“We’re Not Equipped”: The Paradox of Intersectional Failures in the Formation of Men’s Gender Justice Groups

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 284-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tal Peretz
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Interview Study ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
Men's Groups ◽  
Men’S Involvement

Men’s involvement in the antiviolence and women’s rights movements has increased in recent decades, but men’s groups still struggle to recognize difference among men. This study is based on a year-long participant observation and interview study with two gender justice groups directed toward men of marginalized communities. A third group, Men Stopping Violence (MSV), played a paradoxical role that elucidates some dynamics and difficulties of intersectional organizing: MSV’s training and resources were crucial for both groups, but MSV’s failure to organize intersectionally was as important in their formation. From these examples, I theorize three categories of ways that mainstream organizations fall short of intersectional inclusion—organizational elements that are culturally unacceptable to marginalized communities, necessary elements that are absent, and environmental comfort—and make suggestions for intersectional social movement praxis.

On Reading The Logics of Gender Justice

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-511
Author(s):  
Sumi Madhok
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Feminist Scholarship ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Critical Site ◽  
The Way

Abstract This ambitious and remarkable book provides us with a new, creative, and critical site for feminist scholarship and leads the way in producing historically and contextually specific empirical datasets and analysis of the deeply complex area of global women's rights. As is often the case with important work, the book engenders a supplementary set of hard questions to be asked both of itself and of the wider literature. In particular, the book enables us to raise two sets of further questions: first, about the links between law, policy making, women's rights, and social transformation, and second, to raise methodological and conceptual questions in the wake of empirically operationalizing intersectionality on a global scale.

What Are Women’s Rights Good For? Contesting and Negotiating Gender Cultures in Southern Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 97-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Van Allen
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Gender Violence ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Policy Shift ◽  
Good For ◽  
And Gender

Abstract:Currently, feminist activists are engaged in problematizing and reframing “rights” claims in southern Africa. This article discusses three cases of such activism, all of which show the limitations but also the potential of using rights claims to transform gender cultures and gain economic and gender justice. These cases involve the successful challenge to the gender discriminatory 1982 Botswana Citizenship Act; the policy shift of Women and Law in Southern Africa from a focus on legal rights advocacy to a synthesis of rights and kinship-based claims; and initiatives by South African gender activists to confront the contradiction between the country’s constitutional guarantees of women’s rights and high levels of gender violence.

Bridewealth, Women’s Subordination and Agency in Marriage: An ethnographic critique of gender activism in rural north-western Ghana

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962199278
Author(s):  
Constance Awinpoka Akurugu ◽  
Maximillian Kolbe Domapielle ◽  
Mathias Mwinlabagna Jatoe
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Northern Ghana ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Women's Emancipation ◽  
A Site ◽  
North Western

This article examines current discourses on the role of the bridewealth in subordinating women and the implications of gender justice advocacy that privilege the undoing of this practice. In northern Ghana, to liberate women from oppression, some women’s rights activists advocate the abolition of the marriage payment. Drawing on ethnographic data gathered in north-western Ghana, we argue that dismantling the institution of the bridewealth risks worsening women’s subordination. Gender activism needs to be sensitive to contextual norms and respectful of the ‘oppressed’ subjects of ‘liberation’. We propose a return to the traditional court as a site for negotiating women’s emancipation.

scholarly journals Building Transnational Feminist Alliances: Reflections on the Post-2015 Development Agenda

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Awino Okech ◽  
Dinah Musindarwez
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Women's Development ◽  
Policy Advocacy ◽  
Feminist Activism ◽  
2030 Agenda ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Movement Building ◽  
And Gender

Abstract This article reflects on transnational feminist organising by drawing on the experiences of the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) during the consultations leading up to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. First, we re-examine some of the debates that have shaped the field of women’s rights, feminist activism and gender justice in Africa, and the enduring legacies of these discourses for policy advocacy. Second, we analyse the politics of movement-building and the influence of development funding, and how they shape policy discourses and praxis in respect of women’s rights and gender justice. Third, we problematise the nature of transnational feminist solidarity. Finally, drawing on scholarship about transnational feminist praxis as well as activism, we distil some lessons for feminist policy advocacy across geo-political divides.

scholarly journals IMPACTS OF BLACK FEMINISM ON THE PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF BLACK WOMEN'S RIGHTS

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafaelle Franchini ◽  
Caio Eduardo Costa Cazelatto ◽  
Valéria Silva Galdino Cardin
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Black Feminism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Feminist Movement ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
The Social ◽  
Victims Of Violence

This article analyzed, through bibliographic review, the social movement of feminism as an instrument of protection and promotion of black women's rights. To this end, the historical development of the feminist movement was investigated, with a focus on European countries and the United States of America, as well as the legal developments and achievements obtained by Brazilian black women from the Carta das Mulheres aos Constituintes or Letter of Women to the Constituents. It explored the fundamental rights that were claimed and achieved by the feminist movement for black women. Thus, it was found that the trajectory of black women is strongly marked by the reflexes that slavery and social marginalization have historically brought to this vulnerable segment, as it was also observed that the social movement of black feminism ended up not effectively representing the claims of black women, who, for the most part, are still related to the consequences of the period of slavery, such as low or no education, underemployment, victims of violence against women, among others.

scholarly journals ‘You can’t repeal regret’: targeting men for mobilisation in Ireland’s abortion debate

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Hunt ◽  
Amanda Friesen
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Hegemonic Masculinity ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Campaign Strategies ◽  
Abortion Debate ◽  
Eighth Amendment ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Campaign Messages ◽  
The Republic

This study explores how social movement organisations involved in the abortion debate in the Republic of Ireland attempted to appeal to men in their campaign messages before the 2018 referendum on the Eighth Amendment concerning abortion. We scrape social movement organisations’ Twitter accounts to conduct quantitative and qualitative content analyses of images and videos the organisations posted, and find evidence that social movement organisations sometimes extended their frames to men as voters. Social movement organisations evoked themes of hegemonic masculinity in their imagery and messaging, though these themes were not a large portion of overall campaign tweets and there were distinct differences in how this was done by the two organisations we study. Previous research suggests anti-abortion organisations extend their frames to incorporate ‘pro-woman’ messaging. Our research contributes by exploring the ways that frames may be extended by both anti- and pro-abortion actors to target men and mobilise masculinity in public debates over women’s rights.<br /><br />Key messages<br /><ul><li>Social movement organisations may extend frames to target men and mobilise them as voters on women’s rights issues.</li><br /><li>Image analysis of social movement organisations’ online campaigns reveals how they used male identities to mobilise men.</li><br /><li>Hegemonic masculinity was evoked, though typically in ways that were consistent with social movement organisations’ general campaign strategies.</li></ul>

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