On January 10th, the reelected president handed in a building to the Trade Union Confederation of Peasant Women, Native Indigenous Bartolina Sisa, which has been operating for 30 years.

The chair of the trade union organization, Leonilda Zurita, said: “We want to be, but there is still no trust from our brothers, there is still male chauvinism”, and she called her colleagues to fully enforce the rights provided under the Constitution in force.

The new Constitution underlines in several articles the vital role of women and guarantees their gender rights.

Such is the case of article 48 that provides: “The State shall promote the incorporation of women to work and it shall guarantee the same salary than men for the same kind of work” both in the public and private sphere.

The equality is also guaranteed by the equal number of men and women eligible as Mps.

During the act, Morales highlighted the value of the Andean woman and in order to personify this he recalled that at the end of the 18th century Bartolina Sisa, the wife of Tupac Katari, leader of the rebel movement agains Madrid, stayed in charge of an army of Aymara indigenous while the Spanish royal forces were killing the insurrection in La Paz.

Also in the 20th century, a hunger strike of housewives led to the fall of dictator Hugo Banzer.

In its annual meeting celebrated last week in the Bolivian capital, the National Confederation of Indigenous Peasant Women of Bolivia highlighted the effective inclusion of the peasant women in the economic and political life of the country.

For the first time in almost two centuries of Republic, as well as the recognition they have in the international community.

“The training of women in the political, social and health sectors have been important as well as the spaces that we’ve been conquering little by little in the political decisions” said leader Leonilda Zurita in statements published by Agencia Boliviana de Información (ABI).

Zurita said she was confident that the peasant women will conquer more space in the Bolivian politics in the upcoming regional and municipal elections, to be held on April 4th.

“A broader women participation in the regional governments is still pending after the elections to be held in April” said Zurita.

The leader highlighted the international participation of the Confederation in events organized by La Via Campesina in the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of the Americas (ALBA).