Han Han: Moving Forward Amid Contradictions: Exploration of the Path to Women's Liberation in Latin America
On the eve of International Women's Day 2026, a retrospective look at the women's liberation movement in Latin America reveals a trajectory that originated in the struggle against dictatorship and flourished amid the tide of democratization. Today, facing changes unseen in a century [1], Latin American women’s liberation confronts unprecedentedly complex challenges and a profound transformation. Through more than half a century of exploration, the region has shifted from debating the theoretical connotations of "women's rights" toward pursuing a more comprehensive equality of substantive rights.
The Course and Achievements of the Latin American Women's Liberation Movement
The women's liberation movement in Latin America has now entered a "fast track." In the early 20th century, women's rights movements flourished across the region, focusing their core objectives on securing the rights to education, civil rights, and suffrage. Following the Second World War, acting as a representative of the developing world, the region’s women's movement experienced vigorous growth. Influenced by Western women's liberation thought and stimulated by the wave of industrial economic development driven by external demand, women rapidly integrated into social production. In 1975, the first World Conference on Women was held in Mexico, marking Latin America's emergence as a major force leading global gender equality.
In recent years, women's liberation in Latin America has been characterized by the coexistence of "high evaluations and deep contradictions." On one hand, achievements in areas such as political empowerment are remarkable, with the proportion of female parliamentarians ranking among the highest in the world. On the other hand, structural persistent ailments [2] such as insufficient economic participation and unpaid care labor have become increasingly severe. Similar to most developing countries, Latin America’s pursuit of gender equality includes the demand to change holistic conditions of inequality and injustice.
The regional liberation of women is generally positive and continuously progressing. According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2025, Latin America ranks third in the Global Gender Gap Index (74.5%). Since 2006, the gender gap has narrowed by 9 percentage points, making it the region with the most significant progress globally. Although political empowerment for Latin American women has progressed noticeably, its absolute level remains low. Despite the narrowing gap, it is estimated that it will take another 162 years to achieve full equality. Data from organizations such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) show that in most Latin American countries, the proportion of female parliamentarians exceeds or nears half, and Mexico has achieved gender balance in its Chamber of Deputies. In the economic and social spheres, a "longitudinal rupture" has emerged: while the proportion of women in senior management has risen and the fields they enter have expanded, there is a lack of improvement in the rights of women in the lower and middle classes. Between 2024 and 2025, official reviews by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and reports on major countries like Chile, Mexico, and Colombia pointed out that despite progress at the legal and policy levels, issues such as deep-rooted patriarchy, economic inequality, intersectional discrimination (i.e., discrimination against women superimposed with issues of race and poverty), gender bias in the judicial system, and gender justice remain. These are particularly detrimental to the basic rights and dignity of women in the most marginalized groups.
The Dilemmas Facing the Cause of Latin American Women's Liberation
Currently, Latin America primarily faces the problem of "contrasting development" regarding longitudinal inequality. Women's political participation in Latin America is evident; they have not only secured the right to vote but have also implemented gender quotas. The number of female political leaders in the region has increased significantly. Since 1990, the region has produced approximately ten female heads of state. The region was also early and extensive in enacting laws to safeguard gender equality in political participation. Fourteen countries have passed laws stipulating that the proportion of female candidates for elective office must not be lower than 40%. Beneath these "highlighted" statistics lie structural problems. Political rights for women at the grassroots level are seriously insufficient, and a problem of "false representation" persists. For example, Mexico experiences the "Juanitas" phenomenon [3], where female politicians are nominated to satisfy quota requirements only to be forced to resign after election to make way for men. Threats of violence against female politicians have trapped Latin America in a dilemma of gender equality that exists only on paper.
Amid the current reality of a vast wealth gap and severe class calcification, structural inequality has become prominent. While Latin America has achieved breakthroughs in female participation and rank in the economic sphere, it faces the chronic malady of unequal opportunities for economic participation. For instance, the labor participation rate gap is significant, the salary gap in senior management is even wider, female unemployment is higher, and the rate of informal employment for women is high while lacking necessary social security. Furthermore, upper-class women have achieved greater liberation, while those in the middle and lower classes face increased discrimination.
