Women’s rights and regional politics under Cold War. Political and civil rights for Latin American women, 1944-1954

Abstract

This article argues that advancements in women’s rights in the Inter-American diplomatic system after WWII did not solely follow women activists’ interests but resulted from the male-dominated multilateral relations in the region too. In support of these negotiations, the new political vocabulary of Human Rights emerging from the re-configuration of the world affairs was instrumental for the advancement of institutional reforms related to women’s rights in Latin America, especially voting rights. Contrary to existing literature on the subject, this article delves into the process of constructing this new vocabulary, instead of examining its final forms only. It uses archival sources from Brazil to offer another point of view of the making of the rhetoric of human rights and its uses in Inter-American relations in the after-war.