Books by Constanza Tabbush
CLACSO, Serie Género, Raza y Derechos Humanos, 2020
Esta compilación ofrece un marco conceptual de fundamentos sólidos para analizar ... more Esta compilación ofrece un marco conceptual de fundamentos sólidos para analizar los derechos en materia de género y sexualidad durante la marea rosa latinoamericana y plantea interrogantes difíciles sobre las relaciones entre ideología y gobierno. Incluye ocho estudios de casos nacionales que analizan el derrotero de las demandas de feministas y personas LGBT y queer durante los gobiernos de la marea rosa.
Marchas y Contramarchas en las Políticas Locales de Género: Dinámicas Territoriales y Ciudadanía de las Mujeres en América Latina (Ana Laura Rodríguez Gustá editora), CLACSO, Buenos Aires. , 2020
Este capítulo analiza el funcionamiento de los espacios de participación regulados por el Estado ... more Este capítulo analiza el funcionamiento de los espacios de participación regulados por el Estado en contextos de pobreza, en cuyo marco la sociedad civil y los funcionarios estatales pueden negociar acuerdos. Desde la teoría, estos espacios suelen ser vistos como uno de los mecanismos más importantes para combatir la exclusión social por cuanto agencian y empoderan a las personas en condiciones de pobreza. La manera más extendida de analizar las dinámicas de género allí presentes se circunscribe a contabilizar la proporción de mujeres en relación a la de los varones o, en su defecto, qué grupos de mujeres quedan por fuera de dichos espacios.
Ahora bien, desde la práctica, la relación entre exclusión y participación es más compleja ya que un mismo grupo de mujeres puede verse incluido y excluido al mismo tiempo en distintos ámbitos de participación. Este capítulo da cuenta del impacto diferencial de la participación femenina en la implementación de dos políticas públicas en el municipal de Morón (Provincia de Buenos Aires): uno en políticas sociales y el otro en seguridad ciudadana. Los resultados muestran que el mismo grupo de mujeres encuentra muy distintas posibilidades de incidir y tener una voz en ambos espacios. Mientras que las políticas sociales definen sus demandas de asistencia social como legítimas y urgentes, los espacios en seguridad deslegitiman e ignoran sus reclamos por mayor protección policial y seguridad ciudadana. Es así que las burocracias estatales habilitan una participación selectiva, incorporando algunas de sus demandas y silenciando otras que consideran más problemáticas.
Progress of the world’s women 2019–2020: Families in a changing world, 2019
Chapter 2: Families: Continuity, change and diversity provides the empirical grounding for the Re... more Chapter 2: Families: Continuity, change and diversity provides the empirical grounding for the Report’s central claim that families are diverse. Bringing together the best available global, regional and national data, the chapter provides an authoritative overview of what is known about families in today’s world. It reviews evidence on changes in fertility and childbearing, partnership formation and dissolution, and women’s living arrangements. Key challenges and recommendations for improving data collection on families from a gender perspective are identified.
Seeking Rights from the Left: Gender, sexuality and the Latin American Pink Tide, (edited by Elisabeth jay Friedman), Duke University Press, 2019
The Pink Tide of the Southern Cone has had a mix record in advancing legal reforms that promote w... more The Pink Tide of the Southern Cone has had a mix record in advancing legal reforms that promote women’s and LGBT rights. Argentina has been no exception to this trend. During 2003 and 2015, national sexual politics were marked by the tension between the advancement of LGBT rights—particularly the passing of legislation on gay marriage and gender-identity—and the frustrated efforts of feminism to legalize women’s rights to abortion. What are the reasons for this tension? Is Argentina an example of “pinkwashing”? Was the Argentine tension the result of pressure from conservative forces and the Catholic Church, or was it that the population simply was not behind some of these claims? Was it because "progressive" legislators did not fully support women’s demands (Pecheny, 2015) or because of differences between the movements behind each bill (Ariza & Saldivia, 2015)? Over the course of this chapter, we will take up these questions by way of a comparative analysis, to argue that four political factors, combined, opened opportunities or resisted advances in gender and sexual policies. These are: the links between the executive branch and the church, Peronist party politics in a presidential system, the framing of demands, and the both the organizing and strategies of movements supporting the above-mentioned legal reforms.
