History and Interpretations of Women s Suffrage in Argentina

VALOBRA, ADRIANA MARÍA

Conferencia; 67 Conference of the Rocky Mountain Council of Latin American Studies; 2021

University of New Mexico

The study of women?s suffrage in Argentina can be divided into two periods. During the first, early suffragists put together a buffet of organizations, alliances, and strategies, which they rolled out to procure their rights. Despite abundant research on this period, there are still significant gaps in basic information. There are also readings of the history that lack sophistication. For example, suffragist strategies have been grouped together under the powerful notion of political maternalism (Nari, 2005). I have used it myself, but with insufficient data, turning maternalism into an acritical, catch-all explanation. The second period took place in the context of Peronism. In this case, the historiography has been linked to discussions about populism and has privileged certain aspects of that narrative: 1) the leadership of Perón and Evita; 2) Evita?s conservative ideas about women; and 3) the manipulation of the electorate, especially women, in favor of Peronism. This chapter will touch on both periods and will introduce a third (1955-1966), which has received little attention. In my view, it is necessary to enrich the image of political maternalism from the early twentieth century as a homogenous strategy to gain suffrage, qualify some of the assertions regarding Evita?s supposed maternal conservatism, and include tensions relating to developmentalism that emerged after 1955, connecting them to women?s political activism. I also want to underscore the importance of questioning some of the assumptions that have emerged from connecting the study of women?s suffrage to narratives on populism. Among these, are simplified views electoral outcomes, looking at women?s actions as mere reproductions of propagandist assertions, and an instrumentalist conceptualization of Evita. These three assumptions have tended to deprive women of agency and portray them instead as weak puppets.