Feminist Commitment Research Articles

Thorny entanglements: feminism, eugenics and the Abortion Law Reform Association's (ALRA) campaign for safe, accessible abortion in Britain, 1936-1967.

For the past two decades anti-abortionists in the Global North have been aggressively instrumentalising disability in order to undermine women's social autonomy, asserting, falsely, there is an insuperable conflict between disability rights and reproductive rights. The utilisation of disability in struggles over abortion access is not new, it has a history dating back to the interwar era. Indeed, decades before anti-abortionists' campaign, feminists invoked disability to expand access to safe abortion. This paper examines the feminist eugenics in the first organisation dedicated to liberalising restrictive abortion laws, the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA), established in England in 1936. ALRA played a vital role in the passage of the Abortion Act 1967 (or the Act) that greatly expanded the grounds for legal abortion, a hugely important gain for women in Britain and beyond seeking legal, safe abortions. In addition, the Act permitted eugenic abortion, which also had transnational effects: within a decade, jurisdictions in numerous Commonwealth countries passed abortion laws that incorporated the Act's eugenics clause, sometimes verbatim. This essay analyses ALRA's role in codifying eugenics in the Abortion Act 1967 and argues that from the outset, ALRA was simultaneously a feminist and eugenist association. Initially, ALRA prioritized their feminist commitment to 'voluntary motherhood' in their campaign whereas starting in the 1940s, they subordinated feminism to negative eugenics, a shift that was simultaneously strategic and a reflection of genuine concern to prevent the birth of children with disabilities.

Feminism and comparative constitutional studies

Feminism and comparative constitutional studies (CCS) both permit multiple different methodological approaches. For that reason, there are also multiple ways of doing feminist constitutional comparison. But feminist commitments point to three broad methodological principles that can and should inform CCS: first, attention to issues of gender and gender justice; second, the use of small-n and large-n methods in the field; and third, the promotion of diverse female-identifying and non-binary scholarly voices. This comment attempts to encourage further scholarly debate about the scope and implications of these principles for the field as a whole.

Feminist Collective Interpretation: Interpretation as Analysis

Interpretation is a key aspect to any qualitative research process. Inherent in analysis, researchers must ask what informs interpretations and whose interpretations are accepted as reality. These questions call attention to power and its connection with interpretational practices, while some might argue that it would be impossible to render any interpretations that are data. In this article, we describe our own feminist, collective analytic interpretation as being guided by a set of commitments rather than a set of procedures or a guiding theoretical framework. We highlight how our approach to collective interpretation through a set of feminist commitments is achieved. Then, we outline those commitments, leaving readers with an idea of how to build a feminist collectivist interpretation process into their own work specifically or contemplate the collaborative nature of interpretation in analysis of qualitative data more broadly.

Sexual Consent and Epistemic Partiality in Rape Fact-Finding

Feminist legal theory has contested rape laws and notions of sexual consent to better reflect the experiences of survivors and address power distortions in legal frameworks that perpetuate women’s subordination. In this paper, I explore an alternative form of criticism to consent-based rape laws and biases within legal systems. I argue that the justifications that are used to select and weigh evidence in rape cases are epistemically suspect because of the unreliability of their epistemic sources. My argument, building on radical realist social analysis in political theory, aims to unveil an epistemic defect in rape evidentiary procedures, which I call epistemic partiality. I suggest that this epistemic defect brings salient reasons to challenge rape laws based on ideals of consent. I hope to show that a radical realist approach may bring reasons to challenge rape laws and flaws in evidentiary systems without the need to centrally agree with or rely on feminist commitments and political goals. This type of criticism may effectively bypass certain limitations of feminist theory and potentially add to discussions focused on power distortions within legal systems.

Feminist Commitments Towards a Horizontal Women, Peace, and Security Critical Learning Community

Abstract This paper features the process whereby an experimental Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) program fostered a critical learning community around peace and security across 13 countries and with 40 women. It addresses the epistemological questions of doing research in collective ways (with and among activists/scholars), the axiological challenge of recognizing and embracing counter-expertise, and the possibilities for incorporating values and practices of care as well as non-extractivism in producing and disseminating knowledge. By articulating the core ethical principles that emerged from this experience, the paper suggests a critical feminist epistemological commitment in taking seriously grassroots women's knowledge in peace and security processes, rather than what is often done in both policy and academy: prescribing their needs from above, interpreting their knowledge from the outside, and advising what problems to tackle and how to live.