Seeking Rights from the Left offers a unique comparative assessment of left-leaning Latin America... more Seeking Rights from the Left offers a unique comparative assessment of left-leaning Latin American governments by examining their engagement with feminist, women's, and LGBT movements and issues. Focusing on the “Pink Tide” in eight national cases—Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Venezuela—the contributors evaluate how the Left addressed gender- and sexuality-based rights through the state. Most of these governments improved the basic conditions of poor women and their families. Many significantly advanced women's representation in national legislatures. Some legalized same-sex relationships and enabled their citizens to claim their own gender identity. They also opened opportunities for feminist and LGBT movements to press forward their demands. But at the same time, these governments have largely relied on heteropatriarchal relations of power, ignoring or rejecting the more challenging elements of a social agenda and engaging in strategic trade-offs among gender and sexual rights. Moreover, the comparative examination of such rights arenas reveals that the Left's more general political and economic projects have been profoundly, if at times unintentionally, informed by traditional understandings of gender and sexuality.
La dimensión de género en los procesos de paz y conflicto PARTE 2 EL IMPACTO DEMOCRATIZADOR DE LO... more La dimensión de género en los procesos de paz y conflicto PARTE 2 EL IMPACTO DEMOCRATIZADOR DE LOS FEMINISMOS Mujeres en movimiento por la igualdad de género en el Magreb El papel central de la ley de familia en el movimiento feminista marroquí Movimiento popular de mujeres y movimiento feminista: coincidencias en lo público-político Vigencia ininterrumpida de la lucha por los derechos sexuales y reproductivos Las demandas en torno al aborto legal en Argentina y la constitución de nuevas identidades políticas PREFACIO INTRODUCCIÓN CAPÍTULO 1
Papers by Constanza Tabbush
UN Women Policy Brief, 2021
This brief provides evidence of the different ways in which women's rights organizations have bee... more This brief provides evidence of the different ways in which women's rights organizations have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the predicament that many of them face of increased relevance and demand at the same time as civic closure, restrictive work conditions and diminishing funding. By showcasing the critical roles these organizations are playing in the context of the pandemic as essential service providers, advocates and watchdogs, this brief also identifies a set of recommendations to strengthen them in the immediate term and pave the way for a more equal post-COVID future.
Nueva Sociedad, No. 293, 2021
El cierre de brechas de género ha sido un camino largo y sinuoso. En
los últimos años, gracias al... more El cierre de brechas de género ha sido un camino largo y sinuoso. En
los últimos años, gracias al activismo feminista, se fueron logrando
grandes avances que hicieron que la vida y las expectativas de las
niñas de hoy sean, en varios sentidos, más auspiciosas que las de
sus madres y abuelas. Sin embargo, la pandemia de covid-19, en un
contexto de profundas desigualdades, amenaza con revertir importantes
pero frágiles logros obtenidos.
International Feminist Journal of Politics, 2021
Reflecting on contemporary feminist activism, an established Brazilian feminist summarized that “... more Reflecting on contemporary feminist activism, an established Brazilian feminist summarized that “before, we fought to gain rights; now, we fight against them being taken away” (as cited in Molyneux et al. 2021, 19). This phrase echoes the experiences of feminists around the world who find themselves defending women’s rights – if not their and their communities’ very lives –in hostile times, devoting much of their energy to preserving previous achievements. This Special Issue, and the IFJP/FLACSO-Mexico co-sponsored conference “Feminisms and Conservatisms in Latin America” (September 2019) from which the articles were drawn, contribute to our understanding of feminisms and gender backlash by highlighting how feminists in Latin America, a region well known for the strength of its progressive movements, are grappling with concerted opposition to gender equality and wider global political shifts that pose renewed challenges to feminist politics.
