Latin American and Caribbean Feminist and Gender Studies: General Sources

Many might be familiar with the "@" symbol in internet communication. Although the symbol barely existed in Latin America before the emergence of email, Spanish-speaking feminist activists immediately claimed it to replace the awkward "o/a" used to indicate both genders in written text, discovering embedded in the internet an answer to the challenge of symbolic inclusion. In re-purposing the symbol, they changed its meaning.   In Interpreting the Internet, Elisabeth Jay Friedman provides the first in-depth exploration of how Latin American feminist and queer activists have interpreted the internet to support their counterpublics. Aided by a global network of women and men dedicated to establishing an accessible internet, activists have developed identities, constructed communities, and honed strategies for social change. And by translating the internet into their own vernacular, they have transformed the technology itself. This book will be of interest to scholars and students in feminist and gender studies, Latin American studies, media studies, and political science, as well as anyone curious about the ways in which the internet shapes our lives.

An upsurge of women's activism across Latin America has provoked vigorous discussions about feminism, machismo and the whole process of social change. Companeras brings together activists from thirteen different countries to speak directly about their experiences and aspirations in the women's movement presenting a unique overview of current debates among Latin American women activists.

Adding to the debate on a range of issues, this book presents a critical and deeply personal history of Mexican feminism in the last thirty five years. Drawing from her many years of activism and anthropological scholarship, influential thinker Marta Lamas covers topics such as the political development of the feminist movement, affirmative action in the workplace, conceptual advances in regard to gender, and disagreements among feminists. Here in English for the first time, this work offers invaluable insight into the theoretical and political tensions that have shaped Mexican feminism and the world at large.

Women's Activism in Latin America and the Caribbean brings together a group of interdisciplinary scholars who analyze and document the diversity, vibrancy, and effectiveness of women's experiences and organizing in Latin America and the Caribbean during the past four decades. Most of the expressions of collective agency are analyzed in this book within the context of the neoliberal model of globalization that has seriously affected most Latin American and Caribbean women's lives in multiple ways. Contributors explore the emergence of the area's feminist movement, dictatorships of the 1970s, the Central American uprisings, the urban, grassroots organizing for better living conditions, and finally, the turn toward public policy and formal political involvement and the alternative globalization movement. Geared toward bridging cultural realities, this volume represents women's transformations, challenges, and hopes, while considering the analytical tools needed to dissect the realities, understand the alternatives, and promote gender democracy.

Latin American women's movements played important roles in the democratic transitions in South America during the 1980s and in Central America during the 1990s. However, very little has been written on what has become of these movements and their agendas since the return to democracy. This timely collection examines how women's movements have responded to the dramatic political, economic, and social changes of the last twenty years. In these essays, leading scholar-activists focus on the various strategies women's movements have adopted and assess their successes and failures. The book is organized around three broad topics. The first, women's access to political power at the national level, is addressed by essays on the election of Michelle Bachelet in Chile, gender quotas in Argentina and Brazil, and the responses of the women's movement to the "Bolivarian revolution" in Venezuela. The second topic, the use of legal strategies, is taken up in essays on women's rights across the board in Argentina, violence against women in Brazil, and gender in the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Peru. Finally, the international impact of Latin American feminists is explored through an account of their participation in the World Social Forum, an assessment of a Chilean-led project carried out by women's organizations in several countries to hold governments to the promises they made at international conferences in Cairo and Beijing, and an account of cross-border organizing to address femicides and domestic abuse in the Juárez-El Paso border region. Jane S. Jaquette provides the historical and political context of women's movement activism in her introduction, and concludes the volume by engaging contemporary debates about feminism, civil society, and democracy. Contributors. Jutta Borner, Mariana Caminotti, Alina Donoso, Gioconda Espina, Jane S. Jaquette, Beatriz Kohen, Julissa Mantilla Falcón, Jutta Marx, Gabriela L. Montoya, Flávia Piovesan, Marcela Ríos Tobar, Kathleen Staudt, Teresa Valdés, and Virginia Vargas.

Women have experienced decades of economic and political repression across Latin America, where many nations are built upon patriarchal systems of power. However, a recent confluence of political, economic, and historical factors has allowed for the emergence of civil society organizations (CSOs) that afford women a voice throughout the region. Leadership from the Margins describes and analyzes the unique leadership styles and challenges facing the women leaders of CSOs in Argentina, Chile, and El Salvador. Based on ethnographic research, Serena Cosgrove's analysis offers a nuanced account of the distinct struggles facing women, and how differences of class, political ideology, and ethnicity have informed their outlook and organizing strategies. Using a gendered lens, she reveals the power and potential of women's leadership to impact the direction of local, regional, and global development agendas.

