The Myth of the Male
Breadwinner: Women and
Industrialization in the
Caribbean by Helen I. Safa, Westview Press, 1995, 208 pp., $55.00 (cloth), $18.95 (paper).
Helen Safa has given us a concise
historical account of industrializa-
tion in the Spanish-speaking
Caribbean over the last two decades
combined with an analysis of how
that industrialization has affected–
and been affected by-systems of
patriarchy in Puerto Rico, the
Dominican Republic and Cuba. The
book is a readable critique of the
export-oriented development model
now in place in the Caribbean, as
well as a cogent analysis of the role
that male domination plays in capi-
talist development. Specifically, it
examines the changes in women’s
roles brought about by the advent of
export manufacturing in the 1970s.
Safa shows how the Puerto Rican
and Dominican models of export-
manufacturing development have
relied upon “labor-intensive indus-
tries such as garment manufacturing
because [those industries] require
relatively low levels of capital and
technology, but an abundance of
cheap labor, provided chiefly by
women.” Combined with the disap-
pearance of male-oriented jobs in
agriculture and domestic manufac-
turing, the export-manufacturing
model has spelled trouble for “the
myth of the male breadwinner.”
But the myth has not spelled trou-
ble at all levels of social interaction.
The book contributes to understand-
ing the concept of patriarchy by
examing three diverse sites of male
domination: family, workplace and
state. Stressing the historical separa-
tion between the female-dominated
private and the male-dominated
public spheres (casa versus calle) in
Hispanic Caribbean culture, and
demonstrating the continued preva-
lence of gender-based job segrega-
tion at the workplace, Safa shows
how “the impact of women’s work
may be stronger in the home than at
the workplace or in the polity.” A
comparison with the Cuban experi-
ence highlights the role of ideology
in creating opportunities for women
in the public sphere.
El Salvador in the Eighties:
Counterinsurgency and
Revolution by Mario Lungo Ucles, Temple University Press, 1996, 240 pp., $54.95 (cloth), $19.95 (paper).
After the electoral victory of
ARENA, but before the historic
peace process that ultimately result-
ed in a negotiated settlement to the
Salvadoran conflict in 1992, Mario
Lungo Ucl6s asked himself whether
the events of 1989 marked a new
phase in the struggle, or ushered in
a whole new era. In his book, he
opted for the former answer to the
question, although events soon after
its publication supported the latter.
Believing originally in the thesis
that revolutionary struggle must
culminate in either victory or defeat
for the popular forces, the peace
accords, signed with neither the vic-
tory nor strategic defeat of the
FMLN-FDR, have forced Lungo to
conclude (in a newly written epi-
logue) that his central thesis was
false, but that the basic elements of
his analysis were indeed correct. In
any case, Lungo has produced a
definitive and sophisticated analysis
of the revolutionary war and of the
evolution of its protagonists.
He provides a detailed account of
the changes in military organization
and strategy on the part of both the
popular and government forces. He
explains how the failures offoquismo
combined with obvious territorial
constraints led to the development
of a peculiarly Salvadoran form of
political-military organization cou-
pled with a unique relationship
between the guerrilla and the civil-
ian population via the construction
of an effective noncombatant rear
guard. The army meanwhile,
through the training and largesse of
its U.S. patrons became increasingly
professionalized and more sophisti-
cated in its strategy of counterinsur-
gency. But it always remained one
step behind the popular forces,
unable to adapt to new circum-
stances while failing to overcome
the low morale resulting from attri-
tion. Although more and better
weapons could not offset the tacti-
cal and organizational superiority of
the FMLN, the modernization of the
armed forces, Lungo now recog-
nizes, created a new mentality
among the officer corps making
possible both negotiation with the
enemy, and ultimately the accep-
tance of a more traditional social
role for the army.
Similarly Lungo analyzes the
impact of U.S. aid on the Salvadoran
economy and of remittances from
relatives abroad on the living stan-
dard of the population. The book
also discusses the economic plan put
forward by the new ARENA gov-
ernment. Lungo did not detect, how-
ever, nor by his own account did he
anticipate, the consequences of the
significant degree of economic
recovery in the late 1980s. His own
analysis of the recomposition of the
ruling class, evinced in the evolution
of ARENA, might have suggested
that a more modern, diverse and
economically rational bourgeoisie
would have sought an end to war as
a step towards greater economic sta-
bility. Not merely the party of the
traditional agrarian oligarchy,
ARENA came to represent a more
urban industrial and cosmopolitan
elite. Such a class would not be
inclined to fight an unwinnable war,
nor would it tolerate an economical-
ly rapacious military.
Two strong chapters detail the
evolution of the FMLN’s political
praxis and the closing years of the
decade, the latter emphasizing the
final offensive of 1989. The post-
accord epilogue written for this edi-
tion contains an interesting discus-
sion of the FMLN’s first halting
steps towards reincarnation as a
conventional political party.
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