The National Institute for Women (INAMUJER) aims to fight for equal opportunity and equality before the law for Venezuelan women. Green Left Weekly's Rachel Evans and Coral Wynter spoke to Corina Fumero, INAMUJER's assistant for international relations, about the problems facing Venezuelan women and the work of INAMUJER.
"Our main political program is mainstreaming gender into every sphere of Venezuelan public and political life. Within all government programs — health, education — we want everyone to know about and think about gender issues. We have done well on this front. Just recently, President [Hugo] Chavez approved a gender vision within the national budget. This means every department within the national budget has to include women's issues", Fumero said.
"To give you an example, we have programs to build housing for the poor. But women specifically need this housing near to schools so they don't have to pay for transport costs to the school. There is a suggestion that buses are to be fitted with room for strollers to enable mothers to get children to shops. This is what we mean by having a consistent gender vision.
"Currently this vision is not law but this statement from the government and the president shows their good intentions."
Fumero explained that "INAMUJER operates as a government department. We have 100 workers within Caracas and more workers within the regional centres. We have 26 offices within Venezuela's regional centres. We run three domestic violence shelters for women. This is an advance from the one centre we ran last year. We also provide a free legal service for women.
"We are a grassroots organisation. We meet women in groups of five to 20 in barrio [neighbourhood] schools and communities. We inform women of their human rights and their rights under the constitution, which is a good constitution for women. We talk about women's reproductive rights and involve them in the project 'Heroines and History'. This is a project that reconstructs women's history. We find and promote women who have fought against injustice, women who help poor children, who help with hospitals and with old people. We also provide training to prevent domestic violence.
"Domestic violence is a big issue for Venezuelan women. We have come a long way [since the election of Chavez in 1998] but no-one talks about it. Gathering statistics on the extent of the problem has been hard." Separate statistics for women ahve not been properly collected. "Last year we have started working with the National Institute of Statistics to fix this weakness."
Fumero described Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution as "a beautiful moment for us. People are gaining empowerment — talking politics on the street. There is power in the streets. We see this through the number of people coming to INAMUJER to ask for workshops. We don't so much have to go to them anymore. Before, revolutionary institutions had to go to the people. Now people go to the institutions. The people are actually ahead of us; we are running to catch up."
Fumero said INAMUJER is also campaigning to make law the provision of credits for household work, which is contained in the constitution.
Fumero said the issue of abortion is "controversial", explaining that "some Venezuelans want to make abortion legal. Others say that abortion is the taking of a life. The women's movement here is campaigning for decriminalisation of abortion."
Last year, the government initiated a discussion about decriminalising abortion. "The Catholic religious right led the opposition to this proposal, but there was not much active opposition in the streets. There is a lot of room to make up on this question.
"We are trying to involve men in all these discussions and workshops around women's rights, in particular domestic violence. Because of machismo, men are not very interested. We aim to change the ideas of people who are in charge of institutes and programs.
"Women are playing a crucial role in this Bolivarian process. Recently Chavez stated that 50% of women are to be represented in public posts. At the moment, women hold 30% of all government posts in local, state and national positions."
From Green Left Weekly, February 8, 2006.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.