The first book on women's political history in Belize, From Colony to Nation demonstrates that women were creators of and activists within the two principal political currents of twentieth-century Belize: colonial-middle class reform and popular labor-nationalism. As such, their alliances and struggles with colonial administrators, male reformers, and nationalists and with one another were central to the emergence of this improbable nation-state.   From Colony to Nation draws on extensive research and previously unmined sources such as almost one hundred interviews, colonial government records, the files of Belize's first feminist organization, and court records. Anne S. Macpherson examines the tensions of the 1910s that led to the 1919 anticolonial riot; the reform project of the 1920s, in which Garveyite women were key state allies; the militant anticolonial labor movement of the 1930s; the more ambitious reform project of the 1940s; the successful but nonrevolutionary nationalist movement of the 1950s; and the gender dynamics of party politics and both Black Power and feminist challenges to the party system in the 1960s and 1970s.   From Colony to Nation connects to historiographies of racialized and gendered reform in colonial and other multiracial societies and of tensions between female activism and masculine authority within nationalist movements and postcolonial societies.

The majority of Latin Americans now live in countries that are governed by democratically elected governments on the political left, which is unprecedented in that region. This book analyzes this occurrence by asking a question that up until now has been largely ignored in the literature on the contemporary Latin American left: to what extent have these governments governed with, and promoting the interests of, women's movements that are an important part of their base of support? This question is examined by focusing on a critical case that is rarely analyzed in the literature on the new Latin American left, the case of Nicaragua. The broader implications for Latin America will be shown, making this book of interest to researchers and graduate students in Latin American studies as well as gender studies and political science.

This reader reflects the  genesis, scope, and direction of women's activism in a single Latin American country.  It collects the voices of forty-one diverse women who live in Costa Rica, some radical, others strongly conservative, and most ranging in-between, as they write about their lives, their problems, their aspirations. Unlike the comparative studies of women's issues that look at several different countries, the reader provides an insider's view of one small, but quintessentially Latin American, society. These women write of their own experience in organizing and working for change within the Costa Rican community. Some represent groups fitting into traditional "women's movement" that wants to improve certain aspects of women's; and families' daily lives. Still others, the "feminists," argue forcefully that true improvement requires a profound change of power relations in society, of women's access to power and decision making. The articles are organized into thematic groups that range from the definitions of Feminism in Costa Rica to women in Costa Rican history, women's legal equality, discrimination against women, and the status of Women's Studies. The brief biographies that identify each author underscore the leadership of Costa Rican women in Latin American Feminism. The founders and editors of Mujer, one of the most influential Feminist journals in Latin America, are among the authors represented in the reader. The audience for this book will include specialists interested in Latin America, in women in Latin America, and in the international women's movement.

Interviews with a Guatemalan national leader discuss her country's political situation and the resulting violence, which has claimed the lives of her brother, mother, and father.

Gender's Place integrates key theoretical issues and rich ethnographic cases in the feminist anthropology of Latin America around the concept of "desalambrar" (to tear down fences). This collection explores ways in which the interrelationship of gender and "place" can serve as a lens for analyzing the cultural, social, and historical specificity of gender and other social inequalities. By "tearing down" theoretical and analytic fences prevalent in research on gender in Latin America in order to construct ethnographically specific alternatives, the book demonstrates the unique contribution that anthropology can make to gender and area studies.

From advertising to television and film, feminist media scholars have examined the changing nature of media representations form the 1990's onwards in comparison to the 1950s in the UK and the US. Many debates focus on the current ambiguity surrounding media representations which are inserted within post-feminist texts that tend to equate female empowerment with choice, individualism and consumerism. This has occurred in a context where there have been some achievements in gender equality worldwide, with women occupying more spaces in the marketplace, business and government. In the last decades, Latin America has been through many changes. Inequality levels have been reduced and political trends have resulted in the election of female politicians throughout the continent, corresponding with a revival of gender politics and feminist movements. At the same time, however, countries like Brazil are still home to gender discrimination and inequality, with high levels of domestic violence towards women, low levels of political representation, a culture of machismo, and the enduring predominance of stereotypical gender representations in the media. Globalization, Gender Politics, and the Media looks at the correlation between gender inequality in society with media representations, situating the case of Brazil and Latin America within the global quest for gender justice. It emphasizes the need to equate material and economic concerns with the examination of the reproduction of values and beliefs on gender through cultural and media outlets. Questions that are asked include, how can the media better contribute to assist in gender development and nation-building? How can online platforms make a difference? What can be done within the mainstream media to advance women's rights? What is understood by the myth of the "Brazilian woman," and how does this connect to other notions of what the "Third World woman" is? Using a triangulation methodology, this book includes a small selection of interviews with experts from international organizations, politicians in Brazil, and bloggers, as well as a sample of media analysis of ads, commercials, posters, campaign material, and feminist blogs to examine the challenges that gender equality faces in this country and the ways in which the media can make a difference.

Provides a comprehensive, multidisciplinary view of Latin American history and culture from prehistoric times to the present. Covers cultural issues and includes numerous biographical profiles of important figures in politics, letters and the arts. It includes several entries regarding feminism in Latin America, as well as biographies of women writers, thinkers, educators, and activists that have been crucial in enlarging women rights. It also contains references to cultural production, such as books, movies, or music in which women or women topics have an outstanding role.

