Costa Rican Women's Movement

This reader reflects the genesis, scope, and direction of womens activism in a single Latin American country. It collects the voices of forty-one diverse women who live in Costa Rica, some radical, others strongly conservative, and most ranging inbetween, as they write about their lives, their problems, their aspirations.<br>Unlike the comparative studies of womens issues that look at several different countries, the reader provides an insiders view of one small, but quintessentially Latin American, society. These women write of their own experience in organizing and working for change within the Costa Rican community. Some represent groups fitting into traditional "e;womens movement"e; that wants to improve certain aspects of womens and families daily lives. Still others, the "e;feminists,"e; argue forcefully that true improvement requires a profound change of power relations in society, of womens access to power and decision making.<br>The articles are organized into thematic groups that range from the definitions of Feminism in Costa Rica to women in Costa Rican history, womens legal equality, discrimination against women, and the status of Womens Studies. The brief biographies that identify each author underscore the leadership of Costa Rican women in Latin American Feminism. The founders and editors of <u><i>Mujer</i></u>, one of the most influential Feminist journals in Latin America, are among the authors represented in the reader.<br>The audience for this book will include specialists interested in Latin America, in women in Latin America, and in the international womens movement.