Sexual identities and political solidarities among cisgender women

This study addressed the relative liberalism of White lesbians. In doing so, we compared sexuality differences in White women’s reactions to sexual, gender, and racial hierarchies. In the end, our analysis of 2,950 women from the American National Election Survey (ANES) suggested three trends. First, lesbians and bisexual women rejected and challenged heteronormativity more than heterosexual women. Second, the relationship between sexual identities and feminist commitments was less consistent. Lesbians and bisexual women perceived higher levels of sexist discrimination than heterosexual women did, but sexual identities did not always predict involvement in feminist social movements. Third, lesbian women generally displayed greater support of antiracist activism than bisexual or heterosexual women. However, this greater lesbian concern over racial biases did not translate in sexual differences in antiracist activism. Implications for these findings were explored, as were suggestions of future research.

Psychoanalysis and Reproductive Justice: Reflections on Dobbs and the Possibilities of Psychoanalytic Political Praxis

This essay addresses the aftermath of Dobbs, the Supreme Court Decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, by looking to what can be learned from other countries, specifically psychoanalytically-informed praxis. Focusing on the role of psychoanalysts in particular, and psychoanalysis, more generally, in Argentina, I make the case for a psychoanalytic political praxis. This engages a Black feminist commitment to reproductive justice, a more expansive frame for politics that can embrace intersectional aims across a range of policy issues connected to the human right to have or to not have children, in a social and political context that supports the common good and facilitates human and environmental flourishing. In doing so, I highlight psychoanalysis’s somewhat hidden history of political commitment and engagement, particularly in terms of the interpersonal approach. I argue that only a sustained commitment from progressive forces, including among those in psychoanalysis, can forestall the further encroachment of authoritarian, anti-democratic forces operating in the US.

Artists in the Archives

Ulrike Müller's Herstory Inventory (HI) is a collection of over one hundred works on paper by “feminist” artists who were given “drawing assignments” that began with textual prompts taken from an archival list of T-shirts that Müller discovered in the collections of the Lesbian Herstory Archives (LHA). HI has also had multiple incarnations as a staged reading/live performance, audio installation, collective art project, art exhibition, and book, and its relay across media participates in a fascination with the archive that has pervaded LGBTQ culture, resulting in a proliferation of new archives that is one manifestation of the “archival turn.” This essay focuses on how Müller's HI uses the LHA as a point of departure for a creative practice that not only opens lesbian feminist archives to new visibility and new publics but also creates a transgenerational dialogue around lesbian feminist politics and representation — both honoring and reviving its history and subjecting it to critique. HI's engagement with the LHA's lesbian feminist commitment to archival autonomy provides an interesting case history for radical archival politics, as tensions between counterarchives and archival critique get played out through the tensions between lesbian and queer feminisms. Returning to the politics of representation and visibility that have been so central and vexing in lesbian feminism, HI puts art practices in conversation with archival ones. The project approaches the archive through abstraction and drawing, both practices of representation that resist the realisms of documentary media such as film and photography, to enact a queer politics of visibility.

A Passion for China: Norwegian Mission to China Until 1949 ed. by Tormod Engelsviken, Notto R. Thelle, and Knut Edvard Larsen

