Tossounian, Cecilia

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Journal of Latin American Studieshttp://journals.cambridge.org/LASAdditional services for Journal of Latin AmericanStudies:Email alerts: Click hereSubscriptions: Click hereCommercial reprints: Click hereTerms of use : Click hereGregory Hammond, The Women's SuffrageMovement and Feminism in Argentina from Rocato Perón (Albuquerque, NM: University of NewMexico Press, 2011), pp. xi+267, \$28.95; £18.61,pb.CECILIA TOSSOUNIANJournal of Latin American Studies / Volume 46 / Issue 01 / February 2014, pp 217 - 218DOI: 10.1017/S0022216X13001776, Published online: 19 February 2014Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0022216X13001776How to cite this article:CECILIA TOSSOUNIAN (2014). Review of H. D. Adamson 'VARIATION THEORYAND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION' Journal of Latin American Studies, 46,pp 217-218 doi:10.1017/S0022216X13001776Request Permissions : Click hereDownloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/LAS, IP address: 87.77.118.212 on 17 Sep 2015http://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 17 Sep 2015 IP address: 87.77.118.212J. Lat. Amer. Stud.  (). doi:./SXGregory Hammond, The Women’s Suﬀrage Movement and Feminism inArgentina from Roca to Perón (Albuquerque, NM: University of New MexicoPress, ), pp. xi+, $.; £., pb.Gregory Hammond’s book studies the development of the suﬀrage movement inArgentina from its inception in the late nineteenth century until women’s politicalparticipation became a reality under Peronism. Guided by the question of the timingof female suﬀrage – that is, why women’s equal participation in the political realmarrived under the Peronist regime – this study examines not only the growth ofthe feminist movement but also its relationship with the political scene, unfolding years of activism, its fragmentation and its reconsolidation along politicaland ideological lines.In the introduction, the author places the Argentine case in the context of otherLatin American populist regimes that also supported women’s rights. If, as the authorstates, the women’s rights movement generally had to wait for a powerful politicalfaction that collaborated with it to make suﬀrage a reality, the Argentine case becomespeculiar, as instead of cooperation, there was an opposition between Peronists willingto grant the vote and the suﬀrage movement advocating for this right. This apparentcontradiction guides the book’s argumentation, which follows a chronological line,opening with three chapters that study the emergence and expansion of the feministmovement and concluding with two chapters devoted to discussing its relationship toPeronism.Hammond analyses the pre-Peronist feminist movement, focusing on theideological diﬀerences between groups. While civil equality was practically a commonclaim in the ﬁrst decade of the twentieth century, women’s political rights were one ofthe reasons for disagreement between anarchist, socialist, radical, independent andconservative feminists, a factor that in turn weakened the claim for female politicalequality. However, as Hammond shows, a societal consensus about granting suﬀragestarted to grow especially after the  civil code reform, which established women’slegal equality with men. Chapter  examines the feminist movement at its peak, payingspecial attention to the implementation, in , of the suﬀrage law in the province ofSan Juan. In the most original chapter of the book, the author explores theunresearched topic of the enfranchisement of women in San Juan and itsconsequences at the national level, focusing on the Cantonista Party, an independentfaction of the Radical Party that was responsible for the suﬀrage legislation, in order toexplain the success in granting women political rights. However, the coup of  andthe conservative governments that followed let projects of national suﬀrage languish,signalling the defeat of the women’s movement’s political goal.In explaining the reasons for the feminist movement’s failure to achieve thewomen’s vote before Peronism, the author not only points to the political atmosphereof the década infame, but more speciﬁcally stresses the early and persistentfragmentation of the women’s movement along partisan lines and, consequently, itsincapacity to attract working-class women to its cause in the absence of a coherentmessage regarding women’s enfranchisement. According to the author, these factorswere only reversed when Perón came to power, explaining Peronism’s success wherefeminists failed. The book’s ﬁnal two chapters deal precisely with the complexrelationship between Peronism, feminism and women’s political mobilisation.In , Congress approved the suﬀrage legislation, granting women politicalrights. In the elections of , and with the help of the newly created PeronistBook Reviewshttp://journals.cambridge.org Downloaded: 17 Sep 2015 IP address: 87.77.118.212Women’s Party, strictly controlled by Evita Perón, Peronism won the elections, andwomen not only voted for the ﬁrst time in Argentine history but were also elected forthe ﬁrst time to Congress. In an ironic twist, feminists, who had been advocating forthese rights for ﬁve decades, withdrew their support for the suﬀrage law on the basis oftheir opposition to the Peronist government. As Hammond points out, the divisionbetween the suﬀragists and Peronists lay on the one hand with party politics, asfeminists were all members of parties that opposed Peronism from its beginnings. Onthe other hand, the antagonism also emerged from Peron’s social division between thepeople and ‘the oligarchs’, with suﬀragists being considered among the latter andconsequently as enemies of the descamisados. Ultimately, it was Peronism’s allureamong the working classes, with Perón providing for material beneﬁts while Evitacreated a personal and solid bond with working-class women, that explains, accordingto Hammond, the triumph of Peronism over feminism on the issue of engenderingextensive support for political rights. Hammond argues that eventually, while theemergence of a strong leader such as Perón, who co-opted the feminist cause anddiscourse, explicates the timing of suﬀrage in Argentina, it is the existence of suﬀrageadvocates who had already paved the way for such a claim that explains Peronism’sembrace of the cause in the ﬁrst place.This book will appeal to both students and specialists working on women and LatinAmerican social and political history. Although feminism in Argentina is a well-research topic, this work provides a good synthesis of the history of the suﬀragemovement and, speciﬁcally, of its conﬂictive relationship with Peronism. Politicalparticipation, however, was one of the many claims of the women’s movement, andthe reader would at times expect a deeper study of feminist goals that were intrinsicallybonded to suﬀrage, such as eﬀorts to promote public health and education. Overall,Hammond’s study is very eﬀective in analysing the relationship between politicalmovements and suﬀragist organisations, providing a skilful examination of the reasonsbehind granting female political rights. As such, it is a welcome contribution toArgentine women’s history.C E C I L I A TO S S O UN I A NFree University of BerlinJ. Lat. Amer. Stud.  (). doi:./SXElana Shever, Resources for Reform: Oil and Neoliberalism in Argentina (Stanford,CA: Stanford University Press, ), pp. xiii+, $. hb, $. pb ande-book.In April , Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announcedthe expropriation of the assets of the Spanish oil multinational Repsol owned in theArgentine ﬁrm Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF). This move shocked theinternational business community and caused a diplomatic row between Argentinaand Spain, while left-wing politicians in other Latin American countries celebratedthe Argentine government’s action. The Argentine government referred to theexpropriation as the ‘recovery’ of Argentine oil resources, denoting the fact that from (the year in which YPF was established) until its privatisation in  byPresident Carlos Menem, YPF had been a state-owned enterprise. YPF was not justone more of the many Latin American state-owned enterprises, however. It was theﬁrst vertically integrated state-owned company in the non-communist world, and itsprivatisation was one of the largest operations of its kind in history. This means that Book Reviews

Review of H. D. Adamson Variation theory and second language acquisition

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Review of H. D. Adamson Variation theory and second language acquisition

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