This interdisciplinary volume provides a historical and international framework for understanding the changing role of women in the political economy of Latin America and the Caribbean. The contributors challenge the traditional policies, goals, and effects of development, and examine such topics as colonialism and women's subordination; the links to economic, social, and political trends in North America; the gendered division of paid and unpaid work; differing economic structures, cultural and class patterns; women's organized resistance; and the relationship of gender to class, race, and ethnicity/nationality. Contents: Preface and Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Understanding the Past to Interpret the Present 2. Home-Based Work and the Informal Economy: The Case of the "Unemployed" Housewife 3. Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender: Determining Womens Employment 4. Occupational Concentration: The Links Between Occupational Sex and Race Segregation 5. Ethnic Enclaves and Ethnic Queues: Women and Domestic Work 6. Female-Headed Households and the "Hidden" Headship of Single Mothers: Strategies for an Era Without Government Support 7. Regional Segregation: Geography as a Context for Work 8. Epilogue Appendix: Supplementary Tables Notes References Index