La maternalización de las mujeres en el Plan Vida (Buenos Aires, 1994-1999)

Abstract

In the 90s, the opening of a new international scenario left the United States as the hegemonic power, which implied the worldwide installation of the political and economic model of the New Right. Thus, a policy based on the postulates of “free market”, “democracy” and “human rights” became relevant. At the same time, instances of coordination among various States emerged, materialized in international institutions that shook their structures.

In line with these processes, in Argentina, during the government of the justicialist Carlos S. Menem (1989-1999) economic reforms of a neoliberal nature were applied, the consequence of which was the pauperization of the population, which was evidenced mainly in the increase of the levels of poverty and unemployment since 1994. Meanwhile, who ruled the province of Buenos Aires, where the impact of the adjustment was particularly severe, was Eduardo Duhalde, also a justicialist. Faced with the economic and social crisis, Duhalde and his wife Hilda “Chiche” González de Duhalde carried out an ambitious public policy: the Plan Vida.

This article tries to show how this policy reflected an operation of maternalization of the women in popular sectors, resorting to the conceptions of conservatism that the governor and “Chiche” represented.