Lawyer, Professor, Wife, Mother, and Political Activist

As I have been looking for the woman to feature for South America I have come across a lot of interesting information and a few potential future women. It has been a bit difficult gathering a ton of useful information on this woman, simply because a lot of it is in Spanish and well, I don't speak Spanish! With that being said, there might not be as much information about this woman as I would like, but I was struck by the little information about her that I could gather and wanted to share. She does break my preference of featuring women from the past, as she is still alive and actively engaged in activities.

Laura Albornoz was born March 27, 1968 in Chile, a country where women did not gain the right to vote until 1952, less than two decades before she was born. In a country that in many ways is ahead of the countries near it, but in other ways, equality and women's rights is far behind. 

From a young age Laura was involved in the political world, participating in the Federation of Secondary Students. Laura received her doctorate in Civil Law from the University of Seville in Spain, graduated cum laude. She has several degrees from Universities in both Spain in Chile.

From 2006-2009 Laura served as the Minister of Woman's Affairs under the first female Chilean President, Michelle Bachelet. Today Laura is Vice President of a major political party in Chile, a professor at a university, and a lawyer. She is also a wife and full time mother to two children.

While Laura carries an active role in the political and judicial world of Chile, she also still maintains the maternal roles that are so important in the Chilean culture. She does the grocery shopping, keeps the house clean, takes care of her children, and cooks dinner. According to a NPR interview she says that this keeps her busy in a way that men just don't understand. While other, male, ministers may have many responsibilities as well, those responsibilities don't extend into their home life as hers do. 

In South America, motherhood is an important part of feminism. In the Chilean women's movement, women have used their maternal responsibilities as a way to increase their say and involvement in the political sphere. I love the way that they are going about this, at least from the little bit I have seen. I feel like so many modern feminists almost downgrade mothers and a woman's role as a wife and mother, but here is a country of woman who say the opposite, who say that those roles and traits help make women more successful in the political world. I love that this is a woman who is doing it all, she has her career, but is still a mother, cooking, cleaning, etc.