NEGOTIATING SPACES - GENDER, ECONOMY, AND CULTURAL POLITICS IN POST-SANDINISTA NICARAGUA

The 1990 elections in Nicaragua marked the loss of the Sandinistas to a coalition government that overturned many of the revolutionary chang es of the last decade and introduced a series of neoliberal measures t o return the country to a capitalist path. Despite the initial despair experienced by many Nicaraguans over that outcome and the economic cr isis that followed, a number of political and cultural openings emerge d to allow for independent social movements to grow in opposition to b oth the new government and to undemocratic practices on the left. Wome n have been central to these developments, as those most harshly affec ted by recent economic policies and as activists in newly organized mo vements. Based on research in Managua over a six-year period, this ess ay considers these apparently contradictory tendencies and calls for a n analysis that attends to both political economy and cultural politic s.