Citation

Corrêa S, Matamala M, Palomino N, Ramos S. Estud. Fem. 1994; 2(3): 150-160.

Vernacular Title

As aventuras do movimento feminista no caminho para o Cairo.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, CIEC, Escola de Comunicação, UFRJ)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12322408

Abstract

The meeting of the health network of Latin American and Caribbean women was held in July 1993 and focused on strategies and issues of reproductive health and rights of women on the way to the Cairo conference in 1994. The complexity of the debate in the area of population politics was indicated by the pronatalist views expressed by the Vatican and Islam fundamentalism, the arguments and beliefs of the ecologists, the dichotomy of the North-South confrontation, and the tension between Western modernity and tradition. Several limitations also hamstrung feminists: with regard to fertility, the preoccupation with reproduction-sexuality-motherhood; advocation of the demographic transition in spite of pronatalist policies; and the absence of inefficiency of services. Tension within the feminist movement also surfaced with respect to tools used for exercising reproductive rights, reproductive decisions as permitted by technology, the radical division between masculine and feminine in feminist analysis, and false option between separatism and integration in political strategies. The limitations and paralyzing tension which frustrate the feminist debate about population can be transformed into fertile undertakings by articulating long-term projects; redefining the concepts of population and of population policies with regard to fertility and reproductive rights; by constructing the mechanisms of consensus within the movement (development of a common agenda); by defining the desirable alliances, possible alliances, and the necessary negotiations; and by following up the Cairo Conference with a Plan of Action and other meetings as the upcoming session on social development in Copenhagen in 1995 and the Conference on Women and Development in Beijing in 1995.

Language: pt