Chapter 10: Feminisms in Peru in a Context of Crisis

In 2016, numerous women’s collectives emerged in Peru as marches against violence were taking place around the world. They represented a new feminism with characteristics different from that of the previous century, with which it has continued to coexist. Since 2016, a political crisis also brewed in Peru, with the 2021 election bringing to a close the cycle of post-2001 neoliberal democratic governments, which supported women’s demands with public policies and improved services. The 2021 election gave voters a polarised choice between authoritarian right-wing conservatism and left-wing conservatism. Most feminist groups have sided with the left, as it brought hopes of redress for the historically excluded populations of the Andes and the Amazon regions. Feminism, however, came to be perceived as an ideological option for middle-class women in urban, capitalist areas embedded in a Western modernity that is far from the reality of poverty and discrimination of the indigenous and peasant areas of the Andes. The racial factor thus displaced gender as a priority upheld by liberal governments. This further deepened following the December 2022 social outburst in the Andean south in response to the fall of the elected government and the rise of authoritarian neoliberalism.