in the women’s stories. This source is a part of the Gender and Health in Latin America, 1980-2010 teaching module.

Gender and Health in Latin America: Newspaper, Domestic Violence (Brazil)

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Annotation
Domestic violence is hardly a new topic in the global history of gender relations. Scholars and counselors have long been familiar with responses to domestic violence, ranging from emergency hotlines and family counseling to restraining orders placed on abusive spouses or partners. However, the manner in which domestic violence is addressed must reflect the fact that it exists in different forms and cultural contexts across national boundaries. This provocative newspaper article reflects both Canadian and Brazilian culture simultaneously, introducing terms and categories used by the Canadian press to report on Brazilian news. Referring to machismo in the context of abused husbands, the article evokes stereotypes of Latin American masculinity that add a misleading tone to the report. This article provides a perspective on the relations between domestic partners, and it suggests that domestic violence, as an exercise of power, has changed over time. Does the nature of domestic violence, now publicly accompanied by violence against men who dare to seek help, indicate a transformation of gender relations? This source is a part of the Gender and Health in Latin America, 1980-2010 teaching module.

Gender and Health in Latin America: Law, Maternity Leave (Cuba)

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Annotation
Motherhood and the many requirements that come with it provide a good starting point for analysis of women’s need for protection, on the one hand, and the limits on women’s decision-making imposed in protective legislation, on the other. When women entered the labor market, it became necessary to address their needs and concerns as both women and workers. As a result, women’s movements worldwide have focused on legal rights that seek to acknowledge women’s roles as both mothers and professionals, such as maternity leave. This legal document, the “Working Women’s Maternity Law,” demonstrates how Cuban legislature, under the only revolutionary government in the Americas, has addressed the topic of motherhood and women workers’ rights. Given that the Cuban leadership prides itself in promoting equality among all Cubans as part of the goals of the Cuban Revolution, this document deserves particular attention. Consider whether the Cuban Law indeed reflects gender equity, addressing men and women as citizens with equal rights and obligations. To what extent do traditional understandings of women’s roles in society shape this revolutionary legislation? Reflect on how and why the roles of working mothers and fathers are different, and the ways that biological difference influences the understanding of equal rights in a legal context. This source is a part of the Gender and Health in Latin America, 1980-2010 teaching module.

Gender and Health in Latin America: Interview, Abortion Rights (Chile)

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Annotation
As a topic of discussion in the United States, abortion has long raised red flags. Not surprisingly, it is hardly a neutral subject in other national settings. Yet, apart from questions about the origin of life and legal questions about abortion rights, there are other dimensions to the history of abortion that relate to the lives of individual people on the local level. The following source is an interview with a Chilean woman who violated her country’s abortion laws, and is part of a larger study based on the oral history accounts of 159 women from poor sectors of Chilean society. The study gives insights into the methods by which women who had abortions are reported to the police and describes the criminal process that abortion providers and their “accomplices” undergo. In Chile, abortion is illegal under all circumstances, not even to save the life of the mother. Women who have abortions frequently go to prison. Legal questions, once again, are only one part of the story, and too easily overshadow the individual experiences and challenges of women. Thus, in the larger context of the issues surrounding unwanted pregnancies, one must consider the role of the individual, the family, and the state. This source is a part of the Gender and Health in Latin America, 1980-2010 teaching module.

Gender and Health in Latin America: Personal Account, Prostitution (Mexico)

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Annotation
As a popular saying and historical reality suggest, prostitution is the world’s oldest profession. On one level, the topic of prostitution is connected to a set of moral-ethical considerations. On a different level, however, it is necessary to address prostitution from a health and human rights perspective. Female prostitutes in Latin America and other parts of the world often rely on prostitution as a means, and often as the last resort, to provide for one’s personal and family needs. Women are forced to work under unhealthy and dangerous conditions, are frequently subjected to violence, and almost always cope with a blatant absence of women’s rights and rights other professions may count on. In this source, Claudia Colimoro, a feminist prostitute who was on the Revolutionary Workers’ Party (PRT) slate during the 1991 Mexican parliamentary and municipal elections, addresses the topic of prostitution based on her own personal experience with the profession, revealing her knowledge of occupational challenges and health risks. She was part of the Convención Nacional de Mujeres por la Democracia (National Women’s Convention For Democracy), which was the first organization in Mexico since the 1930s women’s suffrage campaign to create a women’s ticket in an election. As part of her political campaign, Colimoro made central the fight against AIDS and the need for legal protection of prostitutes. She thereby connected two themes long addressed in public health and political discourse: the recognition of prostitutes’ rights, and the legalization of the profession. While Colimoro was never elected to public office, her campaign stirred up debates about the rights of women to make decisions about their own lives, including their sexuality. This source is a part of the Gender and Health in Latin America, 1980-2010 teaching module.