Feminist Studies, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare -- and exacerbated -- deep-seated and interlocking inequaliti... more The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare -- and exacerbated -- deep-seated and interlocking inequalities. Women and gender non-conforming people, particularly those without class and ethnoracial privilege, are affected in gender-specific ways. Women are at the forefront of the care response as frontline healthcare workers and unpaid community and family caregivers. Stay-at-home measures heighten the risks of gender-based violence, and the economic downturn has hit women harder than men. Reproductive and sexual health services have been deemed “inessential.” The pandemic response simultaneously threatens exactly what is needed to address these challenges: intersectional feminist activism. Has it been brought to a halt by COVID-19?
Our answer, based on evidence from transnational arenas and the Latin American region, is a definitive “no.” Although pandemic policies have halted the visible crest of the fourth feminist “wave” and facilitated crackdowns on women and LGBTQI activists, deeply rooted and digitally enhanced feminist networks are driving an unprecedented response to the COVID-19 outbreak at all levels: from policy interventions through multilateral organizations to solidaristic actions in low-income urban neighborhoods.
LASA Forum, 2020
En este artículo, examinamos cómo, bajo ciertas condiciones, los grupos conservadores en América ... more En este artículo, examinamos cómo, bajo ciertas condiciones, los grupos conservadores en América Latina amplían su campo de activismo opositor más allá del sexo y la reproducción, hacia políticas de género que hasta el momento no habían sido percibidas hasta el momento no habían sido objeto de cuestionamiento doctrinario o moral (paridad política, violencia doméstica, mejora de la situación social de las mujeres, etc.). En particular, el caso de Paraguay sugiere que el uso estratégico de la ideología de género permite a actores conservadores, en coalición con partidos políticos, expandir su campo de activismo. Esta disputa por redefinir como contracultural a un nuevo conjunto de políticas de género es un aspecto poco estudiado, pero significativo, de la avanzada conservadora actual. La misma plantea retos prácticos y también analíticos para las feministas, puesto que dificulta los procesos de reforma y redobla los obstáculos que deben enfrentar.
Feminist Studies, 2017
This article unveils the gendered, racialized, and silent sexual dimensions at play in the crimin... more This article unveils the gendered, racialized, and silent sexual dimensions at play in the criminalization of Milagro Sala, the charismatic and controversial female indigenous leader of the Organización Barrial Tupac Amaru in Argentina. It argues this organization was able to contest narrow definitions of women’s welfare used in local state bureaucracies in terms of certain redistribution and recognition, while fostering complex and controversial state-movement relations in terms of transparency and accountability. In important ways, Tupac Amaru politicized the “undeserving poor.” Women who did not conform to the moral prescriptions that patrol the conduct of poor women were the backbone and the leadership of the organization. Drawing on interviews, fieldwork materials, and documents gathered between 2009 and 2017, this paper shows that the main problems created by the criminalization of the organization were not only the arbitrary detention of Sala. Equally significant, the criminalization also brought about sudden negative changes in poor women and LGBT popular sectors’ living conditions, employment opportunities, and access to health care, alongside the overall erosion of minimal gains in social and economic rights. It ultimately undermined the legitimacy of rights-based demands of popular and indigenous sectors in a multi-ethnic society.
