The Feminist Movement in Latin America

In our last Latin American Studies class, we discussed the role of women and what defines a "true woman" in Latin American society. I referred to the 1960's when the average middle class woman in the United States was supposed to be in the home, and compared it to the roles assigned to women in Latin America. I found a very interesting article by Barbara Welter which defines what a "true woman" was supposed to be in the United States from 1820-1860. Although it is a different time period and is in the United States instead of Latin America, I think the same qualities that were seen as important in a woman then are true of what is important of Latin American women now: piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Do you think the women's movement in Latin America will be similar to the one of the United States? Or do you think Latin American society is so fundamentally different that the women's' movement will also stress different attributes?

Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860" (1966)