The Making of Revolutionary Feminism in El Salvador

Covering five decades of struggle in El Salvador, this book sheds light on the making of revolutionary feminist theory and practice in labor and armed organizations, transnational solidarity movements, and post-war memory spaces. Accessibly written, it is for students, scholars, and general readers interested in history and women's studies.

The Making of Revolutionary Feminism in El Salvador tells the stories of rural and working-class women who fought to overthrow capitalism, patriarchy, and US imperialism. Covering five decades of struggle from 1965 to 2015, Diana Carolina Sierra Becerra weaves oral histories with understudied archival sources to illustrate how women developed a revolutionary theory and practice to win liberation. A multigenerational movement of women broke with patriarchal tradition. In the 1960s and 1970s, teachers and peasant women led militant class struggle against the landed oligarchy and military dictatorships. Women took up arms in the 1980s to survive US-backed state terror and built a revolution that bridged socialism and women's liberation. In the guerrilla territories, combatants and civilians politicized reproductive labor and created democratic institutions to meet the needs of the poor. Highlighting women's agency, Sierra Becerra challenges dominant narratives of revolutionary movements as monolithic, static, and dominated by urban men.