  Replacing the focus on patriarchy, the gender perspective (“perspectiva de género”) or gender focus (“enfoque de género”) became the methodological framework from which to talk about women and women’s issues across Latin America. Woman was replaced as a foundational category by gender, which became a blanket term so user-friendly that anyone could use it as a referent to women’s issues (Schutte &amp; Femenías 2010: 404). The ease with which it was used entailed the softening of radical militant critiques of patriarchy that had characterized feminist theorization in earlier decades. Gender was incorporated into public policy and social programs by state and intergovernmental organizations, reflecting the way in which it could be taken up as part of the lexicon for even policies not feminist-inspired (Lima Costa 2014a: 26). On the flip side, the Vatican during its preparation for the 1995 Conference on Women feared using the word gender as it might entail the acceptance of homosexuality, the destruction of the patriarchal family, and the dissemination of feminism (Lima Costa 2014a: 28).