WOMEN IN LATIN AMERICA
Centro de Informacion, Estudios y Documentacion (CIED), Presencia de la muler on las barriadas (Lima: CIED, 1980). Write for price, paper, 110 pgs. A short essay on women in Peru and their particular role in the barriadas (shantytowns), complemented by interviews with five women from different barriadas. The interviews devel- op a discussion of how the women self-consciously view their role in the slums and how they interact with others (from husbands to political parties) when deal- ing with women’s specific oppression and the general problems of the poor. (CIED. Direccion Postal 11604, Lima 11, Peru.)
June E. Hahner, ed., Women in Latin American History: Their Lives and Views (UCLA Latin American Center, 1976). $5.00 paper, 181 pgs. One of the functions of history is to show us that many of our current struggles have an articulate past from which we can draw les- sons and strength. Few books have been written which document the history of women’s struggles and the de- velopment of feminist thought in Latin America. Hahner’s volume, re-printed in 1978, presents some writings of Latin American women from the sixteenth century to the present. The selections tend to be short, only whetting our appetite for more books to be printed on this topic. (UCLA Latin American Center, 405 Hil- gard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024.)
Magdalena Leon de Leal, ed., Mujir y capitalismo agra- rio: Estudio de cuatro regiones colombianas (Bogota: Aso- ciacion Colombiana para el Estudio de la Poblacion, 1980). Write for price, paper, 295 pgs. Eight essays on women, the sexual division of labor and the develop- ment of capitalism in rural areas of Colombia. Directed by Magdalena Leon de Leal, the essays show the strong and consistent participation of Carmen Diana Deere. Among the four case studies are analyses of women in the Antioqueno coffee region, the peasant family and its changes in a cattle latifundio, transfor- mations in the household unit and women’s work in a peasant area which is rapidly moving to capitalism, and the sexual division of labor on a small peasant farm. (ACEP, Carrera 23, No. 39-82, Bogota DE 1, Colombia.)
Ann Pescatello, ed., Female and Male in Latin America (University of Pittsburgh Press, paperback edition 1979). $6.95 paper, 342 pgs. This work has the distinc-
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tion of being one of the earliest works in English on women in Latin America. Much good work has since appeared and some of the articles seem dated, but it is still an excellent collection. The three sections of es- says are divided among women as image and reality in Latin American literature, women in historical and con- temporary perspective and two essays on women in Cuba. (University of Pittsburgh Press, 127 N. Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.)
June Nash and Helen Icken Safa, eds., Sex and Class in Latin America: Women’s Perspectives on Politics, Econom- ics and the Family in the Third World (J.F. Bergin Publish- ers, 1980). $9.95 paper, 332 pgs. Sixteen essays on such issues as sexual subordination, class conscious- ness among working class women, women’s work roles and industrialization and politics and feminism. Most are quite good and the volume is one of the best general readers on the topic. (J.F. Bergin Publishers, One Hanson Place, Brooklyn, NY 11243.)
WOMEN CROSS-CULTURALLY
Jean Guyot, et. al., Migrant Women Speak (London: Search Press, 1978). $5.95 paper, 164 pgs. Fascinat- ing account, in narrative and interview style, of migrant women in Europe. Most of the women interviewed came from North Africa, Spain, Portugal or Italy and worked in the more developed capitalist countries of Europe. The book discusses their lives and problems as migrants, workers, women and mothers. It also touches on the problems of migrant women who return home after many years to find themselves and their children alienated from their own culture. (Available from the World Council of Churches, 150 rue de Ferney, 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland.)
People’s Translation Service, Second Class, Working Class: An International Women’s Reader (People’s Transla- tion Service, 1979). $3.00 plus 50c postage, paper, 64 pgs. People’s Translation Service publishes English translations of political struggles around the world. In 1977 a group of women began to put together an an- thology of interviews and articles about women in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. The results were published late last year in a very useful and com- pelling pamphlet which covers three areas: women in political parties and unions, women in strikes and re- sistance, and what is called “the other side of unem- ployment”: prostitution, immigration and reproductive
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rights. (People’s Translation Service, 4228 Telegraph
Avenue, Oakland, CA 94609.)
Wellesley Editorial Committee, Women and National
Development: The Complexities of Change. Special issue of
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 3, No. 1
(Autumn 1977). $4.00 paper, 338 pgs. More than 25 es-
says culled from a 1976 conference held at Wellseley
College. The topics covered include the sexual division
of labor and the issue of development, sex roles and
social change in countries at various stages of capital-
ist accumulation, migration and women, women and
political and legal systems, and the methodology of
research on women. Includes a number of good
studies of women in Latin America. (Signs, University
of Chicago Press, 11030 Langley Avenue, Chicago, IL
60628.)
