RADCLIFFE, Sarah A. and WESTWOOD, Sallie (eds.) (1993) "Viva": Women and
Popular Protest in Latin America, Routledge, London and New York.
Powerful grassroots movements in Latin America are demanding fundamental social
and political change to a continent which has seen revolutionary governments,
authoritarian dictatorships and reformist military administrations. Through their active
involvement women are seen for the first time as integral to the process of
democratisation. Yet these women are not a simple unity with shared aims; class and
ethnicity create division.
"Viva" explores the growing role of women in the formal and informal politics of the
countries of Latin America. Through contemporary case studies, the contributors
examine how gender-politics in the region is institutionalised in a variety of spheres
varying from the state to local groups. The book focuses in particular on the role of the
state in the construction of gender, questioning whether the emergence of women's
activism and agendas represent a fundamental shift away from the historical
marginalization of women from politics. The centrality of gender, class and ethnicity in
the ideological construction of "the nation" is discussed.
Following an initial chapter by the editors on "Gender, Racism and the Politics of
Identities in Latin America", this book contains a series of country based examinations
of particular feminist issues such as: the gendering of consciousness; women and the
environment; links with the Catholic church; popular education; community
development; the cultural contribution of women; linking the modem with the
traditional; the politics of protest. The country case studies range across: Brazil, Chile,
Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru.
SCHMUKLER, Beatriz (1992) Women and the Microsocial Democratisation of
Everyday Life, in: STROMQUIST, N (ed) (1992) Women and Education in Latin
America. Knowledge, Power and Change, Lynne Rienner, London, 251-276.
Parents, particularly low-income parents, have little power and ability to negotiate the
education of their children. This disadvantage is suffered essentially by women, who as
mothers are expected to be the ones to supervise the education of children, or at least to
become more involved in it than are their husbands.
In this chapter, Beatriz Schmukler discusses the careful although fragile construction of
a space where parents can negotiate and renegotiate educational services and practices
with school authorities. Although these parent-school authority transactions occur
mostly in the area of democratising participation, they concern gender issues in two
ways. First, the democratisation of school practices involves mothers more than fathers
because mothers must respond to the social norm that they are responsible for their