Amrita Basu is professor of political science and women's and gender studies at Amherst College. C. Elizabeth McGrory works as a consultant on reproductive health and women's rights.

Foreword -- Introduction -- Asia -- Discovering the Positive Within the Negative: The Women's Movement in a Changing China -- From Chipko to Sati: The Contemporary Indian Women's Movement -- Men in Seclusion, Women in Public: Rokeya's Dream and Women's Struggles in Bangladesh -- Rebirthing Babaye: The Women's Movement in the Philippines -- Africa and the Middle East -- The Dawn of a New Day: Redefining South African Feminism -- The Many Faces of Feminism in Namibia -- The Mother of Warriors and Her Daughters: The Women's Movement in Kenya -- Wifeism and Activism: The Nigerian Women's Movement -- Claiming Feminism, Claiming Nationalism: Women's Activism in the Occupied Territories -- Latin America -- Out of the Kitchens and onto the Streets: Women's Activism in Peru -- Democracy in the Country and in the Home: The Women's Movement in Chile -- Brazilian Feminism and Women's Movements: A Two-Way Street -- Building Bridges: The Growth of Popular Feminism in Mexico -- Russia, Europe, and the United States -- Democracy Without Women Is No Democracy: Women's Struggles in Postcommunist Russia -- Finding a Voice: Women in Postcommunist Central Europe -- Extending the Boundaries of Citizenship: Women's Movements of Western Europe -- Feminism Lives: Building a Multicultural Women's Movement in the United States -- Photo Credits

This book provides an overview of the genesis, growth, gains, and dilemmas of women's movements worldwide. It challenges the assumptions that local feminism can transcend national differences and, conversely, that women's movements are shaped and circumscribed by national levels of development.