INTRODUCTION

The Argentinian feminist movement has a long and rich tradition, which is crystallized in – among other things – 35 editions of Encuentros Plurinacionales de Mujeres, Lesbianas, Trans, Travestis, Bisexuales, Intersexuales, y No Binaries (Plurinational Meetings of Women, Lesbians, Trans, Travestis, Bisexuals, Intersex, and Non-Binary People), which started in 1986 and were interrupted only during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Encuentros are a unique phenomenon in the world: yearly open meetings in which tens of thousands of women and people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities (SOGI) from all geographic regions, social stratifications and political orientations get together to think and discuss the movement's agenda collectively.

In 2015 the first demonstration under the slogan “Ni Una Menos” (“No One [Woman] Less”) further enhanced the vitality and massification of the feminist movement in the country. This protest constituted a historic event, which gave political, social and cultural volume to the condemnation of gender violence (Centro de Estudios Legales e Sociales [CELS] 2019). It contributed to the prioritization of gender issues within the public agenda, which included demands related to the rights to legal, safe and free abortions and the unfair sexual division of labour.

In this context, it is unsurprising that feminists have progressively gained space, albeit not without effort, in the political arena. Cross-party alliances between legislators, for example, played a key role in bringing the demands of feminists from the streets to the National Congress and, ultimately, in achieving, after several attempts, the enactment of the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Law (Congreso Nacional de la Nación Argentina 2020).

Likewise, gender units have been gradually institutionalized within the government (Lopreite & Rodríguez Gustá 2021), and have slowly gained hierarchy and autonomy, although these changes have not always resulted in an increase in budget allocation. The path towards the institutionalization of gender machinery within the national government has not been linear; nevertheless, the change of government administration in 2019 was a turning point. Since the election to the presidency of Alberto Fernández late that year there has been a shift at the national level in terms of the political discourse and priorities, moving away from the previous government's very orthodox neoliberal positions and proposing a recovery of the role of the state as a guarantor of the well-being of society.