New Patterns of African Women’s Strategic Mobilization

Abstract

Recently, Karen Beckwith (2000) put forward a call for scholars of women's movements to shift from the well-established practice of in-depth country studies toward developing more general patterns “to advance the comparative study of women's movements and comparative political research more generally” (p. 431). The field of comparative scholarship on women's movements, particularly research on activism in the “third world” (p. 437), has become the forefront of the women and politics research (p. 431). Yet, wary of tendencies to over-generalize or apply ethnocentric biases, most scholars remained isolated within the confines of their limited, albeit rigorous, empirical research. Beckwith charged scholars to be bolder and more confident that their cases could contribute to the identification of new patterns that were emerging in the field, which in turn could create middle-range theories for the discipline. Kathleen Fallon's Democracy and the Rise of Women's Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa answers this call decidedly and effectively. It is precisely the kind of work that moves the field toward this new level of theorizing. Fallon utilizes rigorous empirical case-study research, yet she demonstrates how her case shapes and challenges the larger field. While Ghana is Fallon's focus in the book, she thoroughly grounds the case in both the African context as well as in the broader women and politics literature. Her rich case study goes on to engage theories of women's political mobilization and contributes to the emergence of a general theory of women's participation.