Open Heroines is excited to be invited to The Feminist Forum of the XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, taking place on November 7 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We are eager to join the discussions and present insights on the Regional Gender Agenda and other pertinent gender issues that arose from our workshop at the América Abierta in September.
The Feminist Forums are parallel events to the Regional Conference on Women, organized independently by civil society organizations and feminist movements. The forums highlight the contribution of feminism to the region’s democratization and the work they carry out in different territories (including the digital domain, as is our case) for cultural change and against gender inequalities. Insights from these one-day forums usually feed into the Regional Conference on Women, an event that targets government officials.
This year, the Conference theme is “The care society: horizon for a sustainable recovery with gender equality”. About a month ago, Open Heroines held a workshop at America Abierta in Santo Domingo to discuss this very topic!
During this session which attracted about 50 participants — some of them Heroines — we brainstormed about how we can collectively promote the care agenda through digital civic activism and open government. Why the care economy? Latin America is increasingly becoming an ageing continent with more care needs. At the same time, it has one of the highest gender economic gaps due to women’s disproportionate care responsibilities. It is, therefore, crucial to address care (who cares, how much, at what value, etc.) as it is intrinsically associated with the region´s development. Equal distribution of care responsibilities from a gender perspective is a necessary condition for the region’s prosperity.
In that regard, the workshop participants raised the following themes, which I will be sharing and looking out for at the conference:-
- Mobility of care + collectivization of care
- Effective paternity policies
- Listen to groups that care and are cared for
- Intersectionality between gender and other identities, particularly indigenous women
- Dialogue with men about caring
Additionally, we discussed this paper on Breaking the statistical silence to achieve gender equality in 2030, which will be analyzed at the Women´s Regional Conference. A majority of the participants raised the need to produce, make visible, use and communicate more open data in coordination with the regional gender agenda.
Without a doubt, the open data and gender guide we are producing in one of the OH Labs will be a contribution. (Heads up to those still wanting to participate!)
I came back from América Abierta very inspired because I confirmed the potential we have as a community to articulate and promote transformative ideas. I was impressed by how the diversity of our backgrounds contrasted with the same passion and commitment that move us to work for a fairer society.
Not to mention the unifying spirit that feminists showed when we joined the feminist movement in Santo Domingo in the streets to demonstrate against the total abortion ban in the Dominican Republic.
More About The Feminist Forum/Regional Conference on Women
These forums are very relevant spaces to the construction of the policy agenda that seeks gender equality in the region. Throughout the fifteen summits that have happened so far since 1977, a substantive Regional Gender Agenda has been formed, which has guided the gender equality action plans of numerous governments. In fact, the recent creation of Ministries for Gender Equality in Chile, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Cuba, Mexico, and Brazil, among others, was in response to the commitment of the governments during the summits — to prioritize the areas of the public administration that work for women’s rights and diversity. The same goes for the formulation of laws on quotas and/or electoral parity or the legalization of abortion, although these rights are less widespread in the region.
