After the Revolution

Programs of stabilization and structural adjustment spread widely throughout Latin America during the 1980s. In revolutionary Nicaragua, the Sandinista government introduced an adjustment program late in the decade, but harsher measures mandated by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have come more recently, since the 1990 elections ushered in the Union Nacional Opositora (United National Opposition-UNO) government of Violeta Chamorro. A debate has emerged in the country over the consequences of these measures for the most vulnerable social groups. In Nicaragua as elsewhere, the poor, women, and children are hit hardest by these policies. Yet in Nicaragua the recent history of social mobilization has prepared these sectors in distinct ways to confront the devastating effects of neoliberal economic programs, setting the country apart from others in Latin America. Low-income urban women are among those affected most by the political change of the past few years, and this article argues that these women are actively confronting worsening conditions both at work and at home. I first consider some of the general consequences of structural adjustment policies for Third World women and men and then turn to examine the particular effects these policies have had in Nicaragua. My focus is on the