Socialist Feminism Research Articles

International Solidarity as the Cornerstone of the Hungarian Post-War Socialist Women's Rights Agenda in the Magazine Asszonyok

AbstractThis article analyses five years of the magazine Asszonyok (Women) the main forum for discussing women's rights between 1945 and 1949 in Hungary. The magazine was published by the Magyar Nők Demokratikus Szövetsége (the Hungarian Women's Democratic Federation), an umbrella organization created mostly by women from the communist movement. This analysis is centred around the idea of internationalism and how it became a means for socialist women's emancipation, proof of the political power of the new women's organization, and a platform of political education. It also symbolized the new era of peace after the war, peace becoming one of the slogans of the socialist women's movement globally. The broadening international platform of transfers became a terrain where political languages about race, class, and gender were slowly but steadily taking shape. Solidarity with women across the globe became one of the main tenets of communist women in Hungary. However, solidarity had its limits. As is shown here, identification with the right political agenda was even more important than aspects of race and class. This was one of the most important ways in which socialist women's rights and feminism were diverging from each other, despite the broad spectrum of shared elements on their agenda.

The translation of socialist feminisms in post-Francoism: Juliet Mitchell and Sheila Rowbotham

Throughout history, Hispanic feminism has been endowed with ideological mothers and sisters. The dictatorship of Francisco Franco (1939–75) prevented their reception for years. However, in the late Franco era, the foundational essays of Betty Friedan and Simone de Beauvoir were published. Later, at the height of the women’s movements, other foreign voices arrived, such as those of the Anglo-Saxon socialist feminists Juliet Mitchell and Sheila Rowbotham. After contextualizing the feminisms of the Transition and their physical and intellectual spaces, this article focuses on the reception and censorship of Mitchell’s and Rowbotham’s essays in the 1970s. Published under the Barcelona publishing imprints of Anagrama and Edicions 62, as well as the Madrid-based Debate, six of the eight books have censorship files, which show how the censorship apparatus continued to act after the death of the dictator. Almost half a century after their publication, now that the essays of the second wave are once again a source of inspiration for contemporary feminism, this research aims to pay tribute to them and remind us that the socialization of their texts, through translation, was one of the key elements of social and political change in the post-Franco period.

Social Feminism and Critique of Thatcherism in Caryl Churchill's Top Girls

In modern society, despite all the wins, women have often been known to try to bring other women down. One can realize this in children's conversations, in adult stereotypes, in our movies. This in generational loop of conditioning where women who play by the patriarchal and capitalist rules of the society are rewarded more often than those who continuously challenge these social institutions. It is a bargain that a few women have been making with patriarchy to retain power. Looking away from the binaries of good or bad, right-wing feminism harps more on individualistic wins and gains of women. They celebrate women who have broken away from the visible shackles of patriarchy. Although there are far-reaching roots that are not easily visible, that holds them strongly in the foundation of their institutions. A certain whitewash has been done for the eyes to believe that society is progressing. However, the hollowness of this progress keeps making its existence felt. Written and produced during the time Conservative Party Leader, Margaret Thatcher had recently become the first Prime Minister of Britain, this play analyses the role and effects of conditional feminism in the lives of urban women- women holding a certain socio/ economic power. Through certain scenes, conversations, and debates in the play, the idea of individualistic feminism versus the idea of socialist feminism is explored. However, the constant hints of tropes of patriarchy, existing nevertheless has been the emerging highlight of the play. The tone has been set from the first scene where Marlene, a successful and ambitious woman, talks with her 'friends' over food and drinks. They hardly let each other complete their sentences but what comes out through these broken conversations is that despite the rewards, the moral punches of patriarchy have still made them suffer. So, is the bargain really worth it as patriarchy would like us to believe? This paper attempts to explore this area through a deep reading into Caryl Churchill's Top Girls.

Feminist Except for Palestine: Where Are Feminist Social Workers on Palestine?