Radical Women in Latin America is a collection of original essays by scholars from a variety of disciplines--anthropology, history, and political science--on the political activism of women from both the left and the right. The stories of these radical women challenge traditional portrayals of men as violent and women as inherently peaceful. This volume forces us to confront the fact that there is no automatic sisterhood among women, even among those of the same class and ethnicity. At the same time, the essays show the similarities that can unite women across immense political divides. This book analyzes radical women's actions and motivations through four interrelated themes--maternalism, feminism, autonomy, and coalitions between left- and right-wing women--in three Central American countries (Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala) and three South American countries (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile). The editors and contributors to this volume have done extensive and recent field research in Latin America. Radical Women in Latin America challenges both stereotypical views of Latin American women as easily manipulated and portrayals of women's activism as inherently progressive. This book will make clear that women are capable of defining their own interests and their political identities, organizing autonomously, and even using violence, if they deem it necessary to pursue their goals.

Detailed here are the lives and achievements of 29 Latin American Women: Bartira, Dona Marina, Isabel de Guevara, Teculihuatzin, Beatriz de la Cueva, Catalina de Erauso, Juana Ines de la Cruz, Micaela Bastidas, Policarpa Salvarrieta, Josefa Oritiz de Dominguez, Manuela Saenz, Francisca Zubiaga, Leona Vicario, Javiera Carrera, Agueda Monasterio de Lattapiat, Luisa Recabarren de Marin, Gertrudis Bocanegra, Juana Barragan, Maria Luisa Martinez de Garcia, Maria Fermina Rivera, Manuela Medina, Leopoldina, Manuela de Rosas, Margarita Maza de Juarez, Laura Mendez de Cuenca, Maria Enriqueta Camarillo y Roa de Pereyra, Esther Tapia de Castellano, Refugio Barragan de Toscano, and Luisa Munoz Ledo.

What do women do for revolutions? And what do revolutions do for women? Julie Shayne explores the roles of women in revolutionary struggles and the relationship of these movements to the emergence of feminism. Focusing upon the three very different cases of El Salvador, Chile, and Cuba, Shayne documents the roles of women in armed and unarmed political activities. She argues that women contribute to and participate in revolutionary movements in ways quite distinct from men. Despite the fact that their political contributions tend to be seen as less important than those of their male comrades, the roles that women play are actually quite significant to the expansion of revolutionary movements. Shayne also explains how, given the convergence of political and ideological factors, feminism is often born in the wake of revolutionary movements. As a result, revolutionary feminism is a struggle that addresses larger structures of political and economic inequalities. Based on extensive in-depth interviews with activists in all three countries, The Revolution Question offers new insight into the complex gender relations underlying revolutionary social movements and enables us to re-assess both the ways that women affect political struggle and the ways in which political struggle affects women.

In Latin American history, women have not only played key roles within the family and society, but have long been active participants in political and economic life. The explosion of research over the last fifteen years testifies to how much we still have to learn about their experiences. Women and Gender in Modern Latin America brings together selections from recent scholarship with excerpts from an exciting array of primary sources, many translated into English for the first time, to bring the story of women's involvement in modern Latin American history up to date. Covering major developments in the region from the bitter wars of Spanish American independence (1810-1825) through the turn of the twenty-first century, this collection examines the expectations, responsibilities, and limitations that have confronted women in their varied roles. The book explores: The nature and impact of feminist movements women's role in economic modernization and the gendered division of labor women's contributions to 20th-century nationalism and social revolutions Changing gender roles and relations within marriage and the family The impact of modern birth control methods and changing sexual mores In the concise introductory essays, Pamela S. Murray synthesizes recent research to provide readers with a context for the selections in each chapter, including primary sources that range from trial records, legal codes, and other official documents to personal letters, excerpts from women's published writings, speeches, and images. Whether for a course specifically on women in Latin America, or as an addition to a modern Latin America survey course, Women and Gender in Modern Latin America provides a comprehensive overview of the experiences of women and workings of gender over time across a vast and diverse region.

"The Emergence of the Modern Mexican Woman is the first book in English on women's participation in the Mexican Revolution (1910-1940) and the Mexican women's rights movement during this thirty-year period. The work is based on extensive research at libraries in Mexico and the United States and on the author's personal interviews with some of the few women alive today who participated in the revolution and with family members and friends of those who are deceased. Shirlene Soto completes the history of the Mexican Revolution by introducing readers to the heroic women who risked their lives in a long and difficult struggle to attain freedom and equality. Revolutionary women set into play an irresistible momentum that culminated eventually in the attainment of suffrage for all Mexican women. In 1974, Mexico adopted the equivalent of the proposed U.S. Equal Rights Amendment. That same year the Civil Code was revised to give Mexican women equal rights and obligations in marriage and divorce. In 1975, Mexico assumed an international leadership role in women's rights by hosting the United Nations Año Internacional de la Mujer (International Women's Year) meeting in Mexico City. Despite these significant gains, serious socioeconomic inequalities persist in Mexico today and are waiting to be addressed by a new set of leaders among the ranks of Mexican women. The courageous revolutionary women who laid the groundwork for the emergence of the modern Mexican woman left a rich cultural heritage that challenges her to persevere in the struggle for equality."--Publisher's description.