Improving the Quality of Women’s Daily Lives: Costa Rica’s Centro Feminista de Información y Acción

The Centro Feminista de Información y Acción (CEFEMINA) (Feminist Center for Information and Action) grew out of the Movimiento para la Liberación de la Mujer (MLM) (Women’s Liberation Movement). In 1974, a group of women formed MLM to begin discussions, research, and campaigns from a feminist perspective in Costa Rica. These women had just returned from studying in Europe, where they had been influenced by the rise of the feminist movement in developed countries. Following North American and European examples, MLM organized a series of activities that promoted women’s reproductive rights: contraception, abortion, and the banning of forced sterilization. In