ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some of the most significant research and activities dealing with the importance and interconnectedness of gender issues with class, race, and cultural factors that should be of particular interest to Latin American and Caribbean area studies specialists. The women's movement in the United States and other industrialized nations has been accused of paying little attention to the experiences of women of color. For women of color in the United States, in particular, their initial absence of attention in the feminist scholarship and their disenfranchisement from the academy led to the realization that the process of claiming their own space and opening their path from the periphery to the mainstream of academic life would be an arduous task. The challenge that lies ahead for both women's and ethnic studies, is understanding that the experience of women and other subaltern groups involves the analysis of a wide range of diverse realities and multiple interacting marginalises.
