Intersecting Inequalities: Women and Social Policy in Peru, 1990-2000

As the only male head of state to address the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, Alberto Fujimori projected an image as a promoter of progressive policies to improve the condition of women, especially the poor, in society. And indeed the Peruvian government did pursue such policies during his tenure in such areas as poverty relief, population control, and domestic violence. These policies are used as case studies in this book to examine the relationship between gender/race/class/ethnic divisions and the state in its project of nation-building. This investigation reveals that policy meant to further women's development and emancipation often reproduced the marginality it was supposed to fight and depicts the strategies women developed to negotiate with and challenge the state.