The liberal women, grouped in the League of Associated Liberals (LILA) in Uruguay, held the annual regional retreat of the global organization Ladies of Liberty Alliance (LOLA)an event that took place in Montevideo and its objective was to continue promoting the ideas of freedom from a feminine perspective and, also, to debate women’s issues from a liberal perspective.
“It is a mistake to associate feminism with the left because historically they have been figures of the bourgeoisie who, from their position in society, not only criticized the situation of inequality between the sexes, but also took actions to change that reality,” he said. Sabrina Riveiro, regional leader of LOLA Latin America and founder of LILA in Uruguay, in dialogue with Ambit. Like every liberal, she is “necessarily feminist” for defending “the equality before the law for men and women.”
The comment responds to a reality that the same group of liberal women seeks to address both internationally, from LOLA; as at a local level, from LILA: the feminism, As an organized and collective activity, it tends to be associated mainly with the left movements, especially in Latin America; something that happens in parallel—perhaps in some causal relationship—with the fact that women feel alone in liberal spaces, and to a greater extent than in other political philosophies.
This problem is the diagnosis from which LOLA was founded 15 years ago, in USA: a “liberal world” in which “there weren’t that many women or the women who were were scattered and they couldn’t organize themselves,” Riveiro explained. From this, the group seeks “on the one hand, that the ideas of freedom reach more women but, on the other, also that women who are already in the movement for freedom can have a space to congregate and seek the possible answers or solutions to the problems encountered.”
Regarding the little organization of women in liberalism, Riveiro considered it as something “multicausal”: “I think that women were few in themselves, but not because of the movement itself, but because historically we have been running from behind some things, and although there are increasingly more women getting involved and they become part, it is important to support those who are already there so that they do not leave, because it is true that women have to fight for places more, and bring more women closer to the idea.”
In this sense, the recent example of the president is notable. Luis Lacalle Pou by recognizing that in the National Party —the one that most identifies, perhaps, with liberal ideas within the Uruguayan political spectrum—women have special difficulty in achieving leadership positions, because many decisions are made in “meetings between men.”
Despite this, and thanks to the work of recent years, “what we see is that more and more women are encouraged to perceive these ideas, which are rational, logical ideas and have to do with numbers: in the most free women have more opportunities, but also, when women have greater opportunities, society is more developed,” said the regional leader of LOLA.
A retreat to share ideas and examples
The LOLA regional retreat took place between April 5 and 8, in Montevideo, and brought together the main leaders of the movement in Latin America and the Caribbean in activities that included training on political activism and digital training, among other topics. The vice president participated as guest speakers. Beatriz Argimón, who talked about women and power; and the pre-candidate for president for the National Party, Laura Raffo, who spoke about economics from the female perspective.
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“For us it is very important,” Riveiro considered about the fact that today, in Uruguay, there are women in relevant positions that represent liberal ideas. “Someone has to be first, and in that being first you are later the one.” example of many, and I think there is nothing better than that to be able to encourage women to really believe that they can do it,” she added.
“We celebrate that there are female candidates, more than we celebrate it. It is also true that, for that to happen – because it is one thing that there are female candidates, but another thing is that they are elected – there also has to be a cultural change, which is what we are trying to do with LOLA,” said the founder of LILA in Uruguay.
Source: Ambito
