ABSTRACT
The traditional political science focus has been on women's electoral participation or voting patterns, gender differences in political attitudes, women's office-holders in government or traditional "mixed" (male-female) political organizations such as parties, student groups, labor unions, and peasant associations, and the attitudes and behaviors of female elites. In Central America, with the exception of Costa Rica, women also began to demand full citizenship both from the state and the revolutionary movements whose ranks they often joined. Although the links between feminism and gender-based participation in human rights, economic survival, and revolutionary movements is just beginning to be made in this region, the process of women entering the public sphere with demands traditionally relegated to the private sphere is similar. The chapter provides a brief overview of issues and themes that have emerged in the study of women's roles in mixed social, political, women's, and feminist movements in Latin America.
