Although IWD is celebrated on March 8th, there are so many women whose work has improved numerous lives throughout the world, some of who are our very own, within the IAM. Throughout the month of March we will feature women from different parts of the world and historical eras to remind us that the women’s movement indeed has deep and long roots. Follow us as we learn together about women who have left a mark on history and society.
IDW 2021 – Juana Belén Gutiérrez Chavez (later de Mendoza) – Mexico
She was an advocate for workers in Mexico, Indigenous rights, and the founder of a group that advocated for better working conditions for women. She later became a teacher, translated numerous classic anarchist texts into Spanish, and contributed prolifically to revolutionary publications, and more mainstream ones on working class issues.
In 1907, she founded Las Hijas de Anáhuac, an anarchist-feminist group which agitated for strikes for better working conditions for women. She enthusiastically took part in the revolution which began in 1911, and was imprisoned for three years. Upon her release she set up a military unit in the army of Emiliano Zapata, who made her a colonel. She kept up her political activity advocating for rights for women, workers and Indigenous peoples until her death in 1942. (Source: Instagram- Working Class History)
