Radical Women in Latin America: Left and Right (review)

While much of social science literature examining Latin American women's movements and women in Latin American politics has focused on women's participation from the left, this collection offers a new perspective on Latin American women through focusing key chapters on women on the right and on successful and unsuccessful coalition efforts between women on the right and left. The in-depth sections of the book that focus on Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Chile and offer multiple chapters are particularly useful in understanding the full range of the political spectrum that women have participated in. A comparative chapter on women's roles in spreading right-wing patriotism in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile from 1900-1940, an individual chapter on feminist participation in the Brazilian Worker's Party, and a chapter on women's participation in a post-war guerilla coalition turned political party in Guatemala round out the collection.

One of the most interesting chapters highlights the role of women who worked with the Somoza's right-wing Nationalist Liberal Party in Nicaragua between 1936 and 1979. Dealing with a wide class spectrum of women who supported the Somocista party, historian Victoria González goes a long way in disrupting the stereotyped idea that in the realm of politics, women are morally superior to men and use this platform as a basis for political participation. She shows in detail how a former prostitute and madame known as "La Nicolasa" came to have a high degree of influence in the Somocista party and governments and was behind ruthless tactics to intimate the Somocista opposition, whether it was male or female. "La Nicolasa" co-existed in the National Liberal Party along with upper class professional women and government workers such as teachers who were the party's backbone. Rather than relying simply on an analysis of gender to explain Somocista women's political participation, González puts their participation in the larger context of the ways the Somoza clan held on to power and incorporated a wide range of people into its populist discourse. She demonstrates how a wide range of women, from prostitutes to teachers and workers who were incorporated into the discourse, appropriated it and made it their own.

González's chapter is complemented by Karen Kampwirth's comparative study of women's participation in the armed struggles of the Sandistinas and the Contras and by insider-feminist María Teresa Blandón's discussion of an alliance of left-wing, right-wing, and feminist women in post-revolutionary Nicaragua. Both Kampwirth's and Blandón's analyses suggest that it is difficult for left- and right-wing women in post-Sandinista Nicaragua to come to many agreements.

The possibilities for coalitions between women from the right and left appear to be somewhat brighter in El Salvador. Patricia Hipsher describes three concrete issues that women from opposing political sides have successfully mobilized around in post-war El Salvador: promoting more women in elective offices, responsible paternity (particularly the payment of child support), and combating domestic violence. Kelly Ready offers a compelling ethnographic case study of one such coalition that was important in securing post-war legislation that reconceptualized the family, afforded rights to women in common-law marriages and their children, and gave women greater leeway on the conditions under which they can force men to contribute child support. Ready's chapter also documents the founding and ongoing work of the Association of Mothers Seeking Child Support (AMD) which was started by a Salvadoran feminist organization (Women for Dignity and Life or DIGNAS) as a way to redefine motherhood, fatherhood and the family. By promoting the concept of irresponsible fatherhood and the rights of mothers, AMD was able to not only help single mothers receive additional support for their children, but was also able to...