On September 23, 1947, the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires filled with jubilant men and women celebrating a new law that gave women the same right as men to vote in all elections. President Juan Domingo Peron had achieved a major victory for his regime. In the years that followed, Peron, with the help of his wife, Evita, courted female voters and created opportunities for them to participate in his broad-based political coalition. However, the suffrage law generated considerable controversy, including from supporters of the movement. Harsh criticism came from the Left, especially from the Socialist Party, the earliest advocate of women's suffrage in Argentina. Also, feminists who had done so much to build the case in favor of voting vehemently opposed the reform, viewing the Peronist suffrage plan as a cynical attempt to boost Evita's political career. Providing an overview of the women's suffrage movement from its earliest stages through the passage of the 1947 law, this study examines what Argentina's history can tell us about the moment when a society agrees to the equal participation of women in the political realm.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Sustaining human rights
• Historical frames : colonialism to the 1976 coup
• Historical frames : the dirty war and democratization, 1976-2002
• Human rights organizations : historical frames as collective action frames
• The state and human rights organizations : national and international courts
• Human rights organizations and society : demonstrations and the media
• Sustaining human rights : a brief comparison with Chile.

The "disappearance" and torture of many people during the worst days of the authoritarian regimes that ruled many Latin American countries in the 1970s have been well documented and widely condemned as abuses of human rights. Less well known is what has become of the movements for human rights once democratic governments were restored in these countries. In this book, Michelle Bonner reveals how the defense of human rights continues today, taking Argentina as her primary example (with comparison to Chile in the final chapter). Bonner shows that the role of women - viewed as protectors of the family - is key to understanding how human rights movements have evolved. Moreover, the continuity of the "historical frames" used to legitimate their activity is an essential element in the success of their efforts, even while the claimed abuse has changed from the political repression undertaken by the dictators' minions to the economic hardships created by market inequities resulting from neoliberal policies. Based on extensive field research and providing a long historical view extending from colonial times to the present, this study compares the activities of the ten most prominent human rights organizations in Argentina and assesses the responses of both state and society.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)