Si Evita Viviera

Abstract

are actively participating in that country's struggles for national liberation. Recently Per6n himself asserted that it is important for Argentina to follow the example of China regarding the important role of women in the creation of an independent and developed nation. According to Peron (1973), the Peoples' Republic of China is able to claim great national achievements because of the integral participation of women in industry, science and agriculture, and Argentine women have the right and responsibility to emulate the Chinese example in order to help Argentina realize its potential greatness. This was not the first time that Peron had referred to the significant role that women must play in the future of Argentina. Indeed, it represents complete continuity with the principles established during the period 1946-1955 when his movement ruled Argentina. Peron had always articulated the absolute necessity of integrating women into the process of national liberation, and Peronist ideology had always asserted the equal political, economic and social rights of women. Today, as in the 1940's and 1950's, women are politically organized within Peronism through the Peronist women's movement. In order to understand its contemporary appeal, it is necessary to look at the historical roots of what remains a unique phenomenon in the Americas. The political mobilization of women within Peronism was unprecedented in Argentine history. Coming on the heels of long years of struggle by other feminists and feminist organizations, Peronism distinguished itself from them by its ability to appeal to the masses of Argentine women. It developed partially in response to the integration of women into the paid work force during the thirties and early forties - by 1949, women came to represent 31.37 percent of the capital city's industrial workers - and built a national women's movement which not only improved the living standards of working women, but raised the status of all women in Argentina by giving them political equality with men and providing them with an opportunity to organize themselves politically in a women's party within the general movement. Official ideology eulogized women as equal partners in the struggle to build an industrialized country with a just distribution of wealth.