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Book Reviews Feminism, Social Justice and Citizenship in Latin America June E. Hahner. Emancipating the Female Sex, the Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850-1940. Durham, N. C: Duke University Press, 1990.342 pp. ISBN 087451-557-2 (d); 0-87451-558-0 (pb); $45 (cl); $19.95 (pb). Francesca Miller. Latin American Women and the Search for Social Justice. Hanover, N. H.: University Press of New England, 1991.254 pp. ISBN 0-8223-1131-31 (cl); 0-8223-1149-6 (pb); $42.50 (cl); $16.95 (pb). K. Lynn Stoner. From the House to the Streets: The Cuban Woman's Movement for Legal Reform, 1898-1940. Durham, N. C: Duke University Press, 1991. 328 pp. ISBN 0-8223-1051-1 (cl); 0-8223-1009-4 (pb); $42.50 (cl); $16.95 (pb). Eni de Mesquita Samara Although the general field of women's history has produced a vast and diverse body of literature, studies of Latin America, especially those that consider gender relations in the context of social and cultural development , continue to be rare. As Elizabeth Kusnesof has pointed out, many recent studies suffer from a tendency "to separate women's experience from that of society as a whole, rather than seeing women's legal position, employment, and life chances within the context of social life in general and within the context of class and race relations and a specific historical time and place in PaTUCuIaT."1 Nonetheless, recent publications and research on the history of women in Latin America have raised fundamental questions. Until recently, stereotyped conceptions of the patriarchal family and the seclusion of women were taken as representative of Latin America as a whole, regardless of culture and social class. These stereotypes, reinforced by the historiography of the 1950s, had a certain value for the study of the feminine condition. However, Alida Metcalf shows that the research of historians, sociologists, and anthropologists point to another view—that the passive, protected and isolated female suggested by stereotypes of Latin women did not exist.2 In fact, as Muriel Nazzari also points out, Latin women, having equal access to inheritance and family patrimony by the Portuguese law, had more rights than their Anglo-Saxon sisters of the same period.3 Reports of conditions in the Iberian colonies indicate that in some cases women were more powerful than men.4 Stereotyped images of the idle, white upper-class woman, lying in a hammock and screaming at © 1994 Journal of Women's History, Vol. 6 No. ζ (Summer) _______ 136 Journal of Women's History Summer her slaves, must give way to more diverse stories of other women who formerly had no history.5 Accounts of widows who honored the memory of their husbands, of embroidery, sweets, talks with the slaves, the "cafune," and Sunday churchgoing must now be set beside stories of working- class women who were mediators and intermediaries in commercial and business activities. There is dear evidence that, whüe a representative portion of the female eUte Uved their daüy Uves in seclusion and were given to sloth, a more energetic type of woman, capable of acting as the head of a household and a business enterprise, also emerged.6 The three books under review attempt to gain a better understanding of women's lives by analyzing changes in their legal and sodal status over time. These books show that many women were involved in the struggle for social justice and citizenship. Francesca MiUer chaUenges conventional stereotypes by emphasizing the diversity of women's historical experience . An important aim of MiUer's book is "to see changes over time, whüe remaining aware of the nuances of individuaUty" (p. xiv). Diversity and continuity are also central themes of June Hahner and K. Lynn Stoner. Both authors, whüe emphasizing types of feminism that were distinctive to Brazü and Cuba, also explore the main links among the women's movement in various Latin American countries and the North American influence . Scholars who wish to trace these connections always face a number of specific questions related to the Latin American context. How may Latin American feminist movements be compared to those of the United States and...

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