Gender Battles: Latin American Women, War, and Feminism by gender studies and Latin Americanist scholar Vanesa Miseres focuses on the overlooked voices of women who wrote about and participated in Latin American and global wars from the 19th to mid-20th centuries. Moving beyond military narratives centred on men, the book highlights how women – as journalists, memoirists, and activists – shaped the discourse around war and gender.
Focusing on conflicts like the War of the Pacific, the World Wars, and the Spanish Civil War, Gender Battles reveals how women of the region navigated nationalistic frameworks to express evolving feminist ideas and challenge social norms. Their writing and organizing captures war not only as a battlefield struggle but as a force that defines gender roles, political structures, national, and transnational identities.
More than witnesses, the women of Gender Battles reimagine the meaning of war itself: revealing its intimate connections to everyday life, personal autonomy, and global feminist movements. With an interdisciplinary approach, Miseres reforms our understanding of Latin American history and feminist thought, bringing to light a powerful legacy of Latin American women’s resilience, influence, and political intervention in times of conflict.
Introduction: Womens War Writing in Latin America
1. Mothers, Friends, Daughters: Gender Strategies Narrating the War of the
Pacific
2. War, Pacifism, and International Feminism in Argentina (1890s1920s)
3. Personal Memoirs and Collective Initiatives: Latin American Women,
Anti-Fascism, and the Spanish Civil War
4. Agents of Change: Cultural Ambassadors, Writers, Educators, and the Role
of Latin America During and After World War II (19391945)
Epilogue: A Feminist War Archive
Bibliography
Vanesa Miseres is an associate professor of Spanish at the University of Notre Dame.