Mona Etienne and Eleanor Leacock, Women and Colo-
nization: Anthropological Perspectives (J.F. Bergin Publish-
ers and Praeger Publishers, 1980). $9.95 paper, 339
pgs. This collection of essays examines women cross-
culturally from two perspectives: women’s roles under
various pre-capitalist relations of production and the
impact of colonization on women. The book serves as a
contribution to combat the pervasive notion that a
woman’s role as housewife follows biologically and
universally from her role as mother. (J.F. Bergin, One
Hanson Place, Brooklyn, NY 11243.)
WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES
Laurie Coyle, Gail Hershatter, Emily Honig, Women at Farah: An Unfinished Story (Reforma, 1979). $2.00 plus $1.25 postage and handling, paper, 66 pgs. “Then I started walking through the middle of the-where all the people were working-they thought I was very hap- py [with work at Farah]. And they started, ‘Alma! Alma!’ And everybody started getting off the ma- chines…. It was beautiful! I really knew we were going to do something. That we were really going to fight for our rights.” This story of the 1972-74 strike at the Farah Manufacturing Company in El Paso, Texas explores the effect of the strike on the women who initiated and sustained it. It weaves together more than 70 hours of interviews and background into a very strong study. (Order from Reforma-El Paso Chapter, P.O. Box 2064, El Paso, TX 79951.)
Carl N. Degler, At Odds. Women and the Family in America from the Revolution to the Present (Oxford Univer- sity Press, 1980). $19.95 cloth, 527 pgs. Degler sees an inevitable conflict having emerged between the family and the individual interests of women. He argues that, while a reconciliation between the two should be possi- ble-and is, on an individual level-the tension be- tween them has grown to historic proportions in the United States. This thesis seems to be born out by the current conservative “pro-family” (and anti-woman) thrust in U.S. politics. The book provides a good back- ground to understanding the issue which has become a major national election topic. (Oxford University Press, 200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016.)
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Alfredo Mirande and Evangelina Enriquez, La Chicana: The Mexican-American Woman (University of Chi- cago Press, 1979). $19.50 cloth, 283 pgs. “Perhaps the unique characteristic of the Chicana,” the authors argue in this new publication, “is in the nature of her tri- ple oppression.” Chicanas suffer as part of an econom- ically and politically exploited colony, they experience the universal oppression that comes from being female, and they are internally oppressed by a cultural heritage that tends to be dominated by males and ex- aggerates male domination over women. This book ex- amines these three issues historically (in both Mexico and the U.S. Southwest) and currently. A final chapter discusses Chicana feminism. (University of Chicago Press, 5801 S. Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637.)
WOMEN AND ISSUES OF THEORY
Mid-Atlantic Radical Historians Organization (MARHO), “Sexuality in History,” Radical History Review, No. 20 (Spring/Summer 1979). $5.00 paper, 255 pgs. Quite an excellent collection of articles on women, sex- uality and homosexuality. Includes good overview essays on patriarchal culture and the social construc- tion of gender and a fine essay by Jeffrey Weeks on sexual meanings and homosexual identities. The intro- duction, “Sexual Matters: On Conceptualizing Sexual- ity in History,” serves as just that, a good introduction to the topic which points to the.literature and current debates on the issue. (MARHO, John Jay College, 445 West 59th Street, New York, NY 10019).
Batya Weinbaum, The Curious Courtship of Women’s Liberation and Socialism (South End Press, 1978). $4.00 paper, 168 pgs. Weinbaum, in a provocative work, ar- gues that Marxism is theoretically unable to deal with the special nature of women’s oppression. In the book, she seeks to combine the historical materialism of Marxism, the generational struggle of Freud and the advances of radical feminists into a new theoretical model. “Like a Marxist,” she writes, “I am looking for a material basis; but, like a feminist, I am looking for what is going on underneath the problems identified by Marxism as well.” (South End Press, Box 68 Astor Sta- tion, Boston, MA 02123.)
Women’s Studies Group, Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, Women Take Issue: Aspects of Women’s Subordination (London: Hutchinson and Co., 1978). $16.25 cloth; $8.25 paper, 216 pgs. Nine essays aris- ing from discussions and debates which have taken place in the Women’s Studies Group over many years. Many of the articles try to grapple with the contra- dictions and contributions of Marxism, Freudian psy- chology and psychoanalysis to our understanding of sex/gender oppression and the relevance of this for political struggles. See in particular, “Psychoanalysis and the Cultural Acquisition of Sexuality and Subjectiv- ity,” (Steve Burniston, Frank Mort, Christine Weedon) and “Relations of Reproduction: Approaches Through Anthropology,” (Lucy Bland, Rachel Harrison, Frank Mort, Christine Weedon.) (Available in the U.S. through Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands, NJ 07716.)
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