On October 19, hundreds of thousands of women across Argentina [3] braved a torrential downpour t... more On October 19, hundreds of thousands of women across Argentina [3] braved a torrential downpour to participate in two extraordinary protests: an unprecedented women's strike and a massive demonstration against femicide (femicidio)—that is, the killing of cis-gender and transwomen because of their gender. Reacting in rage and sorrow to the October 9, 2016, murder of Lucía Pérez [4], a 16-year-old high school student from the city of Mar de Plata who had been abducted, drugged, and gang-raped so viciously that she died of her injuries, Argentine feminist organizers relied on social media to organize the strike and orchestrate the protest in less than a week. Dubbing the demonstrations " Black Wednesday, " the protests were notable not only for their rapid organization and widespread diffusion, but also for their framing of gendered violence as inextricably linked to gendered structures of power— a point that was exemplified in the signs, slogans, and speeches that accompanied the demonstrators on city streets across Argentina. " Not even one woman less! We want us all alive!, " thousands marched and sang, drummed and yelled. What's more, the efforts of Argentine feminist organizers sparked a transnational response. Reports found that in addition to at least 138 separate protests [5] that took place in Argentina, there were 25 protests in Chile, seven in Bolivia, five in Mexico, two in Uruguay, two in Honduras, and others [6] in the capital cities of Paraguay, Ecuador, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and beyond.
Este artículo examina los supuestos sobre el funcionamiento generizado de las emociones en los de... more Este artículo examina los supuestos sobre el funcionamiento generizado de las emociones en los debates sobre género y clientelismo en Argentina. A través del caso de la red de referentes barriales que realizan la distribución territorial del programa de asistencia alimentaria Plan Vida en la Provincia de Buenos Aires, distingo dos formas de concebir lo afectivo en
la participación política de las mujeres de sectores populares. Mientras que la primera enfatiza el gerenciamiento de la expresión externa de las propias emociones como parte del hacer política, la segunda considera el trabajo afectivo territorial que establece conexiones entre actores, genera
capital social y permite la circulación de información local. La conclusión sugiere que la segunda perspectiva da mayor relevancia a la agencia de estas intermediarias políticas y abre la posibilidad de transformar relaciones de dominación.
This article examines how emotions are understood, in deeply gendered ways, within gender and clientelism debates in Argentina. By looking at the case study of the voluntary network of neighborhood representatives of Plan Vida, which distributes food aid in the Province of Buenos Aires, I distinguish two ways of conceiving affects in grassroots women’s political participation. While the first one emphasizes the management of the external expression of emotions as part of doing politics, the second one considers affective labour in a given urban territory as fostering connections among actors, creating social capital and allowing the flow of relevant information. The conclusion suggests that the second approach gives greater relevance to the possibilities of agency and transforming relations of domination of these women doing politics
at the local level.
Los gobiernos ‘progresistas’ (pink tide) en materia socioeconómica del Cono Sur no tienen la mism... more Los gobiernos ‘progresistas’ (pink tide) en materia socioeconómica del Cono Sur no tienen la misma trayectoria en el avance de los derechos de las mujeres y colectivos LGBT. Lo distintivo de la política sexual de la Argentina (2003-2015) es la tensión entre el avance de la agenda de derechos de la diversidad sexual, con la aprobación de leyes como matrimonio igualitario e identidad de género, y los esfuerzos frustrados del feminismo por legalizar el derecho al aborto. Este artículo presenta un estudio comparativo de estos tres intentos de reformas normativas durante el período de gobierno conocido como kirchnerismo. El análisis empírico identifica cuatro dimensiones fundamentales que, en su combinación, abren oportunidades o generan resistencias al cambio normativo en políticas de género y sexualidad: los vínculos entre Poder Ejecutivo e Iglesia; la política de partidos en un sistema presidencialista; los marcos interpretativos de cada demanda; las formas organizativas y estrategias de las organizaciones que las promueven.
-------
The pink tide of the Southern Cone in socio-economic terms have had a mix record in advancing legal reforms that promote women’s and LGBT rights. Sexual politics in Argentina (2003-2015) are marked by the tension between the advancement of LGBT rights, with the passing of legislation on gay marriage and gender-identity, and the frustrated efforts of feminism to legalize women’s rights to abortion. This article presents a comparative study of these three attempts to promote legal reforms under kirchnerism. The empirical analysis identifies four main dimensions that, combined, open opportunities or resist legal advances in gender and sexual policies: the links between the Executive branch and the Church, parliamentary party politics in a presidential system, the framing of demands, and the ways of organizing and the strategies put in motion by the organizations that promote the above mentioned legal reforms.
