Women’s Activism as a Model for Feminist Theorizing

2019 ◽  
pp. 25-56
Author(s):  
Margaret A. McLaren
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Transnational Feminism ◽  
Women's Leadership ◽  
The Self ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Women's Activism ◽  
Organizational Decision Making ◽  
Comprehensive Strategy ◽  
Global Connections

This chapter describes the work of two grassroots women’s organizations in India, the Self-Employed Women’s Association and MarketPlace India. It provides background on each organization and identifies four themes in their work: Collaboration and Participation, Women’s Leadership, Women’s Empowerment, and Respect for Diversity and Global Connections. Drawing upon actual struggles for economic and social justice, the chapter shows how these organizations empower their members through dignified labor, participation in organizational decision making, and developing leadership. The organizations also cultivate a respect for diversity of identities. This respect for diversity coincides with the ability to criticize pernicious traditions and practices. Each organization empowers its members to challenge structural injustice through social and political activism. The chapter demonstrates the effectiveness of beginning from the local and moving toward the global to promote gender justice, and it suggests that the comprehensive strategy that these organizations employ could serve as a model for transnational feminism.

Women's Activism, Feminism, and Social Justice

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret A. McLaren
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Cultural Imperialism ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Women's Activism ◽  
Political Responsibility ◽  
Economic Exploitation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Relational Framework ◽  
Individual Success

Informed by practices of women’s activism in India, this book proposes a feminist social justice framework to address the wide range of issues women face globally, including economic exploitation; sexist oppression; racial, ethnic, and caste oppression; and cultural imperialism. The feminist social justice framework provides an alternative to mainstream philosophical frameworks that analyze and promote gender justice globally: universal human rights, economic projects such as microfinance, and cosmopolitanism. These frameworks share a commitment to individualism and abstract universalism that underlie certain liberal and neoliberal approaches to justice. Arguing that these frameworks emphasize individualism over interdependence, similarity over diversity, and individual success over collective capacity, McLaren draws on the work of Rabindranath Tagore to develop the concept of relational cosmopolitanism. Relational cosmopolitanism prioritizes our connections, while acknowledging power differences. Extending Iris Young’s theory of political responsibility, McLaren shows how Fair Trade connects to the economic solidarity movement. The Self-Employed Women’s Association and MarketPlace India empower women through access to livelihoods as well as fostering leadership capabilities that allow them to challenge structural injustice through political and social activism. Their struggles to resist economic exploitation and gender oppression through collective action show the importance of challenging individualist approaches to achieving gender justice. The book concludes with a call for a shift in our thinking and practice toward reimagining the possibilities for justice from a relational framework, from independence to interdependence, from identity to intersectionality, and from interest to sociopolitical imagination.

Gender justice in financial markets

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roseanne Russell ◽  
Charlotte Villiers
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Financial Markets ◽  
Financial Market ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Women Directors ◽  
Normative Foundation ◽  
The Subject

Financial markets have often been represented and treated as gender-neutral domains despite the consequences of their operation and the structure of their institutions being deeply gendered. In the post-financial crisis period the contribution of women to financial markets (whether as creditors, entrepreneurs, or consumers) has been the subject of intense interest. Particular attention has been paid to the identity of financial market decision-makers. A lack of women’s representation in the boardrooms of influential companies is considered problematic. In response, financial market actors have emphasized the “business case” for boardroom diversity. While the identity of corporate decision-makers is an important aspect of “gender-just” financial markets, the “business case” for reform lacks a secure theoretical and normative foundation. Instead, an alternative argument for women directors with a greater emphasis on social justice feminism is necessary if gender justice in financial market decision-making is realistically to be achieved.

RAISE IT UP!! Youth Arts and Awareness

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Thomas-Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Community Leaders ◽  
Youth Engagement ◽  
Literary Arts ◽  
Systemic Oppression ◽  
Creative Self

RAISE IT UP! Youth Arts and Awareness (RIU) is an organization that promotes youth engagement, expression, and empowerment through the use of performance and literary arts and social justice activism. We envision a world where youth are fully recognized, valued, and supported as artist-activists and emerging thought leaders, working to create a world that is just, intersectional, and inclusive. Two fundamental tenets shape RIU’s policies, practices, and pedagogy. The first is that creative self-expression and culture making are powerful tools for personal and social transformation. The second is that social justice is truly possible only if and when we are willing to have transparent and authentic conversations about the oppression children experience at the hands of the adults in their lives. We are committed to amplifying youth voices and leadership and building cross-generational solidarity among people of all ages, particularly those impacted by marginalization. Though RIU is focused on and driven by the youth, a large part of our work includes helping adult family members, educators, and community leaders understand the ways in which systemic oppression shapes our perceptions of and interactions with the young people in our homes, neighborhoods, institutions, and decision-making bodies.

scholarly journals The Biography of an Algorithm: Performing algorithmic technologies in organizations

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 263178772110046
Author(s):  
Vern L. Glaser ◽  
Neil Pollock ◽  
Luciana D’Adderio
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Organizational Decision Making ◽  
Computational Tools ◽  
Dynamic Perspective ◽  
Over Time

Algorithms are ubiquitous in modern organizations. Typically, researchers have viewed algorithms as self-contained computational tools that either magnify organizational capabilities or generate unintended negative consequences. To overcome this limited understanding of algorithms as stable entities, we propose two moves. The first entails building on a performative perspective to theorize algorithms as entangled, relational, emergent, and nested assemblages that use theories—and the sociomaterial networks they invoke—to automate decisions, enact roles and expertise, and perform calculations. The second move entails building on our dynamic perspective on algorithms to theorize how algorithms evolve as they move across contexts and over time. To this end, we introduce a biographical perspective on algorithms which traces their evolution by focusing on key “biographical moments.” We conclude by discussing how our performativity-inspired biographical perspective on algorithms can help management and organization scholars better understand organizational decision-making, the spread of technologies and their logics, and the dynamics of practices and routines.

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