This book examines the work of the classical social theorists -- Durkheim, Weber, Marx, Engels and Freud -- from a feminist perspective.

Too often in the history of Mexico, women have been portrayed as marginal figures rather than legitimate participants in social processes. As the twentieth century draws to a close, Mexican women of the countryside can be seen as true historical actors: mothers and heads of households, factory and field workers, community activists, artisans, and merchants. In this new book, thirteen contributions by historians, anthropologists, and sociologists--from Mexico as well as the United States--elucidate the roles of women and changing gender relations in Mexico as rural families negotiated the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society.

Drawing on Mexican community studies, gender studies, and rural studies, these essays overturn the stereotypes of Mexican peasant women by exploring the complexity of their lives and roles and examining how these have changed over time. The book emphasizes the active roles of women in the periods of civil war, 1854-76, and the commercialization of agriculture, 1880-1910. It highlights their vigorous responses to the violence of revolution, their increased mobility, and their interaction with state reforms in the period from 1910 to 1940. The final essays focus on changing gender relations in the countryside under the impact of rapid urbanization and industrialization since 1940.

Because histories of Latin American women have heretofore neglected rural areas, this volume will serve as a touchstone for all who would better understand women's lives in a region of increasing international economic importance. Women of the Mexican Countryside demonstrates that, contrary to the peasant stereotype, these women have accepted complex roles to meet constantly changing situations.

CONTENTS

I—Women and Agriculture in Nineteenth-Century Mexico

1. Exploring the Origins of Democratic Patriarchy in Mexico: Gender and Popular Resistance in the Puebla Highlands, 1850-1876, Florencia Mallon

2. "Cheaper Than Machines": Women and Agriculture in Porfirian Oaxaca (1880-1911), Francie R. Chassen-López

3. Gender, Work, and Coffee in C¢rdoba, Veracruz, 1850-1910, Heather Fowler-Salamini

4. Gender, Bridewealth, and Marriage: Social Reproduction of Peons on Henequen Haciendas in Yucatán (1870-1901), Piedad Peniche Rivero

II—Rural Women and Revolution in Mexico

5. The Soldadera in the Mexican Revolution: War and Men's Illusions, Elizabeth Salas

6. Rural Women's Literacy and Education During the Mexican Revolution: Subverting a Patriarchal Event?, Mary Kay Vaughan

7. Doña Zeferina Barreto: Biographical Sketch of an Indian Woman from the State of Morelos, Judith Friedlander

8. Seasons, Seeds, and Souls: Mexican Women Gardening in the American Mesilla (1900-1940), Raquel Rubio Goldsmith

III—Rural Women, Urbanization, and Gender Relations

9. Three Microhistories of Women's Work in Rural Mexico, Patricia Arias

10. Intergenerational and Gender Relations in the Transition from a Peasant Economy to a Diversified Economy, Soledad González Montes

11. From Metate to Despate: Rural Women's Salaried Labor and the Redefinition of Gendered Spaces and Roles, Gail Mummert

12. Changes in Rural Society and Domestic Labor in Atlixco, Puebla (1940-1990), Maria da Glória Marroni de Velázquez

13. Antagonisms of Gender and Class in Morelos, Mexico, JoAnn Martin

Argues that only by understanding the psychology of both the aggressors and the victims of wife assault can we generate informed social and criminal justice policy.

This book throws light on Japanese-Canadian relations in the first few decades of this century.

This engaging collection of essays seeks to create an awareness of the contributions made by women to history and the historical profession from 1870 to 1970 in English Canada.

Gamblers and Dreamers tackles some of the myths about the history of the North in the era of the gold rush.

Gathering insights from numerous fields about the construction of Canada, this provocative volume illuminates the challenges that lie ahead for all Canadians who aspire to create a better future.

The Mountain Is Moving describes postwar Japanese society and the roles that women are expected to play within it.

Telling Tales both challenges founding myths of the region and inspires rethinking of how we tell the story of western Canadian colonization and settlement.

In Feminists and Party Politics, the author examines the effort to bring feminism into the formal political arena through established political parties in Canada and the United States.

In 1891, Alice Barrett moved from Port Dover, Ontario, to the Okanagan Valley. Few women’s diaries have survived from that time, and Barrett Parke recalls a period of profound transformation in a region newly opened to white settlement.