Bulletin of Latin American Research, 2012
Second-Wave Neoliberalism, Gender, Race and Health Sector Reform in Peru urges scholars to widen ... more Second-Wave Neoliberalism, Gender, Race and Health Sector Reform in Peru urges scholars to widen feminist studies of neoliberalism beyond structural adjustment to engage with the gender outcomes of the second-wave social policy reforms of the 1990s.
Reseña del libro The Cultural Politics of Emotions [La política
cultural de las emociones] Sarah ... more Reseña del libro The Cultural Politics of Emotions [La política
cultural de las emociones] Sarah Ahmed (2004),
Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 224 p.
Este trabajo se interroga sobre el lugar de las mujeres y las consignas de igualdad de género en
... more Este trabajo se interroga sobre el lugar de las mujeres y las consignas de igualdad de género en
las organizaciones populares argentinas, en un escenario de reactivación económica y cambio
político en el cual se transforman en su rol y en sus formas de vinculación con el Estado y la
política. Con este fin se aborda el caso de la Organización Barrial Tupac Amaru, destacado por
tener mayores recursos, capacidad de movilización e incidencia política, y ser hegemónico en
el noroeste argentino, y el único conducido por una mujer. El estudio abarca el periodo 2003-
2014. Los hallazgos muestran que en la Tupac Amaru hay tres formas de entender las consignas
de igualdad de género, y que en esta organización-bienestar existe preocupación por el empoderamiento
de las mujeres y el reconocimiento de identidades sexuales diversas, sin todavía articular
demandas de autonomía corporal de las mujeres y de redistribución del cuidado entre los géneros.
This article examines the role played by women, and the meanings attributed to gender equality
measures in organizations of popular sectors in Argentina, framed within a national context in
which social movements modified their links with the state and politics more generally. To address
this question, we focus on the study of the social organization Organización Barrial Tupac
Amaru because women hold key leadership positions, and because its resources, capacity of mobilization
and political advocacy meant it exercised a hegemonic role in the impoverished North
West of Argentina. The empirical study focuses on the period 2003-2014. Findings identify three
understandings of gender equality measures in popular organizations in Argentina, and that this
welfare-organization is concerned with women’s empowerment and the recognition of diverse
sexual identities, without yet articulating with redistribution demands of care work between genders
and with campaigns for women’s rights to body autonomy in their proposals of social change
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Books by Constanza Tabbush
Ahora bien, desde la práctica, la relación entre exclusión y participación es más compleja ya que un mismo grupo de mujeres puede verse incluido y excluido al mismo tiempo en distintos ámbitos de participación. Este capítulo da cuenta del impacto diferencial de la participación femenina en la implementación de dos políticas públicas en el municipal de Morón (Provincia de Buenos Aires): uno en políticas sociales y el otro en seguridad ciudadana. Los resultados muestran que el mismo grupo de mujeres encuentra muy distintas posibilidades de incidir y tener una voz en ambos espacios. Mientras que las políticas sociales definen sus demandas de asistencia social como legítimas y urgentes, los espacios en seguridad deslegitiman e ignoran sus reclamos por mayor protección policial y seguridad ciudadana. Es así que las burocracias estatales habilitan una participación selectiva, incorporando algunas de sus demandas y silenciando otras que consideran más problemáticas.
Papers by Constanza Tabbush
los últimos años, gracias al activismo feminista, se fueron logrando
grandes avances que hicieron que la vida y las expectativas de las
niñas de hoy sean, en varios sentidos, más auspiciosas que las de
sus madres y abuelas. Sin embargo, la pandemia de covid-19, en un
contexto de profundas desigualdades, amenaza con revertir importantes
pero frágiles logros obtenidos.
