Feminism and autonomism: thirty years of Women’s Police Station in Uruguay

Abstract

From a gender history perspective, the actions of the State and the Women and Feminist Movement of Uruguay are taken into account, including the weight of the regional and international conjuncture. Through the analysis of primary sources, such as the feminist press of the time, I analyzed the transformations of the interpretative framework of the Movement of Women and Feminists of Uruguay between 1984 and 1988 related to «violence against women». The investigation traced the construction process of the domestic violence category, its problematization and transformation of private matter to political/public problem that demands the action of the State; whose first milestone was the creation of the Women’s Police Station, the second of its kind in all of South America. It was concluded that the creation of the Women’s Police Station due to special boost women’s movement and feminist in the exercise of their autonomy and synergy between a favorable international situation and the need to re-legitimization of the Uruguayan State.