Gender and Health in Latin America: Interview, Reproductive Rights (Brazil)

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Annotation
In the 1950s, when the first contraceptive pills were tested in Puerto Rico, politicians, health administrators, and Church officials worldwide began to discuss human reproduction in new ways. The understanding that pregnancy could be prevented by “scientific” means stimulated debates on the regulation and control of human reproduction. After World War II, Neo-Malthusian views and the fear of overpopulation entered the popular imagination and shaped policymaking. Population bombs were expected to explode, especially in the developing regions of the world. “Excess populations,” along the lines of this view, would potentially cause social unrest and revolutions, in which tidal waves of poor people would rise against authorities and threaten political and economic stability. Population control was clearly on the mind of policy makers and health care officials alike. Issues of gender equity and women’s bodily integrity played only secondary roles in most approaches to fertility regulation and family planning. In this source, an interview with human rights activist Maria Amélia Teles, the interviewee criticizes approaches to population control that exclude women’s rights and hopes to see reproductive rights take center stage. Teles is part of Brazil’s new women’s movement, which emerged between 1964 and 1985, during the period of military rule. She addresses some of the crucial obstacles that have prevented Brazilian women from living healthy and peaceful lives. Government policies, she asserts, have failed to protect women from becoming victims of violence and human rights abuses. This source is a part of the Gender and Health in Latin America, 1980-2010 teaching module.

Gender and Health in Latin America: Interview, Violence Against Women (Uruguay)

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Annotation
Violence against women may take place within families as well as in settings outside of the domestic environment. Policy makers, academics, and activists have long sought to identify root causes of violence. These efforts have included strategies to help the victims of violence and to terminate violent behavior. Police stations staffed by women have been innovative testing grounds in some Latin American countries, thereby allowing women to report violent acts to female members of the force. While it seems plausible that female victims of violence might find it easier to talk to women about their experiences, this approach isolates the issues from main-stream police work and does not do enough to prompt long-term solutions. In the following interview, an experienced self-help activist from Uruguay offers interpretations that might inspire the search for additional strategies. As the director of SOS Mujer, a sanctuary for women affected by violence, Lady Elizabeth Repetto gained firsthand insights into the horrors of everyday violence against women in Montevideo and she draws conclusions about the causes of such violence. This source is a part of the Gender and Health in Latin America, 1980-2010 teaching module.

Gender and Health in Latin America: Personal Account, Education (Honduras)

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Annotation
Access to education and the willingness to learn are crucial ingredients to improve the health of women throughout the world. Good health depends on an understanding of the human body, but also requires the knowledge to maintain a healthy lifestyle. However, access to that knowledge is often dictated by social and economic standing within a society. As a result, poor or rural women need to rely on different strategies than, for example, middle-class women in urban centers. This source, the voice of a nurse and self-appointed educator in rural Honduras, makes clear that knowledge means survival. Her insights depict the lack of education, the limited motivation, and the lack of confidence among poor rural women. Ramirez’s story offers insights into the divergent and myriad needs of both rural and urban women in Latin America as they confront challenges to their health. Consider the ways that class, geography, and urban and rural lifestyles affect how women learn about health. What additional circumstances in women’s lives should policymakers address when trying to improve women’s health? This source is a part of the Gender and Health in Latin America, 1980-2010 teaching module.

Teaching Strategies

The sources on gender and health in this module allow educators to explore Latin American women’s history from different angles.

On one level, the module introduces characteristics specific to Latin America as a region. It is designed to illustrate the characteristics of women’s lives specifically connected to a Latin American historical trajectory. Women in Latin America, the selections suggest, have a common history that sets them apart from other regions of the world. What are the characteristics of the region that shape women’s experiences? How are colonial experiences, or legacies, related to contemporary structures of everyday life that influence men and women differently?

