Feminist solidarity: how women are shaping the way we think about sex and politics in Uganda

Abstract

The rise of the contemporary feminist movement and its subsequent engagement with gender equality and democratic politics calls for further investigation. This study is a contribution to this end. It raises debate as to how feminist influence towards the theorization, reconstruction and dismantlement of existing constructions of sex and politics in non-patriarchal ways frames our thought, debate and perception, as well as policy outcomes on the same. Herein, I explore the gains reached by the feminist movement in the mid-1980s into the 1990s that led Uganda to be celebrated as a model country in the bourgeois political science literature and among neo-liberal ‘development’ agencies, for its unique experience in relation to women empowerment, participation and representation. The main aspect of my argument is that these dynamics would not have occurred in their form or context in the absence of a concerted and focused impetus by women nourished by initiatives and networks around feminist themes and actions all over the country. I indicate, however, that while the feminist movement did have a visible and audacious development and impact on the changing position of women at the time, the gains then do not seem to be taking root now. Upon this, I provide points of reflection.