Nora Castañeda, President of the Women's Development Bank:

We made ourselves part of the Constituent Assembly. Every day, for as long as the Assembly sat, two movements were on permanent visit there: the Indigenous movement and the women's movement. We came not to beg but to submit our proposals. We had been discussing all this for years, and now our time had come. And there, in the Constituent Assembly, on picket duty, we won the inclusion of our rights in the constitution. We won Article 88, recognising that housewives create added value, and must be compensated with social security. 

And in the Land Act we won Article 14, giving women heads of household priority in land distribution. 

Women have always been part of the economy but most of the time their work has been invisible. Article 88 of the constitution is based on this. There is no woman in the world who is economically inactive. The fact that our work is done in the home and produces use values, values which are not put on the market, is no reason to make us invisible. We women add value to the economy, to society, and therefore society has an obligation to return something to us so that we also benefit from this economy. It's only fair that the whole of society should contribute to us through social security: healthcare, education, pensions, housing.

So we share the Strike's perspective that all our lives women are part of the economy and the point is to make this fact visible and to pay us for what we have done. It's not about a gift, a donation, it's about payment. 

Recognition that unremunerated housework generates added value is a way of winning a choice for women; she can opt to do this work and be paid for it without having to do another job for the market. Our aim is to eliminate these triple workdays. Community work [the third job] should also have its recognition, a payment to women. 

The Women's Bank has a fundamental purpose: that women living in poverty become independent protagonists in the revolutionary struggle. We believe that the economy must be at the service of human beings, not human beings at the service of the economy. We want to create an economy based on co-operation and mutual support, a caring economy. We are not building a bank. We are building a different way of life. 

Interview with the Strike, April 2003

Article 88
The State guarantees equality and equity between men and women in the exercise of their right to work. The State recognises work at home as an economic activity that creates added value and produces social welfare and wealth. Housewives are entitled to Social Security in accordance with the law. Articles of the constitution are printed on milk cartons and food wrappings.