On a second level, the module is designed to enable students to develop an understanding of the diverse local experiences within the region. Adopting a comparative perspective, educators might compare and contrast women’s lives and gender systems within Latin America. Doing so would remind students that the category of women is not a homogenous category. Consider questions that explore how race, class, age, and geography all shape Latin American women’s lives. They confront a variety of challenges shaped by categories other than gender. Why do indigenous women confront challenges different from those of women who claim European descent? What are the causes of the increased health risks rural Latin American women have faced throughout the 20th century, and what distinguished their lives from those of urban women? How could these differences be overcome when looking for ways to improve the lives and health of all Latin American women?

On another level, the module allows for an exploration of general, structural as well as particular, personal influences on women’s lives. Several sources expose official views and cultural perceptions regarding the “nature” of women and men. Students can find such perceptions, for example, in the language used in legal documents and in news reporting. Others sources should inspire questions regarding women’s views and understandings of the worlds surrounding them. What are the problems women identify in their local experiences? How are their problems (and experiences) shaped by the legal, political, and cultural systems that surround them?

All three levels of analysis might be addressed simultaneously through the following discussion questions.

Discussion Questions:
  • How are women’s rights defined or limited in official sources and legal documents?
  • What is the underlying understanding of the nature of women that has shaped legal documents?
  • How have women attempted to control their own lives and health in these legal, political, and cultural settings?
  • To what extent do women’s reactions and different ways of mobilizing confirm that women in Latin America are, indeed, not a homogenous group?
  • What factors in women’s lives do we need to consider to understand the options and limitations they confront when addressing their rights and health?
  • Which voices are we willing to take more seriously more than others? Why?

Lesson Plan
Human Rights and Class in Latin America
Time Estimate

Three to four 45-minute class periods, depending on reading capabilities of students

Objectives

After completing this lesson, students will be able to:

  1. summarize the issues regarding violence and reproduction for Latin American women.
  2. compare the treatment of women from different socio-economic classes.
Materials
  • Sufficient copies of the following sources (in this order):

    • Source 2: Official Document, Women’s Status
    Source 9: Interview, Violence Against Women
    Source 5: Law, Maternity Leave
    Source 4: Newspaper, Domestic Violence
    Source 1: Table, Life Histories
    Source 3: Committee Hearing, Sterilization
    Source 10: Personal Account, Education

  • White/black board and markers/chalk, or overhead, transparencies, and pens (if desired)
  • Primary Source Analysis Worksheet: Texts (if desired)
    • Strategies
  1. Historical Background/Prior Knowledge:

    2. -Some knowledge of Latin American history and politics from the 1820s to modern day

    -Knowledge of the role of religious beliefs, especially those of the Roman Catholic Church

    -Some knowledge of Western documents advocating freedoms/liberties like the English Bill of Rights, French Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

  2. Hook:Ask the students to define the term “human rights” as best they can. Ask the students for examples of human rights. Do/should human rights vary by culture, religion, ethnicity, or socio-economic class/status?
  3. Violence Against Latin American Women: Have the students read Part 2 of Source 2: Official Document, Women’s Status. Are the laws protecting women from domestic violence effective? Why/why not?

    Have the students read Source 9: Interview, Violence Against Women. How has SOS Mujer in Uruguay responded to this issue?

    Have the students read Source 5: Law, Maternity Leave. How has Cuba responded to this issue? Why do you think Cuba responded differently than Uruguay?

    Have the students read Source 4: Newspaper, Domestic Violence. Is the violence against men a response to violence against women or something else? Should the law treat women abusers differently than men?

  4. Reproductive Issues for Women in Latin America: Have the students read Part 1 of Source 2: Official Document, Women’s Status. Ask why they think there are no accurate statistics for women’s mortality in the countries surveyed. Why are maternal mortality rates so high? Why are abortion mortalities so high? What options do women have? Why is the mortality rate so much lower in the United States?

    Have the students read Source 1: Table, Life Histories. What patterns do they see between the six women?

    Have the students read Source 3: Committee Hearing, Sterilization. Why would Latin American countries promote sterilization?

