"No other book on Latin American women's movements addresses the important topic of race/ethnic and class differences with such clarity and sensitivity. Patricia Richards' work will have important implications for theories of women's citizenship and gendered states."--Norma Chinchilla, professor of sociology and women's studies, California State University at Long Beach

Can laws, policies, and agencies that are designed to help women achieve equality with men accommodate differences among women themselves? In Pobladoras, Indígenas, and the State, Patricia Richards examines how Chilean state policy shapes the promotion of women's interests but at the same time limits the advancement of different classes and racial-ethnic groups in various ways.

Chile has made a public commitment to equality between women and men through the creation of a National Women's Service, SERNAM. Yet, indigenous Mapuche women and working-class pobladora activists assert that they have been excluded from programs implemented by SERNAM. Decisions about what constitutes "women's interests" are usually made by middle class, educated, lighter-skinned women, and the priorities and concerns of poor, working-class, and indigenous women have not come to the fore.

Through critical analysis of the role of the state, the diversity of women's movements, and the social and political position of indigenous peoples of Latin America, Richards provides an illuminating discussion of the ways in which the state defines women's interests and constructs women's citizenship. This book makes important contributions to feminist studies, theories of citizenship, and studies of the intersections of class, gender, and race.

Patricia Richards is an assistant professor of sociology and women's studies at the University of Georgia. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a Mellon Fellow in Latin American Sociology and received a university-wide Outstanding Dissertation Award for 2002-2003.