#NiUnaMenos (in English "Not one (woman) less") is a hashtag movement that went viral on Twitter in 2015 that aims to protest violence against women.[1] The movement originated in Argentina after the increasing number of femicides in the country.[1] This a hashtag movement that is part of the South American feminist movement Ni una menos.[1]
Slogan origin
editIn 1995 Susana Chávez, a Mexican poet and activist came up with the phrase 'Not One Woman Less, Not One More Woman Killed' to protest the femicides that were occurring in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.[2][3]
Hashtag origin and timeline
editMarch 2015
editAfter the murder of nineteen-year-old woman Diana Garcia, a couple of Argentinian journalists and writers organized a reading marathon.[3] Vanina Escales was one of those journalists and activits that participated in the organization of the event. For the name of the event, Escales was inspired by Susana Chavez's phrase "Ni una Menos, Ni una Muerte Más" which means 'Not One Woman Less, Not One More Woman Killed' which Chavez's used to protest the femicides that were occurring in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. [2][4] "Ni Una Menos" became the slogan to promote the event on Facebook as Escales wanted to bring immediate attention to the alarming increase of femicides.[5] The event took place March 26 of 2015 in Buenos Aires' national library where artists and families touched by the tragedies attended the event.[5][2] The event's goal was to shed light on the number of femicides in Argentina through a series of literary performances.[5]
May 2015
editIn the month of May, after 14 year-old girl Chiara Paez was murdered and buried alive by her boyfriend and his mother.[6][5] Argentinian radio journalist Marcela Ojeda who had covered femicide cases [7] was horrified upon learning about Paez's murder so she went on Twitter's platform to denounce the alarming increase of femicides in Argentina.[5] She wrote:
“Actrices, políticas, artistas, empresarias, referentes sociales...mujeres, todas, bah...no vamos a levantar la voz? NOS ESTAN MATANDO” [5]
English translation:
“Women actors, politicians, artists, entrepreneurs, social activists . . . all women, are we not going to raise our voice? They are killing us.” [3]
After Ojeda's Tweet Argentinian activists, artists, media personalities and even lawyers got involved through social media some them were; Florencia Etcheves, Florencia Abbate, Valeria Sampedro, Ingrid Beck, Hinde Pomeraniec and Claudia Piñero.[5][7] Two groups were formed, one of them created the Ni Una Menos Twitter account and the other group managed the previously existing Facebook account.[3] They created the hashtag #NiUnaMenos, where they encouraged people to share pictures including the hashtag.[5] Many images were shared amongst users that informed the public on violence against women and images that tried to dismatle misogynistic behaviours in Argentinian society. [3] Among those pictures, a drawing of a "little girl with a closed fist" came to represent the movement at the time. [3]
Social media was a big part of the movement, the hashtag was used to protest different political and social issues that women were being victims of in Argentina.[3] Their main concerns being the government not properly giving justice to violence victims, abortion rights, gender pay gap.[3] Many women were even using the hashtag to share their own stories.[1][4] The movement gave women a platform to share what they went through such as Mariana Madiana, a woman who went through 59 surgeries because her husband had burnt her.[7] She shared that: "With Ni Una Menos, women are no longer hiding,’... ‘Before, we would not talk,".[7][8] Through these kinds of engagements with the hashtag, the movement increased awareness on violence against women.[3] The media attention that the online movement generated was what made possible the organization of a march for justice on June 3, 2015.[3]
June 2015
editThis two groups of women who organized the #NiUnaMenos movement merged into one, comprising a total of 20 members.[5] They worked together to plan a march on June 3 of 2015 to collectively denounce the femicides in Argentina and demand justice for the victims.[3][5] Both the hashtag and the march were a huge success, the virality of the hashtag was so big that protests took place in 70 cities across Argentina.[7] 200,000 people attended the march in Buenos Aires and 61.2% of the attendees were there because of social media.[5][7] #NiUnaMenos became a slogan to fight violence against women as thousands of people showed up to the strike using the slogan.[3] The online engagement with the hashtag kept ongoing as the march was taking place was high, #NiUnaMenos was mentioned 516,000 times that day.[9] Between Ojeda's first tweet and the march, the hashtag was tweeted about 958,000.[7]
Impact
edit#NiUnaMenos created a community which increased online engagement as anyone was able to participate in the movement.[1] Research shows how the hashtag was key to the success of the movement as it increased the movements abilities to "raise awareness, mobilize support and even pressure policymakers to address the problem of femicide in Argentina." [4] #NiUnaMenos became a tool to demand for those who committed crimes against women to be held accountable by the state. [7]
Because of the amount of involvement that the protests received, Argentina's Supreme Court and government took immediate action and started collecting data about gender based violence and approaved a law that protects women from verbal and physical abuse. [7] The online movement even had a huge impact on activism numbers in Argentina, between 2014 and 2017 women's involvement in manifestations went from 8% to 16% as a result of the social media movement.[1]
The hashtag not only allowed people from outside Buenos Aires to join the movement but it allowed people from other countries to partake in it as well. This led to the hashtag to not only go viral in Argentina but in other South American countries too.[1] It now holds a record within Latin America most popular hashtags.[1] Because of this, #NiUnaMenos also impacted and increased discussions and campaigns about reproductive rights in Argentina and in other Latin American countries. [7]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h Spangler, Claire (2024-06-28). "Feminist Movements and Barriers to Participation: A sociological study of Ni Una Menos protest tactics and accessibility". doi:10.17863/CAM.109736.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ a b c "L'Internationale". archive-2014-2024.internationaleonline.org. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Belotti, Francesca; Comunello, Francesca; Corradi, Consuelo (June 2021). "Feminicidio and #NiUna Menos: An Analysis of Twitter Conversations During the First 3 Years of the Argentinean Movement". Violence Against Women. 27 (8): 1035–1063. doi:10.1177/1077801220921947. ISSN 1077-8012.
- ^ a b c Carlborg, Nadja (2024). Bridging Theory and Activism: Exploring the Ni Una Menos Movement in Argentina through Political Process theory and Feminist Lens : "Ni una mujer menos, ni una muerte más".
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Frain, Kayla (2020-08-28). "How a Tweet Brought People to the Street: Social Media and the Success of Ni Una Menos". Undergraduate Journal of Global Citizenship. 3 (2).
- ^ Chenou, Jean-Marie; Cepeda-Másmela, Carolina (May 2019). "#NiUnaMenos: Data Activism From the Global South". Television & New Media. 20 (4): 396–411. doi:10.1177/1527476419828995. ISSN 1527-4764.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Minah, Kaata (2023). "Achieving gender equality through feminist social movements: A case study of Ni Una Menos (Not One Less)". ISSN 2712-0139.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "Argentina movement mobilizes to fight violence against women". AP News. 2017-06-19. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
- ^ Terzian, Polly (2019-12-17). "The Ni Una Menos Movement in Argentina in 21st Century Argentina: Combating More Than Femicide". CivilResistance.info. Retrieved 2024-10-30.