The Women’s Resistance Movement in Argentina

Abstract

Argentine women have always been part of the historical process. Civil wars in the nineteenth century and military dictatorship in the twentieth century compelled them to become active participants of this process, which ultimately led them to a self-realization as historical agents, despite the fact that volatile governments often suppressed their activism by all means and rarely listened to their demands for justice.¹ As in most developing countries, the Argentinian women’s movement is a discursive phenomenon.² It had its roots in the nineteenth century, and its origin is undoubtedly linked to the European women’s movement.³ The Argentinian women’s suffrage movement culminated in 1947 when, under the leadership of María Eva Duarte de Perón, the Peronista Women’s Party (El Partido Peronista Femenino) was created. Feminist groups as well as feminist philosophies have never been welcomed by the military, which praised the conventional roles of women.