On the occasion of International Women’s Day and amid a historic moment in which gender and social roles are challenged, feminist activist Luisa Kislinger talks about how women have been impacted by the complex humanitarian crisis and how this boiling context finds its most dangerous expression in gender-based violence and femicides

No idea is more deeply rooted in the collective mind than Venezuelan women being echadas pa’lante, a local phrase often used to describe a fearless and determined person that is willing to take a step forward. It is almost an automatic response, an exaltation, a consolidated defining trait about the role of women, which has become much more accentuated in a country where people hold a generalized perception of having been brought backward.

Perhaps that is why the simple mention of this trait makes Luisa Kislinger, internationalist, feminist activist and researcher on gender issues, put the whole concept in review: “They exalt us for being fearless and determined because we carry everything on our shoulders. People say that Venezuelan women are “all-terrain” because they can handle everything on their own, but this is a stereotype that we have to overcome: I do not want to be “all-terrain” or “a little beast of burden”. Rather, I want to have people by my side who share tasks and responsibilities because as long as they are equitably distributed, it will allow women to do other things”.

With this review of concepts, and in commemoration of International Women’s Day, Kislinger takes a look at how women have been impacted by the complex humanitarian crisis, their precarious situation in the workforce, the feminization of poverty, and a boiling context that finds its most dangerous expression in gender violence and femicides.

A social trap

Kislinger points out that the concept of being fearless and determined is especially romanticized in Venezuela, and has only made women have to meet more social expectations, according to which solving everything without help is a value.

“How much time does a woman have for studying, taking care of herself, fulfilling a life project, working on things of her interest, or enjoying a moment of leisure, if she has responsibilities at home, including taking care of the children, doing the cleaning and the laundry, cooking, buying groceries, earning an income and taking care of sick relatives? Saying that women are fearless and determined has been a social trap because it has put more and more burdens on us, and if you complain, people will compare you and say: ‘but the others are fearless and determined and you are not”.

That burden increased with the precariousness of work due to the worsening of the complex humanitarian emergency, says Kislinger. “At the time when the material conditions became more complex, women were the first to leave their jobs to queue for scarce food items; all of this is documented in the 2017 Women on Edge report”.

Also, the number of women in the informal sector increased. These women witnessed a deterioration in working conditions, access to services, and social protection: “all this is related to the feminization of poverty,” says the internationalist and researcher.

Kislinger explained that the data collected from 2017 to 2019 in the report “Mujeres al Límite. El peso de la emergencia humanitaria. Vulneración de derechos humanos de las mujeres en Venezuela” (Women on Edge. The weight of the Humanitarian Emergency. Violation of the human rights of women in Venezuela), showed that women left their jobs in a higher ratio than men to make room for domestic tasks, thus ending up taking an informal job to make some income. The report was carried out by Equivalencias en Acción, a coalition of organizations that included the Center for Justice and Peace (Cepaz), Avesa, Mujeres en Línea, and Freya.

– Public discourse in Venezuela shows women in decision-making positions: the National Assembly, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, managerial positions… But how does that manifest itself in the lives of women and how does it help improve their conditions?

– I hate to say this, but not all women who reach decision-making positions have a feminist perspective. And I do not say this in the spirit of reproach but rather as a call for attention, because many women in those positions, do not necessarily bring a perspective on policies or regulations that respond to the differentiated needs of women and girls in a way that could actually have an impact on improving their conditions, which, by the way, continue to be adverse.

Not one more, not one less

Some elements have worsened these adverse conditions. For example, a context of pandemic and lockdown has evidenced an increase in femicides, since women are locked up and often isolated with the aggressors in their own homes. Besides the precariousness of work and the lack of income, women must also face an absence of public policies that target gender violence, which is a multifactorial problem that becomes more complex in Venezuela due to the under-registration of cases and the policy of institutional opacity.

– The femicides reported by the media show traits of great cruelty against the victims and have also increased in frequency. Are there some elusive external conditions that could be exacerbating gender violence?

– When the material conditions of life and subsistence of the population worsen, as is still the case in Venezuela, we must see femicides intertwined with the social context in which they occur. There are structural causes that have to do with the asymmetry of power between men and women, but it is also true that femicide is a complex social problem that responds to various causes in which there are risk factors that can increase its occurrence.

Kislinger considers that the precarious living conditions in Venezuela have put significant challenges on the dynamics of romantic and family relationships. These conditions have been aggravated by the lockdown, the uncertainty, and the loss of work and income: “In the end, all this pressure, mounted on the patriarchal relations that govern Venezuelan society, makes violence explode”

But there is another element that Kislinger observes that points towards something deeper: we are living a historical moment of revision of the roles of women and men in society.

“While women have worked together towards making these problems visible, to a greater or lesser extent, and review our own role in society, what we want and where we are going, this has not happened at the same pace as men. Although it cannot be generalized, women have entered the public space and challenged stereotypes; and in some way, gender violence could be a response to this challenge to the social roles established for women”.

-Can it be a sort of counter-response that seeks to perpetuate the status quo?

-Psychologists can explain this more precisely, and surely it will be necessary to analyze and study this topic, but cruelty can be an unconscious response to the fact women are daring to review something that many considered not reviewable: social roles and gender expectations. In the end, that is violence, a way to limit women who are out of the mold. Femicide is the extreme expression of exercising that power and telling us “well, women have to remain where they are”.

Translated by José Rafael Medina