The Costa Rican Women's Movement
Written by Beth Martin Birky
In June 2001, I attended a seminar on "The Costa Rican Women's Movement," led by Dr. Ilse Leitinger, a retired Grinell College sociology professor who was coordinating the Gender and Women’s Studies Program of the Monteverde Institute.
Having taught and worked in Costa Rica from 1976 until her death in 2003, Dr. Leitinger drew on direct contacts and friendships for site visits and presentations on the Costa Rican women’s movement. Some were more academic through the Women’s Studies graduate programs at Universidad Nacional and Universidad de Costa Rica; others were leaders of NGOs and small cooperatives or grassroots organizations.
Dr. Leitinger's personal history with the Costa Rican Women's movement led to the development of a collection of essays called The Costa Rican Women's Movement: A Reader (University of Pittsburgh, 1997). Some essayists reflect on the presence of women throughout Costa Rican history, others write about working for women's equality, and several profile various women's organizations in the country.
The Costa Rican women’s movement offers evidence of cooperative strategies that are very valuable for feminism and social activism, especially in an international context.
- In a country where community is valued over the individual, the Costa Rican women’s movement emphasizes collective and collaborative efforts rather than individual successes.
- In a country without an army and with strong pressure to quedar bien, or keep peace with the community, the Costa Rican women’s model has successfully negotiated the need to confront discrimination and the need to retain relationships with men and women in their communities.
- In a country where cooperativas (collectives) have been an important model for local and national development since the 1950s, the Costa Rican women’s movement has followed that model as well: to pool resources and share profits on many levels.
- Themes that recurred in many conference presentations are as follows:
- capacitar (to enable; to empower)
- apoyar (support, hold up, or back)
- recursos (resources), and
- educación (education or training – formal and informal).
By following the Costa Rican model of cooperation, collaboration, collective good, and capacity building, Goshen College’s Women’s Studies program could join Costa Ricans in putting theory into practice.