Ni una menos: The struggle for women’s rights in Argentina and its representations on facebook

Abstract

The collective Ni Una Menos started in March 2015, and since then it has been actively demanding for public policies (laws, projects, public funds) that promote better gender equality and the preservation of the well-being of Argentinian women. In this article, we seek to study the comments posted on the official page of the movement on Facebook. Our investigation will span across comments posted two days before and two afterwards the first rally promoted by Ni Una a Menos on June 3rd, 2015. We use Corpus Linguistics (SINCLAIR, 1991) and Systemic-Functional Linguistics (HALLIDAY, 1991) as the main theoretical and methodological approaches in order to analyse linguistic aspects that express ideological, social and political positions. The results show how different political positions are represented within the movement and which choices reflect the action of the various active social agents. The open space for the expression of different ideas within the social media environment of Ni Una Menos has established this collective as a place for plural discussion on social policies in Argentina.