Gathering Rage: The Failure of 20th Century Revolutions to Develop a Feminist Agenda

As the smoke clears from the collapse of revolutionary societies from Eurasia to Central America, analysts are searching for the crucial points of weakness that led to the failure of these “socialist experiments.” In Gathering Rage, writer, poet, and activist Margaret Randall describes how two of these revolutions, in Nicaragua and in Cuba, addressed or failed to address a feminist agenda.

Writing as both observer and participant, Randall vividly describes how, in each case, to varying degrees, and in different ways, women’s issues were gradually pushed aside. Combining anecdotes with analysis, she shows how distorted visions of liberation and shortcomings in practice left a legacy that not only shortchanged women but also undermined the revolutionary project itself. And finally, she grapples with the complicated issue of the ways in which the women themselves often willingly retreated into more traditional roles, and the rage that this engenders.

Margaret Randall is the author of numerous volumes of poetry, essays, and oral histories (including Sandino’s Daughters), and is a prolific editor and translator, as well as an award-winning photographer. She has lived and worked in Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua. She now lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.