| This dissertation is a comparative analysis of women's organizing in revolutionary and post-revolutionary Mozambique and Nicaragua. It examines the nature of the analyses articulated by the revolutionary parties in power (FRELIMO and FSLN), as well as how differences in origin and mobilization techniques adopted by the national-level women's organizations (OMM and AMNLAE) influenced the formation and implementation of a feminist agenda in each country. I argue that a gendered analysis of women's oppression was absent from the theories and practices of both revolutionary struggles, particularly in understanding the economic, cultural and personal intersections of production and reproduction. My research reveals that women have gone from being mobilized by the revolutionary state parties in power in each context for the purpose of achieving the socialist/nationalist goals of FRELIMO and the FSLN to organizing themselves for feminist political change, to varying degrees, within both countries today. This has varied in each case to a large extent due to: (1) the degree of ideological and organizational autonomy achieved by women; and (2) the nature of the party politics.; This dissertation also examines the contemporary women's movements that have emerged in each country, measurable to a large extent by the degree of proliferation of autonomous women's organizations in 'civil society.' Throughout this analysis, I pay particular attention to the relationship between production and reproduction, taking issue with the way women's gender interests are usually understood within the literature on women in the developing world. I argue that 'feminist agency' has emerged in both countries from the process of women's organizing around both practical gender needs and strategic gender interests. Moreover, I show that, despite the differences that have existed in women's organizing in each country, the feminisms that are emerging in both countries challenge the equality/difference, practical/strategic, and economics/sex-culture-violence divides that exist in many American and European feminisms by: (1) attempting to unify women and men by focusing on gender and the common struggles of empowerment and development; and (2) looking for intersectional ways to address issues such as domestic violence, health, reproductive rights, education and economic opportunities both inside and outside the home. |
