Christina E. Bejarano

Tracking the Latino Gender Gap: Gender Attitudes across Sex, Borders, and Generations

Many cultural stereotypes exist regarding the “modernity” of values possessed by Latino immigrants, particularly in reference to gender norms. Common perceptions about Latin machismo and marianismo (the idea that women should be pure and moral) do not paint a portrait of gender egalitarian dispositions. These assessments are upheld by neomodernization theorists who specifically identify gender attitudes as a critical element of modernity. In applying a revised modernization theory to the issue of comparative gender values, Inglehart and Norris (2003, 10) hypothesize that development “brings about changed cultural attitudes toward gender equality in virtually any society that experiences the various forms of modernization linked with economic development.” The idea that gender equality norms develop gradually, as a function of modernization, gives rise to different expectations about accepted gender roles in developing countries as opposed to those in advanced industrial democracies. Another feature of this modernization process is the emergence of gender gaps in political behavior and attitudes. Inglehart and Norris (2000) distinguish between traditional gender gaps found in postcommunist and developing societies (in which women are more conservative in their behavior and cultural attitudes relative to men) and modern gender gaps evident in postindustrial societies (in which women are more progressive than men).

What Goes Around, Comes Around Race, Blowback, and the Louisiana Elections of 2002 and 2003

The authors contrast the 2002 Senate and 2003 gubernatorial runoffs in Louisiana, noting that the margin and the breadth of victory were greater for a gubernatorial candidate who enjoyed less political resources than her copartisan. The authors argue that the GOPs southern strategy has constrained its ability to diversify its coalition and contributed to the defeat of its nonwhite candidate for governor. Using aggregate parish level data and individual survey responses, the authors demonstrate that the customary polarization of whites in favor of Republican nominees was undermined in the 2003 election. The authors offer some thoughts on the implications of the findings.

Latina Mobilization: A Strategy for Increasing the Political Participation of Latino Families

The Second-Wave feminists attempted to create a clear path for female political leaders. Caucasian women clearly benefited most substantially from the movement, and African American women have made some progress, particularly at the state level. In this chapter, Christina E. Bejarano and Valerie Martinez-Ebers expose the perceived disparate impact among the Latina community in which visible female political leaders are extremely rare, and the vast majority of Latinos are unable to name even a single important Latina political leader. Bejarano and Martinez-Ebers contend that Second-Wave Feminism did, in fact, impact Latinas, but the efforts of Latinas in the movement have not been well documented or publicized by scholars or the media. Rather, their successes have been overshadowed by their male counterparts. Bejarano and Martinez-Ebers demonstrate how Latinas’ increased community participation provides them with stronger civic skills and stronger ties to their community/institutions, which, in turn, can also be linked to their higher political participation levels and high success rates as political candidates. In an effort to see the broad legacy of Second-Wave Feminism, Bejarano and Martinez-Ebers claim that it is critical to recover this history of Latina activism and to focus on Latinas as catalysts of political change, since women are perceived to be the key to mobilizing Latino families and communities.