Merike Blofield analyzes the problems that arise when women's rights conflict with the views of conservative organized religion. Specifically, she addresses the legal status of divorce and abortion in three recently democratized Catholic countries: Spain, Chile and Argentina. This is a vital and timely contribution to political debates on democratic consolidation, social policy, gender and politics, as well as religion and politics. It challenges many of the accepted assumptions and conclusions in these fields, arguing that to understand the political dynamics and policy trajectories on these issues we must first analyze the distribution of both economic and political power. This book moves the debates away from a (unitary) focus on values and public opinion to an analysis of how economic, social and political structures give certain actors more power than others. The topics covered should appeal to a broad readership interested in the difficulties of democratic consolidation in Latin America, and the obstacles to social policy reform in a region with a such high levels of inequality. The analysis presented in this book also deepens our understanding of why and how European countries have been so successful in limiting the influence of organized religion and in providing women's rights.