Sisters of Struggle: Left Feminism, Transnational Networks, and the Frente Continental de Mujeres Contra la Intervención, 1945-1990

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the anti-imperialist women’s organization, the Frente Continental de Mujeres Contra la Intervención (FCMCI). Created in 1982 as a subsidiary of the Women’s International Democratic Federation, the FCMCI sought to cultivated solidarity to Nicaraguan women during the Nicaraguan Revolution (1979-1990) against U.S. imperialism. Using left feminism as a conceptual frame of analysis, it argues that the history of the FCMCI provides nuanced insight into the tension between women’s revolutionary activism and feminist movements in Latin America. Left feminism incorporates Nicaraguan women’s activism into broader transnational networks of left feminism activism. The project weaves together oral histories, personal correspondence, newspapers, journals, and solidarity ephemera to show how Latin American women navigated Cold War geopolitics.