GENDER ROLES

Learn more about one of the precursors of the struggle for women's rights in Chile.

Today I don´t want to move far from our latitudes to share with you about an amazing Chilean woman, she was the first woman studying law. She should receive her class sitting behind a curtain because her presence was considered a huge distraction for her fellow men. She had to obey that order because if she didn´t, she could not study at the University of Chile.

Nowadays we can find many women studying without rules at any university in our country. Thus we want to recognize her contribution as a student leader, her fight for female suffrage among others.

This woman was the Chilean Elena Caffarena Morice  ( 1903-2003) an emblematic model of the feminist leaders that were at that time.

Elena Caffarena was a Chilean feminist leader who fought throughout her life to change the traditional view of women: limited to motherhood and housework.

She was born in Iquique, on March 23, 1903 when the saltpeter made the city shine. Daughter of Italian textile entrepreneur Blas Caffarena Chiozza, was the third of seven brothers. She studied Law at the University of  Chile and was one of the first women to participate in the Federation of Students of the University of Chile (FECH).

Elena, devoted her entire life to fighting for female emancipation. She defended the right of women to develop in a democratic society and with equal opportunities with men. She graduated as a lawyer in 1926, becoming one of the first 15 female jurists in the country.

In 1935 she founded the Movement for the Emancipation of Women in Chile (MEMCH), whose great contribution was to organize mobilizations of women in the struggle for their rights as workers, mothers and citizens.

She got in 1935 that the Chilean women voted in the municipal elections. However, it was only in 1949 that allowed female suffrage in the presidential elections.

She published the book “Capacity of the married woman in relation to her goods”, where she exposes some of her ideas that were very advanced for the time. By the 1980s, she was one of the founders of the Committee for the Defense of People's Rights (CODEPU).

Elena Caffarena died on July 19, 2003.

Today we all know her granddaughter, Pamela Jiles, famous journalist and writer who is the daughter of her son Juan Jiles Caffarena.

Her famous sentences:

"My studies of law convinced me of the legal inferiority of women."

“I am a feminist by a democratic vocation". 

Mona Lisa Smile - by Rosse Mary

This movie was released in 2003 and it was starring by Julia Roberts who is Kathernine Ann Watson, a history of art revolutionary teacher who decided to work in a very conservative ladies school in the beginning of the 50s decade, in order to leave her mark in her students. She has a very modern sense of the gender roles: she wants that her students enter to the University and not only be married women, that was the ideal concept of woman in those times. In acorder to her ideas, she tried to teach, through the art, there is a different way to think and people have to see more than the social rules say. Her ideas bring her a lot of problems with the school headmistress: Jocelyn Carr.

Contrary we think, this movie was made by men: it was directed by Mike Newell, was produced by Fredward Johanson and was wirten by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, so, in my opinion, this work represents a double hit to the social gender roles rules itself. 

Elizabeth "Betty" Warren

This movie shows how a woman should be in the 50s: polite, submissive and economically dependent of her husband, therefore, Ms. Watson was a "bad influence" for the young students, because of her independence and her ideas. Also, the movie shows some signs of classism and the high society way of mind, it was reflected thought the Betty Warren's articles, that reported "inmoral practices" like the use of contraceptives and the "subversives ideas" of Miss Watson. But, to everyone's surprise, even Miss Watson, Betty became in the only student who decided to live her own life, after her failed marriage and the unhappiness that learned of her conservative rising, in spite of her mother: a classist and moralist woman.

Miss Katherine Ann Watson

In this century we can see that women are like Ms Watson: we can see that her ideas were accepted with the pass of years and we can admire a lot her revolution inside the ladies school, and we ask ourselves "why is she wrong?, why the headmistress can't open her mind to Ms Watson ideas?" The answer is because the stereotype of a woman was different: they "were born to be housewifes to their husbands's service and good mothers". It was politically correct, but now is a retrogade idea.

Unfortunately, Miss Watson could't achieve that Joan Brandwyn were a professional lawyer, because she decided to get married with her boyfriend and become a housewife. She said that, to the teacher, a housewife hadn't interest, personality and she sold her soul, but it was her decision, because she wanted to form a family more than to be professional. In that moment, Katherine understood that some women found the happiness in their own families and houses, with men that they loved, and it was meaningful too. She saw it wasn't only an archaic model to follow, but it represented the fullness for some women like Joan,

Giselle Levy

Finally, there was a character who, at first, felt a great admiration by the new teacher, because, like her, she was a different kind of woman, who hadn't feel fear to broke the social rules, but when she saw that the italian teacher was interested in Katherine, she felt envy, cause she had a relationship with him. She was Giselle Levy and her principal ability was to have some secret romances with different men, even if they were married. That's the reason why Betty decided to getting even with her when compared her as a "prostitute", only because Betty wasn't happy in her marriage. An important Betty's phrase about the Mona Lisa's smile says: "not everything is what it seems", because we will never know if the model of Da Vinci's painting was really happy or not, but she looks very happy and, to Betty's mother, appearances were more important than realities and feelings.

However, at the end of the movie, they became best friends and Betty decided to live with Gisselle and study laws in Yale, while Katherine refused to continue in the school to start a new life in Europe, after her failed relationship with the italian teacher and the obstacles that the institution impossed in her profession, for example, her study plan of a year had to be aproved by a special commission before its started, among other things.  

This movie shows us we can change the world, only if we have the courage and the different way of think to do it, although we could be women in the 50s and the world wasn't in our favor. Sometimes all we only need is a litlle space, to people listen our ideas and decided if we have the reason or not. The efforts of Katherine to shift every single conservative student in more than the stereotype were valuable for them, so she left her mark and, at the same time, started a social change that today is considered normal.

Medical technology advances - by Rosse - Mary

Hello everyone

I found this insteresting vídeo about new thecnology advances in medicine. For me, the most impressive was the nano-robots that can be used to cure Cancer. I invite you to watch and comment here.