Women s grassroots activism in Latin America combines a commitment to basic survival for women and their children with a challenge to women s subordination to men Women activists insist that issues such as rape battering and reproductive control cannot be divorced from women s concerns about housing food land and medical care This innovative comparative study explores six cases of women s grassroots activism in Mexico El Salvador Brazil and Chile Lynn Stephen communicates the ideas experiences and perceptions of women who participate in collective action while she explains the structural conditions and ideological discourses that set the context within which women act and interpret their experiences She includes revealing interviews with activists detailed histories of organizations and movements and a theoretical discussion of gender collective identity and feminist anthropology and methods