Women, Gender, and Constitutionalism in Latin America

This book discusses to what extent and how constitutional design and practice in Latin America have helped in combatting the subordination of women and LGBTQIA+ people. Covering 11 jurisdictions, the chapters identify the main elements of the constitutional gender order and survey jurisprudential and legislative developments in different areas, incorporating contextual analysis and references to history, political dynamics, social movements, feminist struggles, normative efficacy, and policy.

In the context of a constitutionalism that has been celebrated as particularly innovative and socially engaged, the book assesses constitutional performance in the quest to supersede the separate gendered spheres tradition and the subordination of women and sexual minorities to heteronormative hegemony. It fills an important gap in the field of gender and constitutionalism, which has paid very little attention to Latin America compared to the Anglo-American legal world and continental Europe. It identifies regional trends, but also variables which account for the diversity of approaches in various jurisdictions.

The book provides much-needed insight into matters that are relevant for legal and socio-legal scholars, an ever-growing number of social actors and movements, and all those interested in comparative constitutionalism and in the intersections between law and gender.

Contributors vii Abbreviations ix Acknowledgments x Comparative Landscapes of Gender and Constitutionalism in Latin America 1 FRANCISCA POU GIMÉNEZ, RUTH RUBIO MARÍN, VERÓNICA UNDURRAGA VALDÉS, AND NATALIA MORALES CERDA 1 Women, Gender, Human Rights, and Constitutionalism in Costa Rica 38 ALDA FACIO, RODRIGO JIMÉNEZ, AND MARTHA MORGAN 2 Women and LGBTQIA+ Rights in Colombia 67 ISABEL CRISTINA JARAMILLO-SIERRA 3 Gender Constitutionalism in Ecuador 95 DANIELA SALAZAR MARÍN 4 Bolivian Constitutionalism from the Perspective of Gender and Intersectionality 121 MARÍA ELENA ATTARD BELLIDO 5 Gender and Sexuality in the Brazilian Supreme Court: Expansion of Rights, Ambivalent Reasoning, and Telling Omissions 144 JULIANA CESARIO ALVIM GOMES AND MARTA RODRÍGUEZ DE ASSIS MACHADO 6 Gender and Constitutionalism in Mexico 171 FRANCISCA POU GIMÉNEZ AND SOFÍA TREVIÑO FERNÁNDEZ 7 The Ambivalent and Hetero-Cis-Normative Peruvian Constitutional Jurisprudence of the Twenty-First Century 199 CRISTINA VALEGA CHIPOCO AND XIMENA BENAVIDES REVERDITTO 8 The Role of Chilean Constitutional Law in Gender (In)Equality 230 YANIRA ZÚÑIGA AÑAZCO AND VERÓNICA UNDURRAGA VALDÉS 9 Women, Gender, Colonialism, and Constitutional Law in Puerto Rico 256 YANIRA REYES GIL 10 Constitutionalizing Gender: A View from Argentina 284 DELFINA BEGUERIE AND PAOLA BERGALLO 11 Gender and the Constitution in Uruguay 311 LUCÍA GIUDICE GRAÑA AND LUCÍA BERRO PIZZAROSSA Index 335

Francisca Pou Giménez is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Legal Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico, and a member Mexican National System of Researchers (Level III).

Ruth Rubio Marín is Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Seville, Seville, Spain, a member of the Faculty of The Hauser Global Law School Program at New York University, NY, US, and the holder of the UNIA Unesco Chair in Human Rights.

Verónica Undurraga Valdés is a law professor at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile, was President of the Commission of Experts of the 2023 Chilean constitutional process.