This study examines the role of women and gender ideology during the pre-contact and colonial periods in Latin America. Marysa Nararro looks at early indigenous societies, and at the Spanish and Portuguese who claimed the "New World", noting the interaction of race and class. She illustrates this through portraits of individual women, as well as offering an examination of their legal status and economic roles. Virginia Sanchez Korrol views the changing roles of women in Latin America and the Caribbean from the early decades of the 19th century to the present. She documents the part played by women in the struggles for national independence, their legal status in the new republics, and their quest for education. She demonstrates the shifts in women's roles in the period from 1880 to 1930, with the accompanying broader societal transformations. She also shows how women, as political and social activists, worked to eliminate double standards, exploitation and inequality amongst class and ethnic groups in specific historical periods and geographic regions.
