A highly readable survey of women's experiences in Latin America from the late fifteenth to the early nineteenth centuries.

A clear and detailed study of Latin American women’s history from the late nineteenth century to the present.

Investments in education across countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have transformed the lives of millions of girls and the prospects of their families and societies. Unleashing the full economic potential of women is nevertheless still a curtailed issue in the region: just about half of women are unable to participate in paid work. The majority of the population out of the labor market is women between the ages of 24 and 45. This is the largest share of the available pool of unused human capital countries have, and where mothers of young children are concentrated. This book argues that more and better childcare constitutes a fundamental policy option to improve female outcomes in the labor market, but countries need to pay particular attention to the design and features of such services. First-rate educational programs will be useless if children are not enrolled or do not attend formal education centers. A large program expansion will be wasted if parents cannot enroll their children because they are unable to reach the center, don’t trust its quality, if the program is too expensive, or if work and care schedules are not compatible. Through an integrated framework applied to each country and an overview of the existing evidence, this book addresses the why and what questions about policy relevant instruments to achieve female labor participation. Parts I and II of the book lay out the motivation for Latin-American and Caribbean countries to act depicting their current situation both in terms of women’s labor participation and the use and provision of childcare services. Moreover, this book tackles the how question contributing to the incipient evidence about factors affecting the take-up of programs and demand for childcare services and other informal care arrangements. Part III of the book explores how to improve services and implement more and better formal, center-based care arrangements for young children. It looks at international benchmarks, discusses different experiences and proposes specific actions to solve potential inequalities in access to childcare.

Understanding the role of women in Latin American history demands a full examination of their activities in the region's political, economic, and domestic spheres. Toward this end, historian Gertrude M. Yeager has assembled the multidisciplinary collection Confronting Change, Challenging Tradition. The essays in this volume explore the ways in which Latin American women have shaped-and have been shaped by-the traditional practices and ideologies of their cultures. The selections are arranged in two sections: Culture and the Status of Women, and Reconstructing the Past.

"In Gendered Worlds, Second Edition, authors Judy Root Aulette and Judith Wittner use the sociological imagination to explore gender relations throughout the world. They look at how concrete forms of gender, race, class, and sexual inequality operate transnationally; examine the impact of globalization on local and everyday life experiences; and identify how local actors re-imagine social possibilities, resist injustice, and work toward change. Integrating theory with empirical studies that are of particular interest to college students--including research on violence, sports, and sexuality--the authors make gender concepts genuinely interesting and accessible. They also demonstrate how students can think critically about gender, both within and beyond the classroom. Incorporating a broad range of pedagogical features, including boxed sections and end-of-chapter sections that focus on social movements, Gendered Worlds, Second Edition, is ideal for courses in sociology of gender, sociology of sex roles, and gender studies. New to this Edition * A new concluding chapter, "Gender and Globalization," and an expanded Chapter 1 * A completely rewritten Chapter 4 featuring the most current research on gender and sexuality, particularly the gendered character of heterosexuality and heterosexual relationships * A reconceptualized Chapter 9 exploring illness as a function of a global division of labor by race, ethnicity, gender, and nation * More research on gender outside of the United States in every chapter * Additional coverage of race, intersectionality, masculinity, and transgender issues"--

Latin American publications on weight and eating disorders abound, especially in the fields of psychology and sociology. However, there are only a few articles addressing these themes in the fictional work of Latin American women authors. What Is Eating Latin American Women Writers fills a theoretical void because it speaks to an ever-growing interest in Latin American literature about women, food, and the body. This study not only traces for the first time the historical development of the topics of food, eating consumption, and body image but also features well-known authors and others who are yet to be discovered in United States. The book contributes to the ongoing critical dialogue about women and food by offering an analysis of food, weight, and eating disorders in Latin American and Latina literary production.

“This collection, because of its exceptional theoretical coherence and sophistication, is qualitatively superior to the most frequently consulted anthologies on Latin American women’s history and literature . . . [and] represents a new, more theoretically rigorous stage in the feminist debate on Latin American women.”—Elizabeth Garrels, Massachusetts Institute of Technology