Seeking Rights from the Left offers a unique comparative assessment of left-leaning Latin American governments by examining their engagement with feminist, women's, and LGBT movements and issues. Focusing on the "Pink Tide" in eight national cases-Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Venezuela-the contributors evaluate how the Left addressed gender- and sexuality-based rights through the state. Most of these governments improved the basic conditions of poor women and their families. Many significantly advanced women's representation in national legislatures. Some legalized same-sex relationships and enabled their citizens to claim their own gender identity. They also opened opportunities for feminist and LGBT movements to press forward their demands. But at the same time, these governments have largely relied on heteropatriarchal relations of power, ignoring or rejecting the more challenging elements of a social agenda and engaging in strategic trade-offs among gender and sexual rights. Moreover, the comparative examination of such rights arenas reveals that the Left's more general political and economic projects have been profoundly, if at times unintentionally, informed by traditional understandings of gender and sexuality.

Contributors: Sonia E. Alvarez, Maria Constanza Diaz, Rachel Elfenbein, Elisabeth Jay Friedman, Niki Johnson, Victoria Keller, Edurne Larracoechea Bohigas, Amy Lind, Marlise Matos, Shawnna Mullenax, Ana Laura Rodriguez Gusta, Diego Sempol, Constanza Tabbush, Gwynn Thomas, Catalina Trebisacce, Annie Wilkinson

About the Author
Elisabeth Jay Friedman is Professor of Politics and Latin American Studies at the University of San Francisco and the author of several books, including Interpreting the Internet: Feminist and Queer Counterpublics in Latin America.

Reviews
"Seeking Rights from the Left provides a relevant and nuanced overview of the extremely complex and diverse political processes commonly known as the Pink Tide in Latin America, focusing on gender and sexuality issues. . . . The book raises old and new questions about relationships among the left-broadly speaking-and feminist, women's, gay, lesbian, and transgender political demands." -- Nayla Luz Vacarezza * Mobilization *
"The depth of analysis contained in this collection is remarkable. As the chapters reveal, the quest to secure political rights for women and the LGBT community during the Pink Tide era was full of contradictions and mixed results. However, as Sonia E. Alvarez suggests in her afterword, that is precisely what makes this a valuable contribution to the fields of Latin American Studies, Gender and Sexuality, and Politics: it provides a historical dimension to further understand the vibrant cultural developments of activists who remain committed to defend human rights today." -- Angela Perez-Villa * Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology *
"As an edited volume, the book is well organized and thematically coherent. . . . The introduction written by Elisabeth Jay Friedman and Constanza Tabbush should be carefully read and reread. Here the authors provide a wonderfully written exposition of the volume's conceptual and methodological framework and the research questions animating not just its own empirical chapters but the broader field as well. As such, I recommend it (and the rest of the volume) to anyone teaching relevant graduate seminars." -- Matthew Ward * Gender & Society *

"One of the strengths of this volume is that each chapter features many different voices-from the elite as well as the marginalized and from both political insiders and outsiders-in order to provide a full and complete picture of a critical period in Latin American history.... Seeking Rights from the Left is an intriguing and thought-provoking volume."

-- Evan C. Rothera * Social Movement Studies *
"Seeking Rights from the Left is a valuable addition to the growing body of literature on feminist and queer activism, and represents an important and timely contribution to scholarly understandings of the relationship between grassroots identity-based movements and state power." -- Baird Campbell * Journal of Latin American Research *
"This is a superb comparative study of how the Pink Tide's leadership engaged with the existing demands of feminist, women's, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) organizations.... Seeking Rights is a very helpful tool for teaching comparative politics and intersectionality because it studies complex coalitions that were created to change the traditional ideas about gender and sexuality." -- Adriana Novoa * Hypatia *
"[Seeking Rights from the Left] is a must-read.... What this book illustrates is the need for any progressive movement to make its engagement with sexual and reproductive rights central rather than peripheral to its vision for a better Latin America." -- Cora Fernandez Anderson * Journal of Latin American Studies *
"Seeking Rights from the Left takes up the important question of how far the grouping of post-dictatorship left-wing administrations known as the Pink Tide . . . managed to advance feminist goals for sexual, LGBTQ, and reproductive rights. . . . A richly researched volume." -- Rachel Nolan * Latin American Research Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9781478001522
Author Elisabeth Jay Friedman
Format Paperback
Page Count 344
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 476g