Women’s Movements in International Perspective: Latin America and Beyond

254 Pages·2001·1.282 MB·English

by  Maxine Molyneux (auth.)

Institute of Latin American Studies Series
General Editor: James Dunkerley, Director, Institute of Latin American Studies,
University of London
The Institute of Latin American Studies, a member of the School of Advanced
Study of the University of London, was founded in 1965. The Institute is
dedicated to research on Latin America in the social sciences and humanities.
The purpose of this series is to disseminate to a wide audience the new work
based on the research programmes and projects organised by academic staff
and Associate Fellows of the Institute of Latin American Studies.
Titles include:
Victor Bulmer-Thomas (editor)
THE NEW ECONOMIC MODEL IN LATIN AMERICA AND ITS IMPACT ON
INCOME DISTRIBUTION AND POVERTY
Victor Bulmer-Thomas, Nikki Craske and Mónica Serrano (editors)
MEXICO AND THE NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT: WHO
WILL BENEFIT?
Elizabeth Joyce and Carlos Malamud (editors)
LATIN AMERICA AND THE MULTINATIONAL DRUG TRADE
Walter Little and Eduardo Posada-Carbó (editors)
POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN EUROPE AND LATIN AMERICA
Oliver Marshall (editor)
ENGLISH-SPEAKING COMMUNITIES IN LATIN AMERICA
Maxine Molyneux
WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Latin America and Beyond
Eduardo Posada-Carbó (editor)
COLOMBIA
The Politics of Reforming the State
ELECTIONS BEFORE DEMOCRACY
The History of Elections in Europe and Latin America
Rachel Sieder (editor)
CENTRAL AMERICA: Fragile Transition
John Weeks (editor)
STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT AND THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN LATIN
AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Institute of Latin American Studies
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Women’s Movements in
International Perspective
Latin America and Beyond
Maxine Molyneux
Institute of Latin American Studies
University of London
© Institute of Latin American Studies 2001
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2001 978-0-333-78677-2
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ISBN 978-1-349-41854-1 ISBN 978-0-230-28638-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230286382
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A catalogue record for this book is available
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Molyneux,Maxine.
Women’s movements in international perspective :Latin America and
beyond / Maxine Molyneux.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1.Feminism—Latin America—History—19th century.2.Feminism–
–Latin America—History—20th century.3.Women—Latin America–
–Social conditions—19th century.4.Women—Latin America—Social
conditions—20th century.I.Title.
HQ1460.5 .M64 2000
305.42'098—dc21
00–062707
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
For A.M.H. and F.H.
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Acknowledgements vii
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 No God, No Boss, No Husband! Anarchist Feminism in
Nineteenth-Century Argentina 13
2 Mobilisation without Emancipation? Women’s Interests,
the State and Revolution in Nicaragua 38
3 The Politics of Abortion in Nicaragua: Revolutionary
Pragmatism – or Feminism in the Realm of Necessity? 60
4 State, Gender and Institutional Change: The Federación de
Mujeres Cubanas 76
5 State Socialism and Women’s Emancipation: A Continuing
Retrospective 99
6 Analysing Women’s Movements 140
7 Gender and Citizenship in Latin America: Historical and
Contemporary Issues 163
Notes 203
Bibliography 227
Index 240
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Acknowledgements ix
Acknowledgements
There are many debts of gratitude to those who helped in different ways
to bring this book to fruition. It was the Director of ILAS, James
Dunkerley, who made it a possibility first by suggesting that I publish
this collection and then by giving his support to its materialisation.
I would also like to thank those who have in various ways helped in
the writing of these chapters: Amalia Chamorro, Nikki Craske, Ana
Criquillon, Elisabeth Croll, Elisabeth Dore, Barbara Einhorn, Maria
Carmen Feijoó, Ann Marie Goetz, Jon Halliday, Hermione Harris,
Elisabeth Jelin, Deniz Kandiyoti, Saul Landau, Sian Lazar, Emily Morris,
Ruth Pearson, Shirin Rai, Sheila Rowbotham, Jennifer Schirmer, Deborah
Steinberg, Jean Stubbs, Barbara Taylor, Paul Thompson, Virginia Vargas,
Margarita Velázquez, Nira Yuval Davis, the late Harold Wolpe, the late
Gordon White and my Masters and PhD students for their insights and
shared enthusiasms. A special thanks, too, to all those who so generously
gave their time in interviews and conversations in many different
situations and parts of the world.
My thanks for financial and institutional support go to: the Fuller
Bequest at the University of Essex for helping to sponsor research on
Cuba, Ethiopia and the Soviet Union; to the ESRC for a grant to run the
seminar series on Gender, Class and Ethnicity in Post-Communist States;
to the Nuffield Foundation for funding a research in Nicaragua; to IDS
for funding a Research Fellowship to do comparative work on state
socialism; to UNRISD for supporting work on post communist states; the
DFID for sponsoring research on rights-based approaches to develop-
ment in Latin America; and, not least, to ILAS for sustained support and
for sponsoring trips to Cuba, Central America, Peru and Bolivia. Thanks
too, to former colleagues at Essex University and Birkbeck College and to
former co-editors of Feminist Review, as well as to colleagues at ILAS and
co-editors of Economy and Society, for providing a context for stimulating
discussion and debate. At ILAS thanks to the editorial team, John Maher
and Melanie Jones; to Tony Bell, to Alan Biggins and Valerie Cooper of
the ILAS Library and to Anna Hayes.
Finally, thanks to my partner Fred Halliday to whom I owe a special
debt of gratitude for so many things and to my son Alex, who made his
own mark on this project and whose IT expertise came to my rescue on
many an occasion.
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