Collective identity development amidst institutional chaos: Boundary evolution in a women’s rights movement in post-Gaddafi Libya

Collective identity is important for the cohesion of social movements, yet there is an inherent tension between group unity and heterogeneity when multiple groups are motivated to come together to work for change. Through a three-year investigation of the early stages of a women’s rights movement following the Libyan revolution, we explore the dynamics of collective identity development. Our findings capture how two heterogeneous groups, Libyan locals and Libyan diaspora, interact to negotiate and re-negotiate the boundaries of collective identity. We find that this process unfolds through an ongoing struggle where the point of difference between the groups – their uncommon past – is the mechanism first used to ensure inclusion of insiders, and then to exclude outsiders from the collective identity. Our paper contributes to our understanding of the relational process through which collective identity co-evolves, and the challenges faced by heterogeneous groups engaging in collective action.

Human Rights Universalism in Practice: What the Iranian Women’s Rights Movement Can Teach Us

Does practice demonstrate the legitimacy of international human rights law? This article explores this question via a case study of the women’s rights movement in Iran. Current human rights sceptics question the system’s legitimacy because of a lack of universality and an excessive top-down approach. However, the Islamic Republic of Iran has a remarkable community of grassroots activists. The bottom-up women’s rights initiative of the One Million Signatures Campaign utilised human rights discourse in combination with local, indigenous values in pursuit of gender equality. The article argues—via the case study of this movement—that there is practical evidence to support a theory of human rights universalism, as positive human rights law empowers the existing subjectivity of individuals. The universal legitimacy of international human rights law does not primarily come from a global network dictating common values, but from members of civil society mobilising their status as rights holders.

From Suffragist Shrine to Reformer’s Home: The Evolving Interpretation of the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House

In 1945, a women’s organization—Susan B. Anthony Memorial Incorporated (SBAM)—purchased and restored Susan B. Anthony’s former home in Rochester, New York. Contemporary historic house preservation practices, the founder’s political motives, and the desire to shape and celebrate a women’s history centered on women’s suffrage influenced the house’s restoration. The initial interpretation idolized Anthony, presented her as a single-issue reformer, and overlooked the lives of other household members and the complexities of the women’s rights movement. In the past seventy-five years, the house evolved from a shrine to Anthony and the suffrage movement to interpreting Anthony as a reformer supported by her family. Today, the house interprets Anthony’s lived experiences and relationships and the lives of other household members. The house humanizes Anthony by interpreting her multifaceted reform work. Finally, the house extends past enshrining the women’s suffrage movement, broadening its definition of the women’s rights movement, and connecting historic civil rights battles to present-day struggles.

Cause and Effect

At the turn of the 20th century, parts of the peaceful suffragists had grown frustrated with the lack of progress that had been made towards women’s suffrage. From this frustration new organisations were established that turned to more radical and, at times, violent strategies to draw attention to their cause. This paper focuses on the militant part of the fight for women’s suffrage and the effect the militancy had on the contemporary view of the women’s rights movement. The paper argues that despite creating a negative view of the women’s suffrage movement, the militant efforts weren’t entirely wasted since it created publicity for the movement and helped restart the discussion on women’s suffrage.

The Women's Movement and Indonesia's Transition to Democracy

Indonesia is an especially interesting case study for democratization and women’s empowerment because it is one of the few Muslim majority democracies and has a long history of women’s mobilization. A vibrant and diverse Indonesian women’s movement arose in the 1990s and played an important role in the democracy movement. Since then, women’s rights activists have achieved some crucial reforms, but have also confronted unprecedented and complex challenges—notably, the rise of religious conservatism. This chapter examines how the Indonesian women’s rights movement has fared with the advent of democratization. While democratization in Indonesia has produced important gains for women’s rights, it has also empowered conservative activists who oppose much of the agenda of the women’s rights movement. Women’s rights activists have had difficulty responding to this challenge because of ideological divisions and lack of a mass base, and because the state has been increasingly willing to defer to conservative forces. In short, the key factors for the fate of women’s rights activism during Indonesia’s democratization have been the patterns of women’s mobilization, the strength of counter-movement mobilization, and political decentralization—all of which have been shaped by pre-transition political legacies. The experience of activists in Indonesia suggests that the recent literature on democratization and women’s rights would benefit from greater consideration of how and when democratization processes can empower illiberal actors, counter-movements, and/or backlash against women’s rights.

“The Reasonable (Wo)man”: Physicians, Freedom of Contract, and Women's Rights, 1870–1930

This article examines how ideals of contract freedom within the women's rights movement challenged medical and medical jurisprudence theories about women between 1870 and 1930. Throughout this period, medicine linked women's intellectual incapacity with problems rooted in their physical bodies. Doctors opined that reproductive diseases and conditions of pregnancy, childbirth, menstruation, and menopause rendered women disabled, irrational, and inherently dependent. Yet at the same moment, the elimination of the legal disability of coverture, and new laws that expanded women's property and earnings rights contributed to changing perceptions of women's public roles. Courts applied far more liberal understandings of sanity and rationality in property and contract cases, even when the legal actors were women. Seizing this opportunity, reformers made powerful arguments against doctors' ideas of women's “natural” mental weakness, pointing out that the growing rights to contract and transact illustrated women's rationalism and competency for full citizenship. Most significantly, these activists insisted that these rights indicated women's right to total bodily freedom—a concept that would become crucially important in the early birth control movement.