1985 – Joint Parental Custody
In Argentina, joint custody had been established in 1949 by that year’s constitutional amendment. The repeal of this amendment by the military dictatorship in 1956 restored the inequality between women and men for several decades. In 1974, Congress re-established joint custody, but president Maria Estela Martinez de Perón vetoed the bill. The influential conservatives in Argentina argued that the family unit required that one of the parents had “the last word”, and that for cultural and traditional reasons this power should be attributed by law to the man.
In 1985, during the democratic government of Raúl Alfonsín, joint custody, a right claimed by women for years, was restored through law 23,234.
1987 – Divorce
In the midst of protests by powerful Catholic sectors, on 3rd June 1987 Congress voted for what went down in history as the “divorce law”. The very foundations of the Argentine state are rooted in the family model as defined by the Catholic paradigm, which devoted greater powers to the man over the family and imposed limits on women’s decision-making.
The law also attacked some forms of discrimination that limited women, who obtained, among other rights, equal conditions and the possibility to choose whether or not to use their husband’s surnames.
1991 – Quota Law
The quota law, adopted on 6th November 1991, established a minimum 30% female participation in the lists of candidates for legislative elections. Thus, Argentina became the first country in the region to implement a quota system to ensure the participation of women in national politics: for every two men, one woman.
1994 – A New Constitution, A New Step Forward
The constitutional reform of 1994 signified an important breakthrough in the recognition of women’s rights. The Constituent Assembly embodied in the new constitution the accomplishments so far consummated by women, and provided them with a legal framework and constitutional status. From the female vote, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Quota Law, the law on Protection against Family Violence, to the Program “Victims against Violence” and the creation of the Office of Domestic Violence in the Supreme Court, the State began to return women their rights, complying with international human rights treaties.