Paradoxes of gendered political opportunity in the Venezuelan transition to democracy

Abstract

Following a discussion of the genered nature of democratic transitions, I will examine women's organizing in Venezuela during two time periods: the dictatorship of General Marcos Perez Jimenez (1948-1958) and the subsequent transition to democracy (1958-1969). Bringing women's experience to the fore will demonstrate how the main mechanism of political institutionalization, the political party, as well as certain state structures have incorporated gendered notions of political participation. This analysis helps to explain the paradox of women's mobilization under dictatorship and their demobilization during the construction of democratic politics. But my endeavor will go one step further. By drawing attention to women's contestation of their gendered exclusion, it will show how they began alternative forms of political organization as democracy became consolidated.