A window to breathe. Notes for a feminist genealogy of the struggles for democracy in the country and in the house in the Southern Cone in the 80s

Abstract

In the 80s, during the processes of resistance against dictatorships and in the struggles for democratic recovery in the Southern Cone there was a resurgence of women’s and feminist movements with aspirations of a more radical democracy, capable of altering hierarchies at home and not just overthrowing authoritarianism and state terrorism. The slogan “Democracy in the country and in the houses” of Chilean feminists attests this renewed political commitment. I propose to sketch a genealogy of what it has meant as a unifying element of struggles and as a political opening, assuming that in the cycle of struggle against dictatorships and for the democratic recovery in the Southern Cone there was a strong presence of women and feminist organizations, whose specificities and contributions are often relegated in historical records. The bet is to work from the context of the different countries, but to deepen in how it gradually made sense in Uruguay.