Confronting the crisis in Latin America: Women Organizing for Change Produced by: Isis International and Development Alternatives With Women for a New Era (DAWN)

Confronting the crisis in Latin America: women organizing for change seeks to examine the effects on that continent of the profound economic, social and political crisis of the past several years, particularly the effects of the crisis on the lives of women in the region.

A series of articles prepared by women researchers organized by DAWN explores how the crisis and the policies enacted by governments to confront it have changed the living conditions of women. In particular, the authors show how women's fulfillment of their traditional role as provider of basic family needs has left them overworked and poor. They also examine how women's subordination has aggravated the effects of the crisis in their lives. These issues are analyzed as they occur in different facets of women's lives, in distinct countries and among women of different social classes.

The analysis presented here, however, shows not only the effects of the crisis and government policies on women, but also reveals how Latin American women have responded by creating new forms of participation in many types of organizations, among them subsistence organizations and the feminist movement. Through these niovements women are learning not only to survive, but to overcome discrimination and repression, and to better know and vmderstand themselves and the possibilities for change in their lives.