Women in Revolutionary Movements: Changing Patterns of Latin American Guerrilla Struggle

Abstract

In this study I will examine the patterns of women’s participation in the guerrilla struggles of Latin American revolutionary movements. Women’s participation in such struggles has long been overlooked. Analyses of Latin American women’s political behavior tend to be limited to conventional political processes, such as voting and office-holding, which reflect gender bias as well as the ethnocentricity of North American researchers.1 In the literature on guerrilla warfare, armed struggle is generally regarded as an exclusively male political behavior.2 In actuality, Latin American women have participated in guerrilla movements, though not in extensive numbers until recently.3 With the influx of women into the Nicaraguan, Salvadoran, and Guatemalan movements, analysts have been forced to acknowledge and reconsider women’s contributions to armed struggles.