ABOUT THIS BOOK

This book provides a comprehensive view of women's political participation in Latin America. Focusing on the latter half of the twentieth century, it examines five different arenas of action and debate: political institutions, workplaces, social movements, revolutions, and feminisms. Nikki Craske explores the ways in which women have become more effective in the public arena as the context of politics has altered.

Craske demonstrates how gender relations shape political institutions and practices while simultaneously being shaped by them. She examines the moments when women's action has challenged received ideas, and had a significant impact on the political life of Latin American nations. Women remain heavily underrepresented in political lie, despite their important role in popular movements against authoritarianism, Craske states, and posits that the economy is a substantial constraint on women's political participation. This powerful book analyzes the gains made since the 1950s while scrutinizing the challenges and difficulties which still constrain women's political participation.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Nikki Craske is a lecturer in politics at Queen's University of Belfast. She has coedited Mexico and the North American Free Trade Agreement: Who Will Benefit? and Dismantling the Mexican State.

REVIEWS

CraskeÆs aim, at root, is to re-evaluate the relation between women and politics in a period of apparent decline and disenchantment. . . . The failure of womenÆs movements to prevent demobilization or to ensure many lasting gains . . . demands, Craske suggests, a re-assessment of the strategies originally employed to mobilize political action. Perhaps its clearest revelation is symptomatically at the point that Craske attempts to define feminism. . . CraskeÆs book is poised facing this dilemma between seeing feminism as æcritiqueÆ of current theories on the one hand or æenhance[ment]Æ building on and strengthening those theories, on the other.

— Bulletin of Hispanic Studies

Craske defines 'politics' in a broad and inclusive sense and shows that, in spite of considerable difficulties and obstacles, there have been important shifts recently in gender relations and the nature of politics and political practice in Latin America. — Tessa Cubitt, Academic Development Centre, University of Portsmouth

CraskeÆs book provides a comprehensive overview of the scholarship on womenÆs participation, including some of her own original research on Argentina, Chile, and Mexico. . . Craske finds a key aspect of womenÆs political participation in the frequent use of motherhood as a mobilizing point. Be it in human rights groups, neighborhood organizations, revolutionary movements, or trade unions, Latin American women frequently see their activism as rooted in their roles as mothers. . . . Appropriate not only for seasoned scholars . . . but also for graduate students and advanced undergraduates.

— Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs

This well written, thorough, and accessible book presents a fine, updated overview of the challenges facing women in Latin America.

— Orin Starn, Author of Nighwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes

In her wide-ranging survey, Women and Politics in Latin America, Nikki Craske has combined a wealth of empirical detail with theoretical insight, to produce a book which will be essential reading on the subject. — Maxine Molyneaux, Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Acronyms
Argument
Why women?
Political exclusion
The shifting terrain
Mothers, women, citizens: tensions
Organization of the book
Conclusions
Women and Political Identity in Latin America
Introduction
Constructing gender relations
Machismo and marianismo
Conceptualizing women's political participation
Gender interests
Developing citizenship
Conclusions
Setting the Scene
Introduction
Latin American political systems in the twentieth century
Economic developments
Social structures
Latin American women: a glance at the statistics
Conclusions
Formal Political Representation: Governments, Parties and Bureaucracies
Introduction
The struggle for formal citizenship
Women's legislative representation and office holding
Government impact on women's political participation
Political parties
Bureaucracies
Conclusions
The Impact of Work on Political Identity
Introduction
Changing work experiences
Collective action in the workplace
The political implications of work
Conclusions
Social Movements: Consumer and Human Rights Organizations
Introduction
The rise of social movements
The development of consumer organizations
Human rights organizations: the origins
Structures and organization
Facilitating organizations: professionalization of protest
Political implications of social movements
Constraints
Conclusions
Revolutionary Empowerment?
Introduction
The armed struggles
The revolutionary states
Cuba
Nicaragua
Counter-revolution
Conclusions
Feminisms in Latin America
Introduction
Feminist or feminine?
The roots of feminism in Latin America
Second-wave feminism
Contemporary feminism and the Regional Feminist Meetings
State feminism
Conclusions: challenges to feminism in the 1990s
Conclusions: Politics: an Ambivalent Experience
Changing gender relations
Political motherhood
Redefining politics
Gender interests
The 1990s and beyond
Notes
References
Index