Interview with Virginia Vargas

Abstract

Virginia Vargas, born in 1945, is sociologist and a leader of the women's movement in Peru. In 1978 Vargas was a founding member of the Flora Tristán Center, a non-governmental Peruvian organization that studies, educates, and lobbies for women's rights. She served as the organization's coordinator and later its director until 1990. She founded the Latin American division of DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era). She has long been engaged in the struggle for democracy and was candidate for Congress in 1985 and one of the leading activists in coordinating the organization Women for Democracy (MUDE) in 1997. Vargas was the recipient of a UNIFEM Award during the United Nations' 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in September 1995. In 2000 she spoke at the UN General Assembly in New York on behalf of Latin American and Caribbean women's NGOs. Beginning in 2001, Vargas became part of the World Social Forum's International Committee. She is also on the Advisory Council of the National University of San Marcos' Institute for Democracy and Global Transformation. In 2005, at the Millennium Social Summit, she was a speaker representing Civil Society at the UN General Assembly, New York. Vargas has participated in debates and discussions in many countries being internationally recognized as an activist and academic/researcher and is the author of over 40 publications on citizenship, the state, and democracy from a feminist perspective.