(By Nick Buxton) Having arrived recently in La Paz, one of my first jobs was to look for a flat. As I got shown around each flat, invariably I would be led out past the kitchen to a freezing part of the flat with a tiny room next to an even smaller toilet. This I was told was where I could house my “empleada,” a female household worker. The tiny rooms that would be barely suitable for a domestic pet let alone a person represent the ongoing reality for women household workers several years after the passing of a new law establishing their rights.   more »

The so-called "water war" that took place in 2000, when the people of Cochabamba kicked out the privatised water company Bechtel, has become famous in the annals of the alternative globalisation movement. What is less well known in the story is the central role of women in the struggle against water privatisation.   more »