MAGGIE STRINGER
BREAKING BARRIERS
More than a memoir, Breaking Barriers is testament to the resilience of women who refuse to be silenced. An unforgettable journey through the struggles of marginalised Bolivians.
UNSHAKEN VOICES:
A JOURNEY OF EMPOWERMENT AND FREEDOM
In Breaking Barriers, Maggie Stringer takes readers on an unforgettable journey through the struggles of marginalised women in Bolivia, revealing how the fight for empowerment begins with the courage to challenge deeply ingrained societal norms. This book is not just about overcoming oppression; it is about embracing uncertainty, finding strength in adversity, and redefining freedom on one’s own terms.
THE STRUGGLE FOR EMPOWERMENT
For generations, women have been conditioned to conform, forced into predefined roles that limit their potential. In Bolivia, Maggie witnessed firsthand the suffocating grip of patriarchal structures, where systemic sexism and oppression dictated the course of countless lives. Yet, despite these harsh realities, the women she encountered chose to rise. Through their stories, Breaking Barriers highlights the raw struggle for self-liberation and the relentless pursuit of a voice that cannot be ignored.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Breaking Barriers is a memoir based on the seven years Maggie and her husband, David, spent living in the tropical plains of Bolivia, in Montero, in the ‘Oriente’.
It portrays, through the actions, struggles and conflicts experienced by women there, how systemic sexism, racism and the ever-changing networks of culturally sustained patriarchal power perpetuates and maintains prejudice alongside the brutal oppression of poor disenfranchised barrio women and their children.
The book recounts how relationships of mutual trust between the author developed with the barrio women.
It also describes how encountering the daily struggles of the women to break seemingly impossibly negative attitudes towards them, changed Maggie’s approach to living her life. She discovered how uncertainty and not knowing ‘the answers’ was an authentic way to live.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maggie Stringer was raised in Bromley, Kent in the comfortable south-east area of England. After graduating university with a degree in Human Relations, and obtaining a PGCE and a Diploma and Masters in Theology, she became a Methodist Minister.
That work ignited an interest in the very different cultures of the poor in South America. Following six intensive weeks spent studying Spanish, Maggie was sent to work in Bolivia.
There, her eyes were opened to a very different world, one where women were seen as second class citizens and repression was all too commonplace.
But that was only the start of the story.