Our answer, based on evidence from transnational arenas and the Latin American region, is a definitive “no.” Although pandemic policies have halted the visible crest of the fourth feminist “wave” and facilitated crackdowns on women and LGBTQI activists, deeply rooted and digitally enhanced feminist networks are driving an unprecedented response to the COVID-19 outbreak at all levels: from policy interventions through multilateral organizations to solidaristic actions in low-income urban neighborhoods.
la participación política de las mujeres de sectores populares. Mientras que la primera enfatiza el gerenciamiento de la expresión externa de las propias emociones como parte del hacer política, la segunda considera el trabajo afectivo territorial que establece conexiones entre actores, genera
capital social y permite la circulación de información local. La conclusión sugiere que la segunda perspectiva da mayor relevancia a la agencia de estas intermediarias políticas y abre la posibilidad de transformar relaciones de dominación.
This article examines how emotions are understood, in deeply gendered ways, within gender and clientelism debates in Argentina. By looking at the case study of the voluntary network of neighborhood representatives of Plan Vida, which distributes food aid in the Province of Buenos Aires, I distinguish two ways of conceiving affects in grassroots women’s political participation. While the first one emphasizes the management of the external expression of emotions as part of doing politics, the second one considers affective labour in a given urban territory as fostering connections among actors, creating social capital and allowing the flow of relevant information. The conclusion suggests that the second approach gives greater relevance to the possibilities of agency and transforming relations of domination of these women doing politics
at the local level.
-------
The pink tide of the Southern Cone in socio-economic terms have had a mix record in advancing legal reforms that promote women’s and LGBT rights. Sexual politics in Argentina (2003-2015) are marked by the tension between the advancement of LGBT rights, with the passing of legislation on gay marriage and gender-identity, and the frustrated efforts of feminism to legalize women’s rights to abortion. This article presents a comparative study of these three attempts to promote legal reforms under kirchnerism. The empirical analysis identifies four main dimensions that, combined, open opportunities or resist legal advances in gender and sexual policies: the links between the Executive branch and the Church, parliamentary party politics in a presidential system, the framing of demands, and the ways of organizing and the strategies put in motion by the organizations that promote the above mentioned legal reforms.
cultural de las emociones] Sarah Ahmed (2004),
Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 224 p.
las organizaciones populares argentinas, en un escenario de reactivación económica y cambio
político en el cual se transforman en su rol y en sus formas de vinculación con el Estado y la
política. Con este fin se aborda el caso de la Organización Barrial Tupac Amaru, destacado por
tener mayores recursos, capacidad de movilización e incidencia política, y ser hegemónico en
el noroeste argentino, y el único conducido por una mujer. El estudio abarca el periodo 2003-
2014. Los hallazgos muestran que en la Tupac Amaru hay tres formas de entender las consignas
de igualdad de género, y que en esta organización-bienestar existe preocupación por el empoderamiento
de las mujeres y el reconocimiento de identidades sexuales diversas, sin todavía articular
demandas de autonomía corporal de las mujeres y de redistribución del cuidado entre los géneros.
This article examines the role played by women, and the meanings attributed to gender equality
measures in organizations of popular sectors in Argentina, framed within a national context in
which social movements modified their links with the state and politics more generally. To address
this question, we focus on the study of the social organization Organización Barrial Tupac
Amaru because women hold key leadership positions, and because its resources, capacity of mobilization
and political advocacy meant it exercised a hegemonic role in the impoverished North
West of Argentina. The empirical study focuses on the period 2003-2014. Findings identify three
understandings of gender equality measures in popular organizations in Argentina, and that this
welfare-organization is concerned with women’s empowerment and the recognition of diverse
sexual identities, without yet articulating with redistribution demands of care work between genders
and with campaigns for women’s rights to body autonomy in their proposals of social change