Under military rule from the 1960s to the 1980s and increasingly since the transitions to democracy in the 1980s and 1990s, second-wave feminists have mobilized for gender equality and to effect legal reforms in Latin America. Despite this activism and despite the steady stream of high-quality publications on gender and politics in Latin America, there has been very little comparative research on gender-related public policy reform in Latin America. Mala Htun's book on gender and public policymaking under democracy and dictatorship is an important scholarly contribution, filling many of the gaps in the literature on public policy and feminist activism in Latin America.

Htun seeks to answer the question of how and why states make particular policy decisions on gender-related issues. She argues that the ability of issue networks promoting gender reform to achieve legislative reform depends on three factors: 1) the “fit” between issue networks and the institutions of the state; 2) the character of state–church relations; and 3) the type of policy issue in question. To demonstrate the explanatory power of these factors, Htun examines public policymaking in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile during military rule and in the postdemocratization era, tracing the evolution of three issue areas—abortion, divorce, and gender equality in the family. In so doing, she is able to disaggregate issues, identify the ways that political institutions and changes therein shape elites' abilities to effect policy change, and determine the circumstances under which reformist issue networks can defeat the Catholic Church on gender issues.

She begins the book by laying out four normative traditions that inform ideas about gender policy issues in Latin America. The four normative traditions are Roman Catholicism, liberalism, feminism, and socialism. This is done to “differentiate the ideas behind various policy options” (p. 30) and uncover the degree of consensus and dissensus on specific gender policy reforms among political actors representing these normative traditions. Developments in the Catholic Church in the 1950s and 1960s to accept the essential equality of men and women in the family “produced a convergence among the Catholic tradition, the liberal tradition, and the socialist tradition on this issue” (p. 45) that facilitated reform on the issue. As to divorce, however, the Catholic Church was divided from liberals, feminists, and socialists. While this division impeded divorce reforms, it did not make them impossible, given the right circumstances. In the case of abortion, Htun notes, “feminism stood alone,” as “Latin American liberals and socialists have not interpreted elective abortion to follow from the core principles of their normative tradition” (p. 46).

Each of the next four chapters examines a particular gender policy issue: reform on women's civil status and property rights, divorce, women's equality in the family and distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate children, and abortion. In each chapter, the author traces the evolution of the issue in each country, focusing on the importance of political institutions, church–state relations, and the distinct type of politics engendered by that issue, specifically the degree of church involvement and the locus of decision making.

Htun finds that in all three countries, reforms on women's civil status and property rights ironically were achieved under bureaucratic authoritarian governments. This, she argues, was due to the absence of opposition from the Catholic Church because of its fundamental acceptance of men's and women's equality in the family, the “technical” approach taken by military governments toward this issue, and the resulting institutional structures that insulated policymakers from external pressures. In an effort to “modernize” their states, bureaucratic authoritarian regimes created legal commissions, composed of legal experts, to reform their civil codes. The legal experts convened over a period of time, drafting reforms under the assumption that “the subordinate position of women with respect to men was … a vestige of the past that impeded social and economic development” (p. 76). Only in Chile did the commission have difficulties getting its reforms passed, and that was because of a leak to the press, which mobilized conservative ideologues against the reform. Thus, the states' efforts to modernize had the unintended consequence of opening up a window for gender reforms.

The chapter on divorce uncovers patterns of policy change that are far more diverse. In Brazil, divorce was legalized in 1977 under military rule. In Argentina, divorce was legalized in 1987, but under democratic rule. In democratic Chile, however, divorce remains illegal. Church–state relations and shifts therein are important in understanding these distinct outcomes. Traditionally, there has been a close relationship between church and state in most Latin American countries, the result being the codification of canon law regarding marital indissolubility into civil marriage laws. In Brazil, this cozy relationship deteriorated under military rule, as the bishops became critical of the regime's human rights abuses. In Argentina, however, the relationship between church and state remained favorable until after democracy was restored, at which time the bishops came under attack for not having spoken out against the former regime's human rights abuses. The breach between church and state under these two distinct situations created a “window of opportunity” “to approve a divorce law” (p. 111). In Chile, on the other hand, close relations between church and state since the restoration of democracy have impeded the legalization of divorce.

The final section focuses on abortion and reveals that three key factors have prevented the decriminalization of abortion in the three countries: strong opposition by the Roman Catholic Church, a well-organized antiabortion movement, and public ambivalence concerning abortion, resulting from middle-class access to safe abortion at private clinics (p. 154). The main difference between the three countries has been the extent to which forces supporting the liberalization of abortion laws have succeeded in stimulating debate about the issue. Brazilian forces have achieved the greatest success and Chilean forces the least, with Argentineans holding a middle ground. The relative success of Brazilian abortion rights advocates can be explained by the support of leftist (Workers' Party, PT) deputies for the liberalization of abortion laws and by presidents' failure to oppose abortion. In Argentina and Chile, on the other hand, “most presidents have actively opposed abortion and feminist reproductive rights movements have found few allies in Congress willing to raise the abortion issue” (p. 161).

Htun's work on gender public policy in Latin America is a significant contribution to the field of comparative politics, contributing to the literature on public policy, gender and politics, democratization, and the state, to name a few. The approach taken to public policymaking on gender issues is nuanced, allowing her to disentangle the conditions and factors that facilitate and impede the success of issue networks on specific policy issues. For a few years now, scholars of gender politics in Latin America have recognized that some gender issues are “harder” than others (e.g., see Victoria Gonzales and Karen Kampwirth, Radical Women in Latin America: Left and Right, 2001); however, little has been known about the factors that make one issue “harder” or “easier” than another. This is but one gap that Sex and the State fills. One could not write a review of Htun's book without commenting on the exceptional methodology. She has conducted extensive field research in three countries on three issues, drawing on historical archival data as well as interviews conducted with legislators, feminist activists, and others involved in the policymaking processes in the three countries. The result is an impressive and well-written book that I highly recommend to all students of Latin American politics, gender and politics, and comparative public policy.