ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on gendered participation among Latina women situated within the context of local, national, and transnational discourse surrounding immigration. It offers an analysis of how grassroots organizations facilitated and, in fact, depended on women's agency and participation in the immigrant rights movement. The chapter highlights how mobilization and political activism have shaped notions surrounding citizenship. Political opportunity theory holds that elements of the environment impose certain constraints on political activity while others open up avenues for it. These constraints signal how receptive or vulnerable the polity is to collective action by a social movement. The chapter explains the stem from a larger study of Latino and immigrant GOs and from interviews with organizers, community activists, and elected officials in Colorado. Research in political sociology and social movements shows a strong relationship between recruitment and participation. The data also show that for Latinas, there are different forms of participation in the public sphere.
