Dishing Out Change
by Emma Sokoloff-Rubin

My name is Emma, and I’m 12 years old. I’m currently living in Port Alegre, Brazil. My family is living
here because my dad, a professor of Latin American Studies, got a grant to come do research on social
movements in Brazil. One of these movements is Movemento Das Mulheres, The Women’s Movement.
It’s a social movement centered in the state Rio Grande Do Sul. The movement is made up of many rural
women workers who work towards improving the lives and rights of women. Whenever he can, my dad takes me with him to meetings he goes to from this movement.

Recently, my whole family accompanied him on a trip to the interior of the state. We stayed with leaders
of the movement and attended meetings. One was an international women’s day celebration, another a
two-day interaction and discussion group. We also went to a meeting celebrating the presentation of the
new kitchen equipment the state government had given to the movement’s alternative medicine groups.
At the overnight meeting, women brainstormed about ways in which their families could be improved.
The main hope that they came up with was more dialogue. Women would also like their husbands to help
around the house. For these rural women, the responsibility of the smooth running of the household falls
entirely on them.

The movement has done a big campaign for documentation for all women. Without documentation, you have no rights. Many women don’t even have birth certificates. Depression is a tremendous problem among rural women, and this must be in part because of the lack of documentation. Without even a birth certificate, how can you feel that you matter as a person?

An impressive achievement of the movement is gaining the privilege of a maternity leave. They have also
gotten the government to give retirement money to women as well as men. This is a very important
achievement because without income older women were completely dependent on their husbands.
Do you know that going to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, and marching for women’s rights to a pension is
easier than making your husband do the dishes? Most of us are used to and expect that work is split
equally between husband and wife. Here, when we were at a dinner with many families, and my dad got
up to help wash the dishes, the men’s response was, “Don’t do that. Then the women will start expecting
us to.” These were the husbands of important women in the movement.

Attending these meetings made me realize how much we take for granted in the United States. It
also showed me that if we put our minds to it, we CAN change things. The people in this movement are
not famous professors who’ve had a lot of education. No, these are people like you and me who have a lot
of devotion, a heavy set of goals, and a decision to omit the word “can’t” from their vocabularies.

What struck me most about the movement is the devotion and enthusiasm of both the leaders and
companeiras, women within the movement. Most of them have had hard lives, working and experiencing
sexism. But when you’re in a room filled with women, all so hopeful, there’s a strong sense of power.
“We will change things!” they seem to say. And little by little, they are. They have learned to celebrate
each small achievement and know that each step forward, no matter how big or small, fits into the big
pictures of change that they are hoping and working for.

From the July/August 2003 issue.
© 2004 New Moon® Publishing, New Moon®: The Magazine For Girls and Their Dreams, Duluth, MN www.newmoon.org.