Draft:Double Militancia

• Comment: Article already exists. DrowssapSMM 11:59, 12 December 2023 (UTC)

---

The concept of Double Militancia (Spanish: Doble Militancia) refers to a political practice and consciousness among some feminists in Latin America who were active in both a movement for national liberation as well as the women's movement. Women in traditional Left parties in the twentieth century understood Double Militancia as the interrelated, twofold struggle against gender and class-based oppression. Across Latin America, women participated in organizations, parties, and movements for national liberation from foreign imperialism alongside men, but they commonly experienced gender discrimination within these spaces. In various revolutionary Left parties and guerrilla armies, women were expected to prove their worth by performing traditionally masculine tasks, like taking up arms or labor organizing; however, men were not expected to share in traditionally female responsibilities of cleaning, cooking, or childcare to the same extent This contradictory experience led some Latin American revolutionary women to develop increased militancy against oppression.  They argued that a nation's liberation from foreign domination should include women's liberation from subordination, even in their own organizing spaces.

Background

Double Militancia was developed out of mass women's participation and leadership in movements for National liberation. Throughout the 20th centuries, Mexico, Bolivia, Cuba, and Nicaragua successfully overthrew previous regimes in an attempt to create new political, social and economic orders. In the early 1960s, guerrilla movements formed in nearly every country in Latin America.  Notably, revolutionary guerrilla struggle was waged in Guatemala, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and El Salvador.  Many women participated in these parties, movements, and guerrilla armies, and various women's organizations were formed under the umbrella of national liberation organizations to particularly address women's needs and mobilize women in participation. However, the particular issues of women were not prioritized in all of these movements: Colombia was one of the only movements wherein the leadership put out any specific statements about women.

National liberation movements across Latin America were led by men, though thousands of women participated. Gendered discrimination and imposed norms limited women's equal treatment and recognition within the movement, highlighting the primary contradiction of gender oppression in spaces for national liberation. Colombian revolutionary leader Camilo Torres Restrepo, who wrote the movement's clause on women's rights, framed women's roles in the revolution as that of mothers and especially wives. In the popular text, Guerrilla Warfare, Cuban revolutionary leader Che Guevara wrote that women did have a place in the revolution, but he framed this primarily as that of a support role to men. Cuban women who took up arms as guerrilla fighters were painted as exceptional rather than equal.

Examples in Latin American Movements

Association of El Salvadorean Women (AMES)

The Association of El Salvadorean Women (Spanish: Asociacion de Mujeres de El Salvador) was part of a larger central revolutionary organization for national liberation. AMES aimed to mobilize women towards the liberation struggle and, notably, to organize women to direct their activism directly towards challenging gender inequality. AMES explicitly called out the need for liberation movements to respect the needs and lives of women, showcasing Double Militancia. Its statements brought attention to the particular issues facing women in El Salvador that were different or intensified versions of the issues men in El Salvador were fighting against.