Aquelarre de abuelas, madres e hijas rurales. Empoderamiento y redefinición de lo femenino en el cono Sur americano

Abstract

The Latin American version of the domestic woman was intensified during the consolidation of the States in the eighteenth century. The good mother and wife model, typical of the Andean elites, is extended to the lower classes. During the twentieth century, the new woman model is promoted by aristocratic and middle-class women, who question the exclusion of women from the public sphere. Do lower class women participate in the transformation of the models? What kind of empowerment strategies do they use?

This article is based on a doctoral research that uses the biographies of three generations of Chilean and Peruvian rural women. We analyze the strategies of empowerment made ​​by redefining the domestic woman model. In the peasant home –a metaphor of the coven where witches celebrated their meetings– rural women are empowered redefining the feminine models.