March 24th marked the 45th anniversary of the military coup that put General Rafael Videla into the presidency of Argentina. It is estimated that his civic-military dictatorship left around 30,000 people missing in that country. Emerging from that context, the mothers of these people whom the Argentine State tortured, murdered and disappeared represented one of the greatest resistances to the silence, terror and immobility that the dictatorship wanted to establish. Many women left their homes (that space in which the dominant social conventions have tried to confine them) and took the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires to demand answers from the military junta about the whereabouts of their loved ones. Since then, they are known as the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Their struggle is an example of mobilization, resistance, dignity and advocacy capacity (even today they continue searching for and finding missing people).

Those women transgressed the limits of the domestic space and collectivized their problems to weave networks of solidarity and put their denunciations in the center of the public stage. The presence and insistence of their voices in that place from which women have historically been relegated and marginalized, made it possible for many of the atrocities of that dictatorship not to be forgotten, and in many cases, they were recognized in judicial proceedings against military personnel and civilians.

The actions of these women, who, by taking public space and building bridges between their daily problems,as victims of the state, reveal something of what women can achieve when we access spaces that we have not traditionally occupied: radically transform reality and open up new horizons; uttering a new word when it seemed that everything was already said. And it is precisely there, in the opening of that possibility that more and more women occupy positions and roles to which men have generally had greater access, that new paths seem to be discovered for the construction of more diverse realities, inclusive, fair and less unequal.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the foundations on which our culture, our economy and our social character in general were based. If the crises are turning points that force us to change course, perhaps the reconstruction of what will be our society after this virus must begin by recognizing that without overcoming gender inequality, in the different areas of our lives, it will not be possible to move towards real and lasting transformations capable of humanizing our realities. However, far from these expectations, the pandemic seems to have only increased, at least in Colombia, the gender gaps that place men and women in an unequal relationship. To give just one example, according to DANE (National Administrative Department of Statistics) since the pandemic began, many women have had to leave their paid jobs to engage in unpaid domestic work. This explains why, although women represent 51% of the population of working age, we are only 39.3% of those in employment. And that also explains why, by January of this year, in Colombia the unemployment rate for women is 22.7%, while for men it is 13.4%. Furthermore, confinement has continued to demonstrate (as if this were needed) that home is also not a safe space for us: we are also victims of violence there!

To a large extent, these unequal and violent realities are sustained and justified by the prejudices and stereotypes that, based on our gender, ridicule, minimize, or represent women as incompetent to assume certain positions within society. Each of these expressions has a concrete impact on reality and closes many doors for us. It has been shown, for example, that women who are Executive Directors (CEOs) have far more difficulties than men in our positions in securing funding. As Executive Director and founder of Movilizatorio, a citizen engagement and social innovation lab whose field of action is cross-cutting with topics such as social entrepreneurship, technology and advocacy in public policy, I’ve lived it for myself.

For me and the partners of Movilizatorio -Mariana Díaz Kraus and Lina Torres-, as well as for each of the women who are part of the work teams of the organization, it has taken years of work and achievements to open up space and give visibility to our voices and capabilities in spaces that are generally dominated by men. For us, as for so many women entrepreneurs, it seems an obligation to demonstrate many successful results in order to gain the trust of the men who occupy power positions in the private and the public sectors in general. According to the Colombian Association of Entrepreneurs, for example, only 3 out of 10 businesses are founded by women. And according to data from the Colombian Observatory of Science and Technology, in science, technology, mathematics and engineering careers, only 20% of those who teach are women. In the midst of this panorama, we have had to challenge many prejudices and remain convinced that from each of our places and the concrete experiences and knowledge that we forge there -and that are undoubtedly conditioned, among many other factors, by our gender- we can contribute to the construction of a society capable of dialogue, dreaming, creating and moving towards less unequal realities.

These are some of the lessons that we can take from experiences such as those of the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. They got empowered and achieved things: they are an example for us and the generations to come that when we work together we can transform unfair realities! Inspired by stories like theirs, we created Movilizatorio, to empower and create mobilization networks, where women can have representation and participation in the construction of different societies. For this reason, more than 70% of the Movilizatorio team is made up of women and in each project we try to ensure that at least 50% of the participants are women: our purpose is to train and empower more women in these areas from which we have been relegated. In a time like this, which has affected the job stability and the lives in general of so many women in Colombia and in the world, from Movilizatorio we have decided to support women both by trying to hire them and by developing initiatives that seek their empowerment.

Historically from our place as women, most of us have undoubtedly lived the experience of marginalization, isolation and silencing. We can be more sensitive and aware of the importance of collectivizing, articulating and weaving community to achieve the transformations our realities need. Perhaps it is precisely the absence of our looks, voices, knowledge and feelings in the construction of the common, that has meant that many structural problems in our societies have not been solved. Therefore, from each of our struggles for different just causes, we cannot lose sight of the need to continue opening and democratizing those spaces from which women have been excluded. We are committed to building bridges and opening roads that, when walked, can reduce gender gaps that produce inequalities in all areas of our lives. Only in this way we can, as a society, move towards other possible realities. Perhaps this writing is also an attempt to bridge those distances that separate us from a more equitable society for all people.