SOCIAL SCIENCES

Sustaining Activism: A Brazilian Women's Movement and a Father-Daughter Collaboration

by Emma Sokoloff-Rubin
Rubin, Jeffery & . Duke Univ. Feb. 2013. 200p. photogs. notes. index. ISBN 9780822354215. pap. $22.95. SOC SCI
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This is an ethnographic study of the history of a Brazilian women's movement from an unusual combined perspective: those of an academic father and his teenage daughter. In 2004 and 2007, Jeffrey Rubin (history, Boston Univ.) and his daughter, Emma, traveled to Brazil and collaborated on interviews with leaders of the Movimento de Mulheres Trabalhadoras Rurais (MMTR), the Movement of Rural Women Workers, most notably Gessi Bones, one of the founders of the movement. The optimism and hope of the women who founded MMTR and their efforts to demand economic rights and gender equality in both the home and the public spheres shine through in their candid responses in these interviews.
VERDICT This slim book is free of academic jargon and instead exudes authenticity and positivity. The women's stories about their own histories and current circumstances are handled capably by the authors who acknowledge the interesting dynamics that play out as they interview women whose own fathers rarely let them leave the house or attend secondary school. High school and undergraduate students interested in Latin American politics and women's studies will especially find this intriguing and informative.
Reviewed by Jennifer Stout, Virginia Commonwealth Univ., Richmond , Feb 15, 2013
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