  5. Treatment of Women in Different Socio-economic Classes: Have the students read Source 10: Personal Account, Education. What class issues are evident in this reading? Look at Source 1: Table, Life Histories again. What role does socio-economic class play in domestic violence and reproductive problems? To what extent is education a factor?
  6. Human Rights Revisited: Have students ponder the following questions:
    • Who determines human rights?
    • Who has human rights?
    • How do you get human rights?
    • How are human rights implemented/enforced?
    • What happens when different human rights conflict?
    • Are human rights absolute?
    • Are human rights universal?
    • Can you lose human rights?
    • Is the right to choose to have children (or not) a human right?
    • Does it matter what class the individuals are?
    • Should the government have the ability to regulate reproduction to avoid further stress on welfare programs?
    • To what extent does religion help dictate existing policy?
    Differentiation

    Advanced Students: Depending on your students and your comfort and familiarity, discuss China’s one child per family policy, which began in the early 1980s. You might also want to compare it to India’s failed attempts to control population in the 1970s.

    See: The Effect of China's One-Child Family Policy After 25 Years

    Less Advanced Students: Do more of the document investigation either in groups (reading partners/buddies) where the students read the documents to each other and work together to fill out the document analysis sheets, or as a class—reading the documents aloud and filling in the sheets to try to ensure comprehension. To build vocabulary, have the students identify words needing clarification. Assemble a list on the board. Have dictionaries scattered through the room (ideally one per group) for student reference. This could also be done as a group brainstorm.

    For the DBQ, have students fill out the Essay Writing Guide Worksheet and evaluate it based on use of evidence and structure before having the students write out the full DBQ.

Document Based Question
Document Based Question (Suggested writing time: 40 minutes)

Directions: The following question is based on the documents included in this module. This question is designed to test your ability to work with and understand historical documents. Write an essay that:

  • Has a relevant thesis and supports that thesis with evidence from the documents.
  • Uses all or all but one of the documents.
  • Analyzes the documents by grouping them in as many appropriate ways as possible. Does not simply summarize the documents individually.
  • Takes into account both the sources of the documents and the authors' points of view.

You may refer to relevant historical information not mentioned in the documents.

Question: Discuss whether "traditional" women's roles and views of women are still dominant in Latin America. To what extent does this vary by region, socio-economic class and/or culture?

Be sure to analyze point of view in at least three documents or images.

What additional sources, types of documents, or information would you need to have a more complete view of this topic?