Reviewed by: A Passion for China: Norwegian Mission to China Until 1949 ed. by Tormod Engelsviken, Notto R. Thelle, and Knut Edvard Larsen Richard Carter A Passion for China: Norwegian Mission to China Until 1949. Edited by Tormod Engelsviken, Notto R. Thelle, and Knut Edvard Larsen. Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2015. 202 pp. An introduction, an overview, and nine chapters, like facets of a jewel, each enriched with documented detail and bibliography, offer a substantial view of Norwegian-grounded missionary activity in China through the mid-twentieth century. The style of writing ranges from pious to precise. Alongside the Norwegian passion one catches the passions of particular authors, for example, for feminism and equal rights. The commitment to documentation and the deep Norwegian roots of this text—translations of Norwegian terms are given—can mean that a reader is slowed down in understanding the content. [End Page 108] "Saving of Souls and the Return of the Lord …" describes an almost distracting array of mission agencies, including the Mission Covenant Church of Norway (MCCN), the China Inland Mission, the Free Mission Association, the Scandinavian Alliance Mission, the Christian Missionary Alliance, the Norwegian Missionary Alliance, and the Norwegian China Mission. At the same time, in particular following the biography and work of Swedish-American Fredrik Franson, this chapter narrates the impact of pre-millennialism in some Norwegian mission work. This includes the choice of MCCN to work as a faith-mission, so as "to avoid criticism from the older mission boards … [and] not compete for funds" (29). "Relationships—The Heart of Mission: The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Norway's Mission to China 1916–1949" first provides a brief history of the work of the ELFCN, including the numbers of missionaries, of schools and churches, and of Chinese workers. The chapter then works through a range of relevant relationships: with God, the Chinese community, Chinese Christians (in general and with co-workers), with other missions, between missionaries of the ELFCN, within the missionary family, and with the sending church and its members. The last portion moves beyond the title of the book: "Relationships after 1949." "Marie Monsen's Achievement" acknowledges the policy of the China Inland Mission to accept both men and women, and then details the significant work of Marie Monsen (1878–1962). The writer proposes "that God must be a supporter of women's liberation as well as modern Western civilization, since he directs his obedient female followers to become professional teachers and nurses …" (92). She adds "Marie Monsen's feminist commitment seems to have been largely overlooked when she lived as an elderly woman in Bergen" (108). One paragraph of "Diakonia" describes the turbulent era in China covered by all the chapters. During the fifty years within which the Norwegian Missionary Society (NMS) "was engaged in its work in China the country went through great political changes. The empire lasted until the revolution in 1911 "[with] both the internal conflicts [three are listed] and externally between the Chinese and the Japanese [and then] the communist takeover [which] resulted in [End Page 109] the establishment of the PRC on October 1, 1949 [sic]" (135). The chapter documents many facets of NMS diakonia: medical missions and the prevention of foot-binding of Chinese girls, discussions on women's work, promoting "human rights … by widely promoting the art of reading and writing" (137), overcoming and preventing social diseases, hospital work, sustainable development and respect for the patients' human worth, a school for the blind and an orphanage for abandoned children. Having served six years in Hong Kong, there catching glimpses of the major work of Karl Ludvig Reichelt (1877–1952), I much appreciated the closing chapter: "The Beginnings of Buddhist-Christian Dialogue in China." It documents clearly the long, deep "second fiddle" work of Notto Normann Thelle (1901–1990) that supported Reichelt. The chapter makes it possible first to honor the famous missionary and then to honor all who contribute to and support the great workers, including all those Norwegians whose passion for the Good News moved them to serve in mission in China, to 1949 and beyond. Richard Carter Concordia University Saint Paul, Minnesota Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and...

Feminism, Honor and Self-Defense: A Response to Hereth

Abstract Sometimes victims cannot defend themselves against the threat posed to them, but they can nevertheless harm or even kill their aggressors. Since they cannot defend themselves, it is unclear how such harming can be justified under the title of self-defense. According to the “Honor Solution,” by violently resisting their aggressors, victims do (partially) defend themselves because they protect their honor. Blake Hereth recently argued that this solution is incompatible with the feminist commitment that sexual assault victims ought not to be shamed or dishonored. The purpose of my paper is to reject Hereth's criticism and defend the Honor Solution.

Quoted at the Pulpit: Male Rhetoric and Female Authority in Fifty Years of General Conference

Quoted at the Pulpit: Male Rhetoric and Female Authority in Fifty Years of General Conference

Parapsychology and Women's Emancipation: A Historical Cliché?

Becoming mediums or psychics is framed as an opportunity for feminist commitment. Through the paranormal, the classical view of domesticized and dominated women was challenged by new cultural norms pertaining to gender and corporeality. But is this claim reliable, or is this a historical reconstruction in order to culturalize a scientific controversy, which sidesteps examination of experimental evidence? No empirical studies support this claim. The culturalist interpretation that spiritualist mediumship was above all a privileged mode of expression for oppressed women should therefore be put into perspective.

Stardust and feminism: A creatureliness agenda.

People are living, breathing creatures. Dominant feminist discourses are situated within hegemonic human exceptionalism (HHE) which, by framing the body in terms of human forms of meaning-making and social life, eschews first-order embodiment (or creatureliness) as worthy of inquiry. Here, well-known reasons for avoidance of "the biological" are briefly summarized and an argument is advanced for meta-theoretical centering of creatureliness. A three-pronged agenda is proposed that embraces the creaturely body without the "-isms" (e.g., essentialism) and "-izings" (e.g., so-called "naturalizing") that subvert feminist commitments. By unsettling HHE, executing the agenda would promote broader feminist coalitions and new scholarly collaborations aimed at fleshing out gender.

The symbolic representation of the ‘People’ and the ‘Homeland’ in Spanish left populism: an opportunity for feminist politics?

