Before, During, After the Revolution... The Fight Continues. Feminism in Nicaragua

Abstract

This article explores the evolution and development of feminism in Nicaragua. On one hand, the academy has dated the appearance of feminism after the victory of the FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front), but this approach implies that the suffragist movement in the last part of the 19th century never existed, and suggests that the revolution included a feminist gender agenda in the eighties. On the other hand, Women’s Movement in Nicaragua has remained very much tied to governmental structures throughout its history, so the feminist discourse changed in the nineties and turned the autonomy its most important goal to achieve. In order to explore these issues, this article proposes an itinerary to understand the development of feminism in Nicaragua and the redefinition that its principal organization (Women’s Autonomous Movement) has suffered last year due to Nicaragua’s presidential elections and the recent penalty of the therapeutic abortion.