Synopses & Reviews
Partners in Conflict examines the importance of sexuality and gender to rural labor and agrarian politics during the last days of Chileandrsquo;s
latifundia system of traditional landed estates and throughout the governments of Eduardo Frei and Salvador Allende. Heidi Tinsman analyzes differences between menandrsquo;s and womenandrsquo;s participation in Chileandrsquo;s Agrarian Reform movement and considers how conflicts over gender and sexuality shape the contours of working-class struggles and national politics.
Tinsman restores women to a scholarly narrative that has been almost exclusively about men, recounting the centrality of womenandrsquo;s labor to the pre-Agrarian Reform world of the hacienda during the 1950s and recovering womenandrsquo;s critical roles in union struggles and land occupations during the Agrarian Reform itself. Providing a theoretical framework for understanding why the Agrarian Reform ultimately empowered men more than women, Tinsman argues that women were marginalized not because the Agrarian Reform ignored women but because, under both the Frei and Allende governments, it promoted the male-headed household as the cornerstone of a new society. Although this emphasis on gender cooperation stressed that men should have more respect for their wives and funneled unprecedented amounts of resources into womenandrsquo;s hands, the reform defined men as its protagonists and affirmed their authority over women.
This is the first monographic social history of Chileandrsquo;s Agrarian Reform in either English or Spanish, and the first historical work to make sexuality and gender central to the analysis of the reforms.
Review
andldquo;Partners in Conflict is a rich and complex narrative of social and political change, backed by deep research and theoretical insights into questions raised by feminist scholarship having to do with sexuality, gender, and patriarchy. It will become a landmark in womenandrsquo;s history, the history of peasants and rural society, and the history of labor in Latin America.andrdquo;andmdash;Thomas Miller Klubock, author of Contested Communities: Class, Gender, and Politics in Chileandrsquo;s El Teniente Copper Mine, 1904andndash;1951
Review
andldquo;Combining the highest achievements of social history with oral testimony, Partners in Conflict enjoys the objectivity of one and the subjectivity of the other. Tinsmanandrsquo;s book sets a new standard for clarity, argumentative force, and simple stories that will live with readers for a long time to come. This is not just a local study, it is a major contribution to understanding how sexual and gender relations contribute to social change and the creation of a new humanity.andrdquo;andmdash;Temma Kaplan, author of Crazy for Democracy: Women in Grassroots Movements
Review
andldquo;Pathbreaking in its use of gender analysis to illuminate agrarian reform and the Allende era, including womenandrsquo;s work, sexuality as a terrain of contest and the role of masculinity in rural social movements and politics. Tinsman opens up a new dimension.andrdquo;andmdash;Peter Winn, Tufts University
Synopsis
Analyzes differences between men's and women's participation in Chile's Agrarian Reform movement, examining how conflicts over gender shape the contours of working-class struggles and national politics.
About the Author
“Partners in Conflict is a rich and complex narrative of social and political change, backed by deep research and theoretical insights into questions raised by feminist scholarship having to do with sexuality, gender, and patriarchy. It will become a landmark in women’s history, the history of peasants and rural society, and the history of labor in Latin America.”—Thomas Miller Klubock, author of Contested Communities: Class, Gender, and Politics in Chile’s El Teniente Copper Mine, 1904–1951“Combining the highest achievements of social history with oral testimony, Partners in Conflict enjoys the objectivity of one and the subjectivity of the other. Tinsman’s book sets a new standard for clarity, argumentative force, and simple stories that will live with readers for a long time to come. This is not just a local study, it is a major contribution to understanding how sexual and gender relations contribute to social change and the creation of a new humanity.”—Temma Kaplan, author of Crazy for Democracy: Women in Grassroots Movements“Pathbreaking in its use of gender analysis to illuminate agrarian reform and the Allende era, including women’s work, sexuality as a terrain of contest and the role of masculinity in rural social movements and politics. Tinsman opens up a new dimension.”—Peter Winn, Tufts University