Women's Movements
Globalizing Women's Movements
With the growth of the globalization of the economy and the development of international trade associations and governmental organizations, women have found it increasingly useful to organize across national boundaries. The United Nations has played a major role in making women's movements international and in defining women's rights as human rights. Women have used the opportunities provided by the four U.N. World Conferences on Women (in 1975, 1980, 1985, and 1995), the official ones and the alternative NGO forums, as arenas in which they could set goals, plan, network, and inspire one another to continue their work (West 1999). They have seized upon the various U.N. accords, especially CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women), as bases for demanding national changes.
Women have established regional networks, such as Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) to implement U.N. policies and other regional human rights charters, including the African Charter for Human and People's Rights. In these efforts the Center for Women's Global Leadership, directed by Charlotte Bunch, acted as a coordination center for international women's human rights campaigns. These have focused on sex trafficking, issues of health and reproductive rights, female genital cutting (also known as female circumcision and female genital mutilation), and violence against women.
Regional meetings, such as the biannual Encuentros held in various Latin American cities to define the issues of Latin American women's movements, have been a source of inspiration and strength for many feminist leaders (Sternbach et al. 1992). A 1984 meeting in India of women from different regions of the South led to the formation of Development Alternatives for Women for a New Era (DAWN) to focus on sustainable development to address the worsening of women's living standards as they relate to international lending policies (Stienstra 2000).
The first WAAD Conference, held in Nigeria in 1992, brought together Women in Africa, and the African Diaspora. Conference coordinator Obioma Nnaemeka (1998) affirmed, "Our faith in possibilities will clear our vision, deepen mutual respect, and give us hope as we follow each other walking side-by-side." That kind of hope, determination, and egalitarianism, so critical to the success of grass-roots women's movements, is harder to sustain in more distant and bureaucratic international women's movement organizations; but it is just as vital.
See also: BIRTH CONTROL: SOCIOCULTURAL AND HISTORICAL ASPECTS; FAMILY ROLES; GENDER; GENDER IDENTITY; LESBIAN PARENTS; MOTHERHOOD; POVERTY; WORK AND FAMILY
Bibliography
Abdullah, H. (1995). "Wifeism and Activism: The Nigerian Women's Movement." In The Challenge of Local Feminisms, Women's Movements in Global Perspective, ed. A. Basu, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Adamson, N.; Briskin, L.; and McPhail, M. (1988). Feminist Organizing for Change, The Contemporary Women's Movement in Canada. Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Alvarez, S. E. (1990). Engendering Democracy in Brazil, Women's Movements in Transition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Black, N. (1992). "Ripples in the Second Wave: Comparing the Contemporary Women's Movement in Canada and the United States." In Challenging Times, The Women's Movement in Canada and the United States, ed. C. Backhouse and D. H. Flaherty. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Caraway, Nancy. (1991). Segregated Sisterhood: Racism and the Politics of American Feminism. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
Desai, M. (2001). "India, Women's Movements from Nationalism to Sustainable Development." In Women's Rights: A Global View, ed. L. Walter. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Dumont, M. (1992). "The Origins of the Women's Movement in Quebec." In Challenging Times, The Women's Movement in Canada and the United States, eds. C. Backhouse and D. H. Flaherty. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Dutt, M. (2000). "Some Reflections on United States Women of Color and the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women and NGO Forum in Beijing, China." In Global Feminisms since 1945, ed. B. G. Smith. London: Routledge.
Giddings, P. (1984). When and Where I Enter, The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. New York: William Morrow.
Imam, A. M. (1997). "The Dynamics of WINning: An Analysis of Women in Nigeria (WIN)." In Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures, ed. M. J. Alexander and C. T. Mohanty. New York: Routledge.
Johnson-Odim, C. (1991). "Common Themes, Different Contexts: Third World Women and Feminism." In Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, ed. C. T. Mohanty, A. Russo, and L. Torres. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Kumar, R. (1995). "From Chipko to Sati: The Contemporary Indian Women's Movement." In The Challenge of Local Feminisms, Women's Movements in Global Perspective, ed. A. Basu. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Molyneux, M. (1985). "Mobilization without Emancipation? Women's Interests, the State, and Revolution in Nicaragua." Feminist Studies 11(2):227–54.
Monture-Okanee, P. A. (1993). "The Violence We Women Do: A First Nations View." In Challenging Times, The Women's Movement in Canada and the United States, ed. C. Backhouse and D. H. Flaherty. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
Nelson, B. J. and Carver, K. A. (1994). "Many Voices but Few Vehicles: The Consequences for Women of Weak Political Infrastructure in the United States." In Women and Politics Worldwide, ed. B. J. Nelson and N. Chowdhury. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Nnaemeka, O. (1998). "This Women's Studies Business: Beyond Politics and History (Thoughts on the First WAAD Conference)." In Sisterhood, Feminisms and Power: From Africa to the Diaspora, ed. O. Nnaemeka. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Okonjo, K. (1994). "Reversing the Marginalization of the Invisible and Silent Majority: Women in Politics in Nigeria." In Women and Politics Worldwide, ed. B. J. Nelson and N. Chowdhury, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Sternbach, N. S.; Navarro-Aranguren, M.; Chuchryk, P.; and Alvarez, S. E. (1992). "Feminisms in Latin America: From Bogotá to San Bernardo." Signs 17(2):393–434.
Stienstra, D. (2000). "Making Global Connections among Women, 1970–99." In Global Social Movements, ed. R. Cohen and S. M. Rai. London: The Athlone Press.
Tripp, A. M. (2000). "Rethinking Difference: Comparative Perspectives from Africa." Signs 25(3):649–76.
Walter, L. (2001). "Denmark: Women's Rights and Women's Welfare." In Women's Rights: A Global View, ed. L. Walter. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
West, L. (1999). "The United Nations Women's Conference and Feminist Politics." In Gender Politics in Global Governance, ed. M. K. Meyer and E. Prügl. London: Rowman & Littlefield.
LYNN WALTER
Additional topics
Marriage and Family EncyclopediaFamily Social IssuesWomen's Movements - Feminist And Feminine Movements In Brazil, Civil Rights And Women's Movements In The United States