The dual nature of gender equality in Latin America finds its root cause in deep-seated structural barriers to development. Under the capitalist distribution system, the solidification of interests and private ownership make it difficult to guarantee gender equality. The situation in the region’s socialist countries conversely confirms that institutional injustice is the primary cause of regional gender equality issues. Despite facing a U.S. blockade and having a level of economic development below the regional average, Cuba's state of gender equality is superior to that of other regional economies with faster growth rates. Cuba was the first country in the world to sign the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. As of January 2025, the proportion of female representatives in the National Assembly of People’s Power reached 55.7%. This relies on Cuba’s persistence in resolving longitudinal equality issues across different races and classes in practice.
Latin American women's liberation also faces the issue of enhancing cultural autonomy. Guided by Western standards and models, the movement has ignored the social development realities of domestic wealth disparity, class calcification, and racial inequality. Under the capitalist system, the pursuit of statistical data on liberation and the advancement of rights for upper-class women has further fractured social consciousness, leading to a serious stratification of the female population.
Furthermore, there is insufficient linkage between the women's liberation movement and national development practice. Latin American states use legislation to push for liberation, while women use spontaneous modes and NGOs to protect their rights. This "top-down vs. bottom-up" (literally "upper and lower hedging") developmental model causes gender equality to fall into a developmental trap when faced with numerous social maladies.
Deepening Mutual Learning in the Global South Between China and Latin America is Timely
As members of the Global South, Latin American women's development is characterized by the coexistence of "high indicators and deep fissures." Clarifying these unequal relations serves as a vital basis and prerequisite for carrying out China–Latin America exchanges and cooperation regarding poverty reduction and the experience of Chinese-path modernization within women's liberation work. This constitutes a consensus and a resource for enhancing the international influence of Global South countries. China and Latin America share similar demands for women's liberation, providing broad room for cooperation. Looking back at the process of gender equality since 1975, Global South countries are no longer isolated or subordinates of the Western world. Latin America and China share common demands for gender equality based on changing holistic injustices and inequalities; Global South countries also share more common goals in this field.
The process of gender equality in Latin America involves complex interactions with the region's colonial history, the alternation of power between political left and right, low economic growth under neoliberal systems, and long-standing social maladies. We should also note that the Latin American women's liberation movement possesses rich experience in international exchange. Latin America is a region within the developing world that has participated in international women's liberation for a long time and at a deep level. It is not only experienced but has a high overall level of participation. Mexico hosted the first World Conference on Women in 1975, pioneered the global topics of "gender equality" and "women and development," and announced 1976–1985 as the "United Nations Decade for Women." Latin America has not only contributed to promoting national assessments of women's status in various fields but also enhanced the international influence of women's liberation movements in the Global South. The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) regularly holds regional conferences on women to promote the development and dissemination of public policies and practices for gender equality. Chile enacted a Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) almost simultaneously with the West, and the proportion of women in its diplomatic field rose from 5.0% in 1990 to 30.4% in 2024.
Currently, Latin America has spent half a century leaping from being "objects of the law" to "subjects of parliament," yet it still faces the paradox of "statistical highlights versus structural lowlights." Historical experience shows that without a revolution in the redistribution of the economic base, any quota risks becoming a "numbers game." Global South countries are reshaping "production-reproduction" relations at the institutional level and using cultural autonomy to break the legacy of colonial patriarchy, thereby transforming high indicators on the "fast track" into the daily well-being of the broad masses of women.
In the future, China will work with Latin American countries to promote the inclusion of gender budgeting in the Global Development Initiative, empower the most vulnerable groups with digital technology, share experiences in poverty reduction and public services through institutional opening up, and deepen institutional cooperation across the Global South.