Population Policy and Feminist Political Action in Three Developing Countries

Abstract

This paper reviews the impact of womens political action on population family planning and health policies during the 1980s in Brazil Nigeria and the Philippines. These cases share similar processes of democratization and economic crises but differ in region population policies demographic processes and levels of womens political mobilization. The countries studied have all undergone a process of democratization which allows the examination of womens political action under evolving conditions of popular participation. The case studies reveal different configurations of feminist political activism. An active and explicitly feminist movement is in place in Brazil which capitalizes upon its political support for the democratic coalition which defeated the military regime. Nigerian women are organized into multiple associations but lack a coherent womens movement. They have been largely reactive to the new national population policy but with little effect. Finally the nascent womens movement in the Philippines is effectively protecting womens access to family planning services from conservative forces.