This work is a useful addition to our still scant knowledge of Mexican women from 1910 to 1940, for Soto has researched the subject thoroughly and conscientiously, reading hundreds of newspaper articles, essays, and hooks. In addition, in 1976 she interviewed sixteen persons who provided her with new data on some of the extraordinary women who made feminism in Mexico from 1910 to 1940 a fascinating and vital movement. She amply illustrates that progressive women made many contrutions to Mexican society in education, health, journalism, and other areas, but she rightly concludes that until 1940 these contributions went largely unrecognized because of a pervasive machismo and the fear that enfranchised women, under Church influence, would vote for reactionary candidates.
There are, however, flaws in Soto’s work; ill fact, it appears to he an unrevised thesis. Typographical errors abound, a number of quotations are undocumented, and there are some factual errors present. More important, the author’s skills at analysis and synthesis are undeveloped. Yet despite these serious flaws, Soto’s book is indispensable for students of modern Mexico, as she has uncovered new and significant facts about an important, but still neglected, subject.
