Book Review by Jyotsna Sreenivasan

H
ow many of us realize the strength of movements for women’s rights all over the world? Not just in North America and Europe, but also in Bangladesh, Namibia, and Chile? And not just in the cities, but also in rural villages?

This book, as the title suggests, helps us see the women’s movement in a ‘global perspective.’ The women’s movements of seventeen countries are profiled by scholars familiar with each country, and the diverse women’s movements within Asia, Africa, and Latin America are emphasized.

In India, rural women in the state of Maharashtra, who were not part of the educated, urban Indian women’s movement, nevertheless took matters into their own hands. Noting the connection between alcoholism and violence against women, "Groups of women began to go from village to village to storm liquor dens and destroy liquor pots. If any woman reported that her husband had beaten her, the other women would assemble, beat him, and force him to apologize to his wife in public."

In South Africa, women’s movements were closely tied to the struggle against apartheid. They focused on issues of "state repression, high rents, lack of housing, poor education and health facilities, and the high cost of living." But there were times that Black women fought for their own rights against Black men. "In the Qwa Qwa Bantustan in the 1980s, for example, when unemployed male migrants who had returned from urban areas protested against the employment of women at a small local factory, the women resisted this effort to deny them their livelihood and won their battle for employment."

In Peru, the growth of the education system in the 1950s and 1960s, especially the university system, fueled the growth of the women’s movement so that now, "the presence of women and women’s movements in the public sphere is widely recognized. No one is surprised to see a woman conducting the national symphony orchestra or to see women working as journalists, business owners, mayors, members of Congress, and cabinet ministers."

In Russia, the post-communist movement for women’s rights has had some trouble getting off the ground because "the very fact that the Soviet regime espoused the principle of women’s equality was enough to bring it under suspicion." Nevertheless, independent women’s organizations managed to prevent passage of a law that would have outlawed abortion and brought back "traditional family values."

The photos in this book show images of women all over the world not usually seen in the mainstream media: rural and urban women marching, shouting, singing, and holding signs demanding their rights.

This is an unusual and insightful book that shows us that women are fighting for their rights all the time, all over the world, even if we don’t hear about them in the media.