ABSTRACT

For decades, Argentine women’s rights organisations have advocated for legislation to end gender-based discrimination and violent abuse. Even when legislation is enacted, those laws are rarely enforced. Beginning in 2015, a new generation of activists led by the feminist collective #NiUnaMenos (Not One Woman Less) organised social media campaigns and led provocative street theatre demonstrations that greatly increased mass participation in a campaign to decriminalise abortion and to call the public’s attention to the high number of femicides in Argentina and the pervasiveness of “machismo rape culture”. The chapter studies the explosive impact that the Argentine variants of the Latin American #MeToo Movement are having in that country. There is great potential for the use of social media to help create social change for women, but the challenges involved in uniting disparate organisations in a multi-class agreement on goals and priorities present formidable obstacles. There is also the problem of constant economic, social and political instability in Argentina. The prospects for long-lasting structural reform and feminist mobilisation are assessed and evaluated.