Brusco, Elizabeth
1993 The Reformation of Machismo: Asceticism and Masculinity among Colombian Evangelicals. In: Lergnia Garrard – Burnett and David Stoll (eds.), Rethinking Protestantism in Latin America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Pp 143-158.


[p144]
Research: how affects conversion to evangelical Protestantism the domestic lives of the converts?
--> Colombian evangelicalism reforms gender roles in a way that enhances the female status. "antidote to machismo"

[p145]
scholars explain the evangelical movement in terms of marginality, which has the effect of removing women from a central place in understanding evangelical growth. "Women always seem marginal if we look for explanations in the social domains from which they are systematically excluded." But "religious change can both redefine the domestic realm of the household and have implications for the public realm".

[p146]
Practical and Strategic Consequences of the Movement. (p146-150)

[p147]
2 types of feminist movement:
- practical interest based: "against encroachment on the ability to fulfill traditional obligitions", narrow.
- strategical interest based: "aims to revise the sex/ gender system. broad mobilization. --> Colombian evangelicalism.

practical advantages:
- improves material circumstances, becuase of ascetic codes characterizing masculine behaviour in Colombia. (p149:) ascetism does not imply capital accumulation, but implies a transformation of consumtion patterns, which can contribute to upward mobility.
strategical advantages:
- "machismo [...] [p148] is replaced by evangelical belief as the main definer of expectations in husband-wife relations"
- "The boundaries of public-male life and private-female life are redrawn and the spheres [...] redefined"
- male aspirations now coincide more closely with female aspirations.
[p149]
- atraction of the evangelical movement: "instead of trying to revolutionize the public realm, [...] Protestantism reorders the private realm" so the condition of the home becomes crucial to the status of both men and women.

[p150]
Protestantism as a Form of Female Collective Action. (p150-152)

differences between feminist movements in the developed countries and in the developing countries:
[p151]
- developed countries: "family as locus of oppression"
- developping countries: "family as main source of power"

"Many women's collective movements have been organized around regaining basic rights that are being infringed by modernization and social change"

[p152]
Conclusion: Some Broader Considerations. (p 152-154)

"In Colombia, the template of evangelical Protestantism is helping men and women redefine their roles around the institution of the family." It is a practical and strategic movement seeking "to redress underlying gender inequalities". It is effective because it not only transforms female roles (as movements in developed countries do), but also male roles.
[p153]
This does not mean that this kind of movement works everywhere to reduce gender inequalities. Probably only there where "religious conversion challenges the kind of aggressive maleness illustrated by machismo"
A last point has to be made about the role of evangelical Protestantism in institutional politics: The "absence of evangelicals in political offices above the local level" cannot "nullify their low-key but longterm impact on the gender system".
[p154]
This actually is a positive thing, because the movement works best through small groups. It will keep reproducing these small groups even when the movement grows, this means involvement by women continues to be encouraged and the proces of gender equalizing also continues.

[p154]
Notes. (p154-158)