This article, based on research conducted in 1995 and 1996 explores the fraught relations between the Nicaraguan women’s movement and the political party that had led the Revolution against the Somoza family dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s and ruled the country for a decade of civi war with a U.S.-backed counterrevolutionary movement only to lose elections in 1990 and 1996. That decade had witnessed an explosion of autonomous women’s organizations, many led by former Sandinista leaders and activists who were disillusioned with the Front’s insistence on harnessing the movement to its political objectives in a oneway relationship that neither empowered women nor responded to their demands. The result was a political movement unable to win elections and a women’s movement with extensive popular participation and support but limited clout in the political arena.