Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Introduction:Gender and Politics, Experience and Structure
Part I. El Salvador
Chapter 2. Women's Rights Are Human Rights: The Merging of Feminine and Feminist Interests among El Salvador's Mothers of the Disappeared (CO-MADRES)
Chapter 3. Women for Dignity and Life: The Emergence of Feminisms from
El Salvador's Revolutionary Left
Interview. Morena Herrera, Women for Dignity and Life
Part II. Mexico
Chapter 4. The Politics of Urban Survival: The Women's Regional Council of the CONAMUP, Mexico
Interview. Irene Soto, Women's Regional Council of the CONAMUP
Chapter 5. The Unintended Consequences of "Traditional" Women's Organizing: The Women's Council of the Lázaro Cárdenas Ejido Union, Nayarit
Interview. Doña Kata Moreno and Aurora Cruz, Lázaro Cárdenas Ejido Union
Part III. Brazil
Chapter 6. Class, Gender and Autonomy: The Rural Women Workers' Movement of Southern Brazil
Interview. Gessi Bonês and Marlene Pasquali, Rural Women Workers' Movement
Part IV. Chile
Chapter 7. Sweet and Sour Grapes: The Struggles of Seasonal Women Workers in Chile
Interview. Antonia Gómez, Interindustry Union of Seasonal and Permanent Workers of Santa María
Chapter 8. Conclusions: Women in Action
Notes
Bibliography
Index

A gendered analysis of the National Security regimes that dominated South and Central America in the 1970s and '80s reveals a pattern of abuse of women that failed to register in the public consciousness.... The evidence compiled by Stephen, a feminist ethnographer, from archives and interviews with women in grassroots movements in El Salvador, Mexico, Brazil, and Chile reveals the breakdown of the patriarchal bargain: men in power withdrew protection from women, and women rebelled against the male domination that crippled them and left them unfit to lead their own lives.