ABSTRACT This article analyses the symbolic construction of the ‘people’ and the ‘homeland’ in Spain’s left populist party Podemos by exploring the gender and class meanings that Podemos leaders evoke in their representation of these two key elements of populist rhetoric. Distinguishing between the official symbolic presentation of the constituency, that purposely selects certain symbols to evoke particular meanings about the people and the homeland, and the subtext of gendered norms that symbols evoke, allows us understanding the possibilities of the Spanish left populist party to contribute to feminist politics. Podemos has a role in the process of meaning-making that envisions gender and class-aware societal projects through the symbolic representation of ‘the people’ and ‘the homeland’. Yet, ambivalence in the egalitarian discourse and a symbolic subtext of unequal informal gendered norms in the party culture undermine the feminist commitments of the leadership adopted in the official presentation of the constituency. By capturing the gap between the official purposeful symbolic representation, that conveys a message of inclusive and feminist people-homeland, and the symbolic subtext of the party’s discourse and performance, that reproduces exclusionary gendered norms, the article contributes to reflect on the inclusionary potential and contradictions of left populism.

The Power of Strengthening Capacity of African Feminists: Case of Uganda’s African Women Leadership Institute (AWLI) Alumnae

This study sought to establish the impact of leadership development on creating more socially just systems in which women’s rights and gender justice are realised – first by practicing the knowledge acquired as individuals and within their organisations, including movements for change within communities Specifically, the objective of the study was to explore or examine and document the extent which AWLI participants acquired new knowledge and skills and how the same manifested in the implementation of the post training activities including their community action plans, from an impact lens. The study is an exercise in feminist epistemology and ontology – analysis by doing – tracing and mapping the contributions of AWLI’s feminist movement in Uganda. The analysis comes from the ground up, reflecting the feminist commitments to self-awareness and reflexivity, generating new knowledge, building organisations and movements, and transforming society. The study conceptual framework borrows from Kirkpatrick Model (1996) four steps for evaluating learning. A mixed approach to the study was adopted where 21 AWLI participants were purposively targeted using an online self-administering survey with follow up interviews via skype calls. On knowledge acquisition, 97.0% interviewees reported that the training had imparted them with new knowledge and skills in feminist leadership. All interviewees reported that the training was useful and relevant in advancing their personal feminist development agenda while 90.9% found the training to be useful and relevant in advancing their organisation agenda. Additionally, all the interviewees reported to have implemented the training to advance their personal and organisational development agendas. Indeed, the participants acquired new knowledge and skills on transformational and feminist leadership, based on the feedback received. Evidence suggests that the AWLI participants have changed how they look at every occurrence in their life which has generally changed their perception hence becoming more optimistic in life. For young feminists, they have become more emphatic and more aware of the patriarchal social norms that exist in their societies. Additionally, there is demonstrable evidence that the participants have taken up leadership roles in championing women issues in their communities including building capacity of other women and appreciating other women. For young upcoming feminists this will go a long way in building a movement of young feminists who understand women’s human right issues, and a cadre of young feminist who can influence other young women hence building a strong movement at the community level. Evidence also suggest that some participants have gained confidence to publish feminist knowledge products. Self-awareness and instilled transformational and feminist leadership have had a direct impact in the organisations that the participants represent. Gender-focused programming has also been strengthened where gender-focused issues are integrated in programmes. For marginalised populations such as sex workers organisations, the training helped in building their capacity, especially on their rights. The mainstreaming of gender in recruitment and remuneration processes within organisations will ensure that organisations remain inclusive and gender conscious in their human resources packages. The AWLI also had an impact within the feminist ecosystem in Uganda where 8,885 were influenced.

“Women need not apply”: Sylvia Earle, binary oscillations, and the ecofeminist rhetoric of Mission Blue

ABSTRACT Despite its relative compatibility with contemporary approaches to criticism and flexibility in application, few media studies scholars have “taken up” ecofeminism as an analytical framework. This study marshals insights from ecofeminist theory and critical rhetoric to analyze the Netflix documentary Mission Blue. Through its depictions of renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle, the film points ecofeminists and media scholars toward an alternative theoretical position capable of deconstructing power binaries. More specifically, we contend Mission Blue makes use of “binary oscillations.” These oscillations invite viewers to experience shifts between the extremes of a binary when depicting Earle in the film, thereby resisting the urge to see her as fitting into one side of a dualism. Implications of this critical ecofeminist approach and the notion of a binary oscillation are discussed, in addition to the limitations of the film itself in supporting intersectional feminist commitments.

“Ok, gender! Where are you?!”: On the potential of catalytic validity in feminist geographies of everyday inequities

AbstractThis paper is a provocation and reflection on some of the methodological tensions and opportunities I encountered in trying to “get at” gender in my research on the everyday gendered geographies of physical activity. Situated in a feminist methodology, I designed my study on gender and gym environments to include multiple forms of data (interviews, drawings, journals) to foster a participant‐centred research process by offering diverse forms of expression. Yet, there were moments where my feminist commitment to recognise participants’ agency in how they articulated their gendered experiences was stymied by seeming self‐contradictions throughout their multi‐modal narratives, as well as by my researcher interpretations of gender. In this post‐mortem, I consider what incongruities in the ways some participants spoke about gender within and across data types tell us about gender as a concept. I illustrate how there is methodological opportunity in using multiple creative methods as a check for rigour in the form of “catalytic validity,” or awareness‐raising among research participants, which is consistent with socially transformative feminist geographical aims.

