Empowering Women: Land and Property Rights in Latin America. By Carmen Diana Deere and Magdalena Leon. Pittsburgh: The University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001. 544p. $55.00 cloth, $24.95 paper. Still Fighting: The Nicaraguan Women's Movement, 1977–2000. By Katherine Isbester. Pittsburgh: The University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001. 272p. $45.00 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Extract

The titles of these books point both to their common concern and to the difference between them. Still Fighting underscores the extent to which Latin American women (in this case, Nicaraguans) are still struggling, from a disadvantaged position, to achieve recognition of their own personal value and identity, as well as a better social, political, and economic position. Empowering Women underscores, instead, the extent to which women's struggle is about achieving power in the form of legal title to land. The former stresses gender identity while the latter emphasizes personal empowerment. The first accentuates setbacks experienced and the work still to be done; the latter highlights accomplishments while acknowledging that much work remains. Carmen Diana Deere and Magdalena Leon locate their work within gender studies in Chapter 1, stating their orientation toward redistribution rather than recognition (p. 9). Although Katherine Isbester does not refer to gender studies, her work is about the struggle for identity and the role it plays in strengthening a social movement.