Bibliography
Armus, Diego, ed. Disease in the History of Modern Latin America: From Malaria to AIDS. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003
Diego Armus introduces the chapters of this edited volume and locates the different themes within the history of medicine, the history of public health, and the socio-cultural history of disease in Latin America. The authors challenge traditional approaches to the history of medicine and examine disease as a social and cultural construction. Their contributions shed light on new research in the cultural history of medicine and show how disease, like cholera or aids, leprosy or mental illness, was experienced and managed differently in multiple Latin American countries and regions between the late 19th century and the present. Based on the understanding that the meanings of health and sickness are changing and remain contested, the collection takes an interdisciplinary approach to social and cultural history. Focusing on Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, the contributors examine the production of scientific knowledge, domestic public health efforts, as well as initiatives shaped by international agencies. Of particular interest are the connections between ideas of sexuality, disease, nation, and modernity, the role of certain illnesses in state-building processes, welfare efforts sponsored by the state and led by the medical professions, and the boundaries between individual and state responsibilities regarding sickness and health.
Bliss, Katherine E. Compromised Positions: Prostitution, Public Health, and Gender Politics in Revolutionary Mexico City. Univ. Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001.
Katherine Bliss offers an important contribution to the historiography of the Mexican Revolution and to the history of public health and gender politics in Mexico. The revolutionary leadership aimed to eradicate prostitution in Mexico City but failed to address changes in male sexuality that could have prevented the failure of public policies. Focusing on the public debates over legalized prostitution and the spread of sexually transmitted disease in the first half of the 20th century, the author illustrates that political change was compromised by reformers’ archaic views of gender and class, by prostitutes’ outrage over official attempts to undermine their livelihood, and by clients’ unwillingness to forgo visiting brothels despite revolutionary campaigns to promote monogamy, sexual education, and awareness of the health risks associated with sexual promiscuity.
Briggs, Laura. Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
Briggs examines the history of Puerto Rican women’s (reproductive) rights, health, and sexuality within the framework of U.S. imperialism. Arguing that U.S. colonial images of working-class Puerto Rican women and their families led to their portrayal as deviant, deficient, and exotic, she sheds light on different stages in public campaigns that led to the “persecution” of different female target groups in “need of reform.” First, policies on the island were geared toward controlling prostitution and promoting legal marriages. Next, colonial administrators began to promote birth control and migration to reduce overpopulation. Finally, since the 1930s, Puerto Rican women were increasingly pushed towards sterilization to avoid unwanted pregnancies. After World War II, the island became a “laboratory” for economic development through rapid industrialization, as well as the testing ground for the newly developed contraceptive pill and massive sterilization campaigns.
Correa, Sonia and Rebecca Reichmann. Population and Reproductive Rights: Feminist Perspectives from the South. London: Zed Books in association with DAWN/New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1994.
Arguing that the topics of health and human rights should not be separated in public policies, the authors illustrate how the perspective of Southern women would change the global approach to (reproductive) health initiatives. The chapters offer insightful contributions to conventional debates on population policies and population control, and encourage discussion of strategies for political action to improve women’s health globally.
Dixon-Mueller, Ruth. Population Policy and Women’s Rights: Transforming Reproductive Choice. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1993.
Dixon-Mueller suggests that the exercise of women’s reproductive rights depends fundamentally on the exercise of women’s rights in other spheres. Coercive population control policies and programs would no longer be “necessary" if women enjoyed their basic economic, political, and social rights, and had genuine reproductive choice. The author’s approach assigns agency to women: by building on women’s concerns regarding their own security and their ability to live healthy lives, it would be possible to address what she calls a "coercive pro-natalism inherent in patriarchal inequalities in the family and society” and to avoid an equally coercive "anti-natalist” agenda.
Guy, Donna J. White Slavery and Mothers Alive and Dead: The Troubled Meeting of Sex, Gender, Public Health, and Progress in Latin America. London: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
The author connects a wide variety of themes in the history of health and the construction of gender between the beginning and the late middle of the 20th century. First, she addresses early 20th-century roots of medical imperialism and campaigns against legalized prostitution in Latin America, examining Pan-Americanism through early Child Congresses, Child Reform, and the Welfare State. From an insightful study of the politics of Pan-American Cooperation, Guy shifts her focus to Argentina and to the many levels of nation-building, including definitions of citizenship, the gendered dimension of legal rights, the legal construction of patriarchy, and multiple concepts of mothering in Buenos Aires.
Hartmann, Betsy Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: The Global Politics of Population Control and Contraceptive Choice. New York: Harper and Row, [1987], 1993.
Hartman offers a critique of the health and human rights consequences of population control initiatives taken by the post-World War II U.S. population establishment, by national governments, and by international agencies. She condemns the coercive nature of population control programs and argues in favor of new social and economic policies that would lead to an improvement of living standards, to a more equal position of women in society, and to increased quality of health and family planning services.
Stepan, Nancy L. The Hour of Eugenics: Race, Gender and Nation in Latin America. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1991.
In this seminal study of the history of eugenics in Latin America, Nancy Stepan compares the eugenics movements in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina to more familiar case studies of Britain, the United States, and Germany. Examining how the field was taken up and transformed by scientists and social reformers, she discusses how approaches to eugenics in Latin America were shaped by multiple political, institutional, and cultural factors in different national and regional settings.

Credits
About the Author

Jadwiga Mooney is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Arizona. Her teaching and research focuses on Latin America, Gender, and Comparative/Global History, with an emphasis on health and gender equality in the late 20th century. She is currently studying the social politics of fertility regulation in Chile from 1964-1989, and is involved in a project exploring challenges to reproductive rights by comparing and contrasting historical and political circumstances of groups of women in Puerto Rico, Peru, and North Carolina.

About the Lesson Plan Author

Bill Velto is an Upper School History Teacher at Cary Academy in Cary, North Carolina, teaching World History and an elective Terrorism: Modern Political Violence. Prior to that, he taught at James Pace High School in Brownsville, Texas, and Potsdam High School in Potsdam, New York. Bill holds degrees from St. Lawrence University and the University of Texas at Brownsville. He is a Teaching Fellow for the Choices Education Program at the Watson Institute for International Studies and has presented at numerous national conferences on a variety of topics.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following institutions for primary sources:

  • Center for Reproductive Rights
  • Comparative Education Review
  • Latin American Bureau
  • National Post Company
  • Organization of American States

This teaching module was originally developed for the Women in World History project.

How to Cite This Source

"Long Teaching Module: Gender and Health in Latin America, 1980-2010," in World History Commons, https://worldhistorycommons.org/long-teaching-module-gender-and-health-latin-america-1980-2010 [accessed April 19, 2024]

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