| Argentine Women Ask, 'What's in
a Name?’ [Argentina]
What's in a name? If you're a married woman in Argentina,
it's often a little word called "de," meaning "of," that comes after
your maiden name and before your husband's last name. But for many Argentine women
these days, the possessive ring to that traditional formulation feels offensive and smacks
of a not-too-distant chauvinist past here when women were put on pedestals but locked in
cages ... figuratively, of course. In this beauty-conscious country of well-defined
gender roles, the role of women is being slowly but surely reconfigured. Women here
are free not to take their husbands' names. But if they choose to do so, a national
law requires the use of de before the husband's last name. The Argentine Congress is
currently considering amending that law by giving women the right to use "y,"
meaning "and," instead of de, and even offering the husband the right to take
his wife's name. |
| Chileans
Watch for a Cultural Shift With Their First Female President. [Chile] Hemmed in
by waitresses in skimpy pink outfits, Alejandra Gonzalez is unfazed about crashing one of
this nation's stoutest bastions of old-school male privilege. "It's still a
macho country," Gonzalez says casually while polishing off the dregs of her coffee at
the Café Caribe. Sort of a missing link between a Hooters restaurant and a Playboy
Club circa 1970, the Café Caribe is a peculiar institution. Though it serves mainly
creamy coffee drinks and no alcohol, its all-female staff wears short, clingy
cocktail-style dresses and high heels, and favors the mostly male clientele with obliging
smiles and sympathetic nods. But cultural change is in the air in this South
American capital. On Saturday, President-elect Michelle Bachelet will officially take
office, becoming the first female head of state in what historically has been regarded as South
America's most socially conservative country. A single mother, socialist and
agnostic, she's the antithesis of the traditional Chilean middle-class housewife.
Like many women here, Gonzalez says she's excited about how Bachelet's administration
could improve the Second Sex's economic and social standing. And though Gonzalez
thinks that "we'll have to wait at least a year to see what happens," there
already are signs that Chile's
gender status quo is being shaken up — even at the
Café Caribe and a handful of similar surviving downtown establishments. "Not
long ago there weren't many women here; it was only men. It was like a pact,"
says Gonzalez, who sometimes stops by the cafe with her female colleagues from Santander
bank. "Now you come in and drink a coffee in the afternoon and go back to
work." |