Women And Social Change In Latin America

This book comprises six case studies : on Argentina, Bolivia (2x), Brazil, Chile and Peru. The six studies present different aspects of the women's movement and organisations and employ different methodologies (f.e. Women settlers in Lima, women and trade unions in Chile and peasant women's organisation in Bolivia)

This book is a critical resource for understanding the relationship between gender, social policy and women’s activism in Latin America, with specific reference to Chile. Latin America’s mother-centered kinship system makes it an ideal field in which to study motherhood and maternalism—the ways in which motherhood becomes a public policy issue. As maternalism embraces and enhances gender differences, it has been criticized for deepening gender inequalities. Yet invoking motherhood continues to offer an effective strategy for advancing women’s living conditions and rights, and for women themselves to be present in the public sphere. In analyzing these important relationships, the contributors to this volume discuss maternal health, sexual and reproductive rights, labor programs, paid employment, women miners’ unionization, housing policies, environmental suffering, and LGBTQ intimate partner violence.

Feminists in the Southern Cone countries?Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay?between 1910 and 1930 obliged political leaders to consider gender in labor regulation, civil codes, public health programs, and politics. Feminism thus became a factor in the modernization of theseøgeographically linked but diverse societies in Latin America. Although feminists did not present a unified front in the discussion of divorce, reproductive rights, and public-health schemes to regulate sex and marriage, this work identifies feminism as a trigger for such discussion, which generated public and political debate on gender roles and social change. Asunci¢n Lavrin recounts changes inøgender relations and the role of women in each of the three countries, thereby contributing an enormous amount of new information and incisive analysis to the histories of Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay.

Dated September 1992

In this ground-breaking study, Regina Cortina and Nelly Stromquist examine how the alliances of international agencies, national governments, and nongovernmental organizations have strengthened public support for educating girls and women in Latin America. Bringing a timely and readable account of the strategies pursued, the authors show how the strength of the women's movement has influenced the education of women and girls, and thus has helped to reduce poverty and strengthen the citizenship of women in developing countries. The book's overview of recent initiatives, along with its illuminating case studies of developing nations, offers the reader a window into educational reform and the realities of social change in Latin America.

"This is a very exciting collection that will fill an important gap in what has emerged in comparative studies of women and Latin American democracies. Maier and Lebon provide provocative overview essays, and the chapters trace a range of cases from Argentina and Brazil to Nicaragua and Venezuela, showing how institutions. leaders and culture all shape the opportunities and challenges women face."---Jane Jaquette, editor of Feminist Agendas and Democracy in Latin America --