Gender and the Politics of Rights and Democracy in Latin America

This volume addresses the question of why issues of rights and democracy have become so central to women's movements in post-transition Latin America. As important actors in the struggle for democracy, women's movements moved from being an oppositional force to one forging new strategies to promote gender justice. The international attention focused on human rights in the 1990s, along with the recognition accorded to women's rights, provided a favorable opportunity for women's movements to advance ideas of inclusive citizenship and to broaden the meaning of rights. The nine country-based chapters assess critically the innovative strategies pursued by Latin American women's movements in their struggle to incorporate rights into the different domains of social and political life. Together they cover a range of countries and political contexts, analyzing specific bodies of rights and campaigns for legal reform:these include rights of political representation, labor rights, reproductive rights, socioeconomic rights, rights and ethnicity, and rights to protection against domestic violence.

Nikki Craske is Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Liverpool, where she teaches Latin American politics. She has written extensively on Mexican politics and is author of Women and Politics in Latin America (1999).

Maxine Molyneux is Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Latin American Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. Her recent publications include Women's Movements in Internaional Perspective: Latin America and Beyond (2000).