Sisterly advice for feminists in academia when playing the game and working the cracks

ABSTRACT This paper introduces a set of workarounds for early-career feminist academics. Successful senior women academics in feminist and other critical disciplines were asked about their experiences within the academic system, how they thrived in the neoliberal academy while practicing feminist scholarship and activism. They revealed how they paid the price for unmasking the rules of the game and working the cracks within the system. Based on their experiences the new generation of feminist activists in academia is encouraged to B-E-L-I-E-F. Altogether, the findings reveal that gender and feminist commitment add to the complexities of academic career making, and while the suggested workarounds will not bring instant revolutionary change, they can help academic activists thrive and create change through feminist scholarship and activism.

America's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today by Pamela S. Nadell

Reviewed by: America's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today by Pamela S. Nadell Rachel Kranson Pamela S. Nadell . America's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today . New York : W. W. Norton , 2019 . 352 pp. doi:10.1017/S0364009420000653 The publication of The Jewish Woman in America in 1976 signaled the emergence of a subfield that would revolutionize the study of American Jewish history. Scholars of American Jewish women opened up new areas of investigation, training their lens on unexplored topics such as the home, clothing, food-ways, marriage, divorce, sexuality, reproduction, and childrearing. At the same time, they uncovered the stories of remarkable women who made their mark on [End Page 209] institutions that did not always welcome their contributions, such as America's unions, courtrooms, and synagogues. In America's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today , Pamela Nadell weaves together more than forty years of scholarship. The resulting narrative—the first synthesis of American Jewish women's history to be published since Hasia Diner and Beryl Lief Benderley's Her Works Praise Her: A History of Jewish Women in America from Colonial Times to the Present , in 2002—testifies to the ongoing richness of this vital area of inquiry. In all, America's Jewish Women is the rare volume that serves as a scholarly contribution, a teaching tool, and an engaging read for an interested popular audience. Nadell synthesizes major contributions of the field without ever sacrificing readability and accessibility. Replete with insights from the scholarship and peppered with stories of fascinating American Jewish women, it offers a valuable resource to readers both inside and outside the academy. The volume begins with a brief discussion of what it might mean for American Jewish women to have a history distinct from other American women, in spite of their diversity and the manifold ways they have engaged with their Jewishness. While always attuned to religious, political, and economic differences, America's Jewish Women successfully demonstrates that significant groups of American Jewish women often shared a common set of concerns and circumstances, though they certainly did not all respond to these conditions in the same ways. That being said, America's Jewish Women does not engage more complex questions of definition, such as what it means to write women's history at a moment when we can no longer assume that gender is static or binary, or what complex legacies Americanness may have conferred upon Jewish women apart from relative religious freedom. This strikes me as appropriate for a synthetic volume aimed at a cross-over audience and does not prevent America's Jewish Women from being an excellent tool for anyone interested in a comprehensive overview of the field. Those looking for a denser theoretical discussion of the intersections of Americanness, Jewishness, and womanhood, however, may have to search elsewhere. The bulk of the volume takes us chronologically from the early years of the republic through the present moment, tracing challenges, accomplishments, and changes in the lives of American Jewish women. Nadell circles back to similar themes in each successive chapter, demonstrating the shifting ways in which American Jewish women tackled issues such as marriage, reproduction, childrearing, education, work, religion, and culture. Building on a long-standing feminist commitment to personal politics, the narrative moves deftly between the home and the workplace, domestic rituals and the synagogue, courtship and the courts. Implicitly, America's Jewish Women reminds readers that the public and private have never really been separate spheres, and that human lives are shaped as much by personal circumstance as by public achievements. Each of these chapters reflects not only Nadell's mastery of American Jewish women's history, but also her immersion in the broader field of American women's history. For instance, while most studies of American Jewish history begin their analyses of the early twentieth century with the immigration restrictions of 1924, Nadell takes her cues from women's historians and starts her [End Page 210] discussion with the ratification of women's suffrage in 1920. And instead of introducing her post-1945 chapter with reflections on the Holocaust, Nadell opens with the conservative gender dynamics of...

On the Limits of Globalizing Black Feminist Commitments: "Me Too" and its White Detours

On the Limits of Globalizing Black Feminist Commitments: "Me Too" and its White Detours