This investigation reveals the history of a forgotten but very important Argentine antifascist women's association: the Victory Board. This was a sizable and active association, founded in 1941, with the purpose of contributing to the victory of the Allies in World War II. As part of their efforts, members knitted garments for the Allies and organized marches and rallies to defend democracy. When the war ended, the association shifted its purpose to help in the reconstruction of Europe, but it soon lost the impetus of the previous years. The Peronist victory in 1946 finally set into motion a process that ended in its demise. According to the Sandra McGee Deutsch, Peronism also contributed “to expunge the historiographical memory” of this institution (251).
The book is organized into eight thematic chapters in chronological order with a conclusion.
Deutsch brings an impressive array of different sources to provide a detailed and absorbing history of this association in which almost no aspect is left untouched. In the first chapter, the author examines the previous efforts that converged in the birth of this association advancing later onto the exploration of the Board itself. The conclusion places the case in the long history of antifascism and feminism. Deutsch pays particular attention to dissect the significance and impact of the association for women in Argentina. She argues that the Board gendered antifascism in a unique way. It was, after all, the only leading Argentine, antifascist association led by and composed entirely of women. The picture that emerges from this monograph is of a relevant but complex association with divergent values. The women of the Victory Board upheld a feminist language and demands, but also adhered to customary gender notions, like maternalism, and avoided topics such as sexual rights. In the discourse of its spokespersons, women were envisioned as mothers, housekeepers, workers, professionals, and citizens. This heterogeneity can be linked to the fact, also shown by Deutsch account, that in terms of its social composition, or political or ideological profile, there was no a single pattern that emerged. Women of different social as well as political backgrounds joined the association. Liberals, Communists, conservatives, and even Catholics made up the Board. In this sense, the book strengthens the argument presented by recent literature on this phenomenon that antifascism was more of a sensibility or an appeal than an ideology. The author claims that the Victory Board was a training school for democratic exercise becoming a chapter in the fight for women's suffrage. Although the investigation is very nuanced, the conclusions pay more attention to the most progressive aspects of the project.
One of the most attractive aspects of Deutsch's research is how it illuminates the many aspects that intertwined to trigger women's involvement in this cause. Class relationships, couples’ interactions, and political, ethnic, and national identities as well as rivalries with other groups are carefully analyzed in the investigation. Another interesting aspect is how Deutsch addresses the transnational relations that shaped the fate of this association, including the South-North and the South-South (mainly with Uruguay). Deutsh's book is a fundamental contribution to a thriving field in Argentina: that of the studies of antifascism. Her work reinforces the position held by this literature that antifascism had a very strong influence in Argentine society and politics, at least until the emergence of Peronism. It adds a central chapter to this history as it allows us to understand women's particular role in it. Moreover, the book illuminates unknown aspects of the history of feminism and women activism in Argentina. In doing so, the author provides a model for future researchers on how to knit the local, the national, and the transnational in the study of this phenomenon.
