VIoleta Chamorro- President elect in 1990. Available at http://www.nicaraguasc.org.uk

The women in Nicaragua during the Sandinista Revolution saw their way of life drastically change. The new woman was depicted in Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) posters through the revolution; the idealized image of a guerilla Sandinista smiling while nursing an infant and carrying a rifle over her soldier. Once women became involved as guerilla fighters in the overthrown of the Anastasio Somoza García regime, the issue of gender would never be the same as many women mobilized to assist the FSLN bring about the revolution. Sandinista! is also the name of a popular music album by The Clash. ... The Sandinista flag The Sandinista National Liberation Front (Spanish: Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional) is a leftist political party that ruled Nicaragua for roughly 12 years from 1979 to 1990. ... Anastasio Somoza García (February 1, 1896–September 29, 1956) President of Nicaragua. ...

Early in the revolution, the FSLN made the emancipation of women one of its top goals. Wtih the assisstance with their partner and the the predominant women's organization AMNLAE (Asociacion de Mujeres Nicaraguenses Luisa Amanda Espinosa), the FSLN made significant progress towards this goal. Specifically, the Sandinistas prohibited the use of women as sex objects, promoted breast feeding and made legalized breaks for working women to do so, eliminated the distinction between children born in and out of wedlock, banned the former "family wage" that saw male heads of households receive the wage of his wife and children's labour, required that men and women shared the household duties including child care, and also established penalties to suppress prostitution. However, not all women were happy with these gains instead viewing them as merely extensions of women's traditional roles rather than something more progressive. The main issue for Nicaraguan feminists was that a radical change was necesssary to shift the common social ideologies away from the ideals of sexism and machismo that only served to maintain gender inequality. Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... AMNLAE (Asociacion de Mujeres Nicaraguenes Luisa Amanda Espinoza/Luisa Amanda Espinoza Association of Nicaraguan Women) was initially established in 1977 under the name AMPRONAC (Asociacion de Mujers ante la Problematica Nacional/Association of Women Concerned about National Crisis). ... The sign of the headquarters of the National Association Opposed To Woman Suffrage Sexism is commonly considered to be discrimination against people based on their sex rather than their individual merits, but can also refer to any and all differentiations based on sex. ... The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view. ...

Nicaraguan feminists were not able to find a vioce through AMNLAE, who they saw as more feminine than feminist, thus many feminists cut their ties with ehat they say as a right-wing organization and began advocating for gender equality on their own. This became increasing difficult during the Contra war when AMNLAE, the FSLN, and other independent women shifted their focus away from emancipating women and towards winning the war. Feminists believed that promoting the deconstruction of the problematic ideologies of sexism and machismo could in fact help the war efforts and simultaneously continue the revolutionary process. However, the reluctance for AMNLAE to explicitly pursue the anti-sexism agenda and the subsequent acceptance of more traditional roles for women and families by the FSLN was largely responsible for the outcome of the 1990 elections. Feminism is a social theory and political movement primarily informed and motivated by the experience of women. ... The Contras (Spanish contrarrevolucionario, counter-revolutionary) were the armed opponents of Nicaraguas Sandinista National Liberation Front Government Junta of National Reconstruction following the July 1979 overthrow of Anastasio Somoza Debayle and the ending of the Somoza familys 43-year rule. ...

The ultimate defeat came in 1990 when Violeta Chamorro representing the United Nicaraguan Opposition (UNO), was elected into office thus ousting the FSLN from power. This was not only a defeat for the FSLN and revolutionaries but for the Naicaraguan feminists in particular. Because neither AMNLAE nor the FSLN explicitly challenged the sexist controversies, they subsequently fell to a much more traditional and conservative party led by a woman president fulfilling the typical gender-roles that so desperately needed to be dismantled by women in the revolution. Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (born October 18, 1929) is a Nicaraguan political leader, publisher, former member of the Government Junta of National Reconstruction and former President of Nicaragua. ...

External Sources

Chinchilla, Norma Stoltz. "Feminism, Revolution, and Democratic Transitions in Nicaragua" in The Women's Movement in Latin America: Participation and Democracy (2nd ed). Ed. Jane S. Jaquette. Boulder: Westview Press, 1994. 177-196.

Chinchilla, Norma Stoltz. Revolutionary Popular Feminism in Nicaragua: Articulating Class, Gender, and National Sovereignty. Gender and Society 4 (1990): 370-397.

Kampwirth, Karen. Feminism and the Legacy of Revolution: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chiapas. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004. 19-46.

Molyneux, Maxine. "Mobilization without Emancipation? Women's Interests, the State, and Revolution in Nicaragua”. Feminist Studies, 11.2 (1985) 227-254.