Women's Rights – Global Political Theory

Magda Portal

Published August 19, 2022 by Amy Weitzman

Magda PORTAL (1900–1989) was a Peruvian socialist poet and leader of the Aprista social democratic party (APRA). She contributed to the Peruvian literary movement of the early 1900s, which advocated for indigenismo, anti-imperialism, women’s rights, and property rights. The movement was inspired by other liberation movements, such as the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) and Argentina’s University Reform Movement (1918). Her poetry incorporates romanticism with overtly socialist messages. Additionally, she wrote extensively about her own experiences, particularly exclusion from male-dominated politics.

Portal is notable as a founder of APRA, one of the oldest political parties in Latin America. With her influence, it became the first Peruvian political party to recruit women. However, she abandoned it when it shifted to the ideological center. She wrote her only novel, La Trampa, to represent her negative experiences with the party before joining Peru’s Communist Party. Although she is renowned for being a woman in leftist spheres, her writings on other issues are significant. One example of her socialist poetry is “Proletarian Song.” Its vivid imagery of manual labor expresses the necessity of class reform. Her poetry often advocated for indigenous people’s integration into the state and society as well. Furthermore, she valued unity. Her correspondence reveals her desire for Latin American unity against the imperialist United States. She saw the Mexican Revolution as the model that all Latin American countries should follow, in order to not only protect individual rights domestically, but also create ideological unity across the region.

FURTHER READING

Portal, Magda. “Magda Portal Papers,” November 29, 1913. University of Texas Libraries.

Weaver, Kathleen. Peruvian Rebel: The World of Magda Portal, with a Selection of Her Poems. Illustrated edition. University Park (Pa.): Penn State University Press, 2011.

Portal, Magda, and Daniel R. Reedy. Hope and the Sea by Magda Portal. Translated by Kathleen Weaver. Dulzorada, 2021.

Zitkala-Sa

Published June 20, 2022 by Amy Weitzman

Zitkala-Ša (1876–1938) was an activist for indigenous and women’s rights, born on the Yankton Indian Reservation in South Dakota. She was also known as Red Bird and Gertrude Simmons Bonnin. She played a significant role in the Society of American Indians (SAI), whose purpose was to “help Indians help themselves”. She wrote speeches, recorded tribal traditions, and collected statistical reports. Furthermore, she journaled her own experiences in an assimilation school and described its cultural suppression, but also the formative educational opportunities it provided.

Zitkala-Sa and her violin, 1898. Photo by Gertrude Kasebier, Smithsonian — Zitkala-Ša, 1898

Zitkala-Ša’s speeches and writings reached a vast audience, including with the federal government, due to her rhetorical skill. Her speeches centered around colonization and loss of property as the cause of suffering for native people. She believed self-determination, citizenship, and property rights were the key to improving conditions on reservations. Zitkala-Ša pointed to rampant sexual abuse as a long-term impact of indigenous oppression and collected studies to show the extent of the problem. Another of her commitments was to advocate against peyote, which, while being part of a native cultural tradition, also brought destruction to their communities.

FURTHER READING

Lewandowski, Tadeusz, ed. Zitkala-Sa : Letters, Speeches, and Unpublished Writings, 1898-1929. Boston: BRILL, 2017. Accessed June 18, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Zitkala-S̈a. My Life: Impressions of an Indian Childhood ; the School Days of an Indian Girl ; Why I Am a Pagan. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014.

Nps.gov. “Zitkala-Ša (Red Bird / Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) (U.S. National Park Service),” 2014. https://www.nps.gov/people/zitkala-sa.htm.

Sarojini Naidu

Published May 16, 2022 by Rush Lee

Sarojini NAIDU (1879-1949) was an Indian freedom fighter, poet, and good friend of Mahatma Gandhi. Her primary focus was advocating for India’s emancipation from British colonial rule. She proscribed to Gandhi’s method of Satyagraha and participated in the Quit India Movement. Like Gandhi, she opposed Partition and advocated for the secularism of Indian as well as Hindu-Muslim unity. She succeeded Gandhi as the President of the Indian National Congress and later became the first Governor if the United Provinces.

Naidu’s advocated heavily for women’s emancipation, providing a feminist perspective from Partition-era India. After working for women’s suffrage in London, she articulated that women’s freedom and agency were essential to the independence movement. She tailored her arguments to satisfy both men and women, using poetic rhetoric to convince people of women’s capability and importance.

Further reading

Shekhani, Ummekulsoom. “Sarojini Naidu-The Forgotten Orator of India.” Rhetoric Review 36, no. 2 (2017): 139–150.

Naidu, Sarojini. Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu. Third edition. G.A. Natesan, Madras, 1919.

Tag: Women's Rights

Magda Portal

Zitkala-Sa

Sarojini Naidu