Between machismo and Liberation. The Sandinista Revolution and the West German Solidarity Movement with Nicaragua, 1978-1991. A Gender-specific Perspective.

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Christine Hatzky
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2014 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 249451394

Public sympathy around the world for revolutionary Nicaragua was manifested in the late 1970s in the founding of many solidarity groups in Europe, North America and Latin America, which were networked both with the Sandinista movement and with each other. Inside and outside Nicaragua the commitment of women played an important part in these movements. The proposed research project that is presented here analyzes the reciprocal relationships between protagonists on both sides of the Atlantic and their influence on the emergence of this transnational solidarity movement with Sandinista Nicaragua, with the Cold War as the background. The focus is on gender-specific processes, which form the analytical framework of the research. This subject is a new field in research into contemporary history and social science - in international terms, too. The project is grounded both in historical gender research and in research into social movements, the latter being viewed as global movements. The methodological approach of the investigation aims to draw together various levels of structures and of actors that have not previously been linked: on the one hand, connections between the solidarity and feminist movements in the Federal Republic of Germany, and on the other hand their reciprocal exchange with women working in the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua. For the first time the focus will be laid explicitly on the role of male and female actors from the South, who will be examined in relation to their partners from the North. Behind the proposed research lies the thesis that Nicaraguan women were not merely passive recipients of solidarity, but on the contrary participated actively in the genesis of the solidarity movement and moreover influenced the debates of their fellow women in the Federal Republic. The project aims to show that solidarity was not a one-sided process in which ideas, theories and resources were transferred from Europe to the other side of the Atlantic, but rather that complex processes of mutual exchange were involved, which were however never entirely free of asymmetrical power structures.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants