Latin American women are becoming increasingly prominent in social movements and collective actions. In this book, six studies, by different authors, ask why and how women are transcending the private world of the home for a more active role in the public domain. Historically, demands associated with the private sphere have been excluded from the political discourse. The new and revolutionary aspect of women’s participation is that it brings personal issues into the sphere of politics. Highlighted here is the diversity of women’s demands and forms of collective expression in urban and rural settings in Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. There are chapters on women’s participation at the barrio level; in Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo; in worker and peasant movements; and the actions of Aymara and Quechua women from indigenous communities in Bolivia. These studies provide an important contribution to the theory and conceptualization of social movements and women’s role in processes of social change. Elizabeth Jelin argues that the diversity of these women’s participation has a dual character: as part of the historical struggle of subordinated groups demanding social recognition, citizen’s rights and access to the instruments of political power; and, simultaneously, struggles for cultural identity.