An examination of how Canada’s policies for the Fourth World Conference on Women were formulated.

A thoughtful analysis of the causes and implications of the gendered structure of the legal profession in Canada and elsewhere.

This comparative study examines feminist engagement with a broad range of political institutions in Australia and Canada.

Explores how professionalism, religion, and feminism came together to enable missionary women to become the colleagues and mentors of Western and non-Western men.

A compelling exploration of the complex relationship between Thai national identity and prostitution and gender.

This fascinating analysis of the controversial Symes case of the 1990s examines how class and gender interests clashed over the tax treatment of childcare.

Based on diaries, letters, and mission correspondence, this is the first comprehensive examination of women’s roles in Anglican missions that were active in northern British Columbia, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories between 1860 and 1940.

In an attempt to redress social inequities in the workplace, the authors examine various kinds of training programs and recommend specific policy initiatives to improve access to these programs.

Borrowing from the experience of cooperative artists' studios, business incubators, and the corner copy shop, this book explains why office infrastructure can be important for productivity as well as the quality of work life.

This work explores how the construction of gender was thrown into crisis during the twentieth century, opening a permanent rupture in the gender system, destabilizing masculinity as an unstable category.

This sophisticated collection of essays provides an innovative analysis of gender relations at the nexus of globalization, Chinese patriarchy, and post-colonialism in Hong Kong.

Goes beyond the dichotomies of “pro” and “anti” environmentalism to tell the stories of the women who seek to maintain resource use in rural places.

A cogent analysis of legal mobilization as a strategy for social and activist movements.

Over the last twenty years, the feminist ethic of care has had a significant impact on the study of ethics and political philosophy. Hankivsky develops the concept of a publicly viable ethic of care, and applies it to several Canadian social policy issues.

A rare first-person account of Canada’s early twentieth century legal system, this books retells the Mrs. Campbell fourteen-year-battle with the Ontario legal establishment to claim her mother’s estate.

This book is about poor women, many of them single mothers, Aboriginal, or both, who have defied the odds to become apprenticing carpenters.

This multidisciplinary anthology discusses the ways in which women integrate the social and biophysical settings of their lives, featuring a range of contexts and issues in which gender mediates, inspires, and informs a sense of belonging to and in this land.

This provocative book examines how women were uniquely positioned at the axis of the colonial encounter – the so-called “contact zone” – between Aboriginals and newcomers.

What makes the textual image of a woman with a penis so compelling, malleable, and persistent?

In this thought-provoking book, Sylvia Bashevkin examines the consequences of divergent restructuring experiences in London and Toronto.

With examples from the lives of immigrant girls and women of colour, this book uncovers how racism, sexism, and violence interweave deep within the foundations of our society.

Presents the letters of Emma Crosby, wife of the well-known Methodist missionary Thomas Crosby, who came to Fort Simpson, near present-day Prince Rupert, in 1874 to set up a mission among the Tsimshian people.

There's no denying that the U.S.-Mexico border region has changed in the past twenty years. With the emergence of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the curtailment of welfare programs, and more aggressive efforts by the United States to seal the border against undocumented migrants, the prospect of seeking a livelihood--...

Sex workers in three Maritime cities discuss violence and safety, health, politics, and public perception of the trade, portraying the best and the worst facets of their working lives.

This book examines women lawyers' attempts to reconcile their professional obligations with other aspects of their lives.

Provides an original and empirically grounded understanding of women’s involvement in quality-of-life activism.

A provocative study of public and professional responses to female teacher sex scandals, this book employs queer theory, psychoanalysis, and feminist film theory to examine sensationalized legal cases, including Mary Kay Letourneau, Amy Gehring, and Heather Ingram.

The first history of the battered women’s shelter movement in Canada, this book traces the development of transition houses and services for abused women and the campaign that made wife battering a political issue.

Cynthia Toman analyzes how gender, war, and medical technology intersected to create a legitimate role for women in the masculine environment of the military and explores the incongruous expectations placed on military nurses as “officers and ladies.”

Examining the eager debate that followed women into the paid workforce in the early twentieth century, this volume uncovers the “working girl” heroines of western Canada’s poetry, prose, and fiction.