National, Transnational and International Womens Movements

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National, Transnational and International Womens
Movements
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Womens Movements

• What is a social movement?
• a form of political mobilization in which
  membership and action is based on claims of
  justice "Social movements have in common
  individual mobilization through a sense of
  morality and (in)justice, and social power
  through social mobilization against deprivation
  and for survival and identity" (Fuentes and
  Gunder Frank, p.179) Voluntary collective action
• Womens movement- where the preponderance of
  participants are women- can have many aims
• Global scope and long history
• Few areas of the world where women have not
  organized in some way
• Feminist movements-movements aimed at improving
  the condition of women mostly womens movements
  White Ribbon Campaign

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Why do womens movements matter?

• On policy
• More policy influence than parties, women in
  government, lobbying and other traditional
  avenues of influence
• Influence through these other avenues depends on
  broader mobilization
• Lasting change- changes minds, not just policies
  changes the realm of the possible in politics
  fundamental change social organization that
  undergirds formal politics

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U.S. Womens Movements

• Seneca Falls 1848 womens rights convention -
  Declaration of sentiments
• Battle for womens suffrage here and abroad
• Second Wave Feminism (1960-80s)-
• Heels of civil rights movement- grew out of it
• 1966- Formation of NOW
• 1977 second wave feminism Womens Rights
  Convention in Houston
• 1990s-Third Wave Feminists?
• Vagina monologues sexuality issues more central

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Womens Movement Tactics Traditional
Protest/Disruption

• Iceland Supermarket Strike
• Denmark protesters wrote on bellies
• USA Hunger strikes Radical Cheerleaders
• India Chipko Tree Huggers
• Chaining themselves to Parliament fences
• Shaming techniques for wife beaters
• Greenham Common, UK Peace
• Nigeria Nudity to disrupt meetings
• Jamaica Street Theatre

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New Social Movement Tactics

• Everyday politics
• Non-sexist language
• Personal politics
• Consumer choices
• Alternative models of social organization
• Cooperative businesses
• Radically democratic forms of organization
• Daycares, grocery stores, shared living quarters
• Cultural Politics
• Theatre, Music festivals, Movies
• Books and literary criticism
• Reform of religious practices, leadership
• Seek to transform gender roles, redefine and
  revalue the feminine by offering new ideas and
  critiquing old ones

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Womens Transnational Organizing

• Global movement history
• 1915 1,000 women met, the Hague, WILPF
• 1975 Mexico City- First big intergovernmental
  conference on womens status
• 1980- Copenhagen 1985 Nairobi
• 1990s a series of conferences- 1993 HRights
• 1995 Beijing FWCW (Fourth World Conference for
  Women)