Despite international social work commitments to social justice, human dignity, and individual worth, feminist social work remains silent on Palestine. Israeli settler colonial violence pushes us to revisit our responsibilities to stand against colonized militarism. We insist that collective liberation is a feminist ethical constant, a political bosom for decolonization, a compass for critical feminist social work. In this article, we extend previously made claims that Palestine is a feminist issue by highlighting four moral imperatives: 1) persistent sumud, (2) gendered impacts of Zionism's settler colonial violence, 3) commitments to justice and liberation, and 4) feminist praxis of narrating violence.

‘Aux Ouvrières!’: socialist feminism in the Paris Commune

ABSTRACT Feminist and socialist movements both aim at emancipation yet have often been at odds. The socialist feminists of the Paris Commune provide one of the few examples in late nineteenth-century Europe of a political movement combining the two. This article offers a new interpretation of the Commune feminists, focusing on the working-class women’s organisation the Union des femmes. We highlight how the Commune feminists articulated the specific form of oppression experienced by working-class women as both women and workers, which consequently required a joint, yet differentiated, struggle to overcome. We explore three aspects of this framework. First, the Commune feminists offered a vision of the transformation of the social through reforms to girls’ education, the family and women’s work. Second, they practised a politics of coalition building by connecting their struggle with those of other oppressed groups, such as male workers, peasants and workers of other nations. Third, these ideas were instantiated in the Union des femmes’ novel proposal for women’s worker co-operatives as part of a socialist re-organisation of the economy.

Women of the Left, Patriotism, and National Identity, 1914-28.

The literature on the role of women in the First World War, and the war's effect on gender roles, considers conservative and socialist feminism, the expansion of the franchise in 1918 and 1928, and state welfare policies. However, there has been less work on the women of the Left who participated in the war effort, and who used nationalism to push for socialist and feminist objectives. These women have been understudied for various reasons: as women, they were often disregarded by military and political historians, and as enablers a conflict they have usually been overlooked by historians of gender and of the Left. This article is concerned with these women, and examines the extent, nature and significance of their participation within the war effort and their use of nationalism to advance socialist and feminist objectives. It analyses how their actions during the conflict affected the gender, class and political frameworks of the time, both in the lead-up to the Representation of the People Act 1918, and in the first years of female enfranchisement. Based on extensive use of the files of the War, Emergency: Workers' National Committee and on the publications of the labour and co-operative movements, it argues that a substantial section of the female labour movement articulated a sense of British nationalism in the years during and after the First World War, utilized this to advance their political, economic, and feminist objectives, and in doing so challenged political orthodoxy and prevailing gender roles.

An Exploration of Socialist Feminist Perspectives on Gender Difference: Patterns, Criticisms and Refutations

Difference-based feminism has not abandoned the pursuit of equality, and the essential differences between the sexes make it imperative that gender differences are respected. Socialist feminism sees the positive value of women's differences, advocates the elimination of gender inequality from the perspective of reconstructing women's identities, and emphasizes the importance of gender theory for women's emancipation. As for the causes of gender inequality, socialist feminism is aware of the double oppression of women in the public and private spheres, and points to the path to equality at this stage, with women's full access to the labour market, the transformation of the private sphere into the public sphere, and the elimination of gender differences in the responsibilities, duties and identities of the sexes in different spheres. Finally, the socialist feminist future of equality is ideal and achievable, and the attainment of socialist equality of opportunity will ultimately lead to the complete emancipation of women in a communist society.

Linking non-financial motivators of women entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial satisfaction: a cluster analysis

Women entrepreneurs confronted with several obstacles while managing their business houses and dealt firmly developing successful ventures over time. The long term sustainability of their business reflects their entrepreneurial skills. The existence of certain forces empowered entrepreneurial drive of women entrepreneurs leading to their satisfaction and engagement in their ventures. The present investigation evaluated the antecedents of women's entrepreneurial satisfaction by examining 405 women entrepreneur participants using confirmatory factor analysis and cluster analysis techniques. This study comprises only micro and small businesses of women. The non-monetary determinants emerged out as the significant determinants of satisfaction of women entrepreneurs. The results revealed four clusters of women entrepreneurs based on motivational theory such as micro-achievers, entrepreneurial team, liberal and socialist feminism and optimism. The results also indicated that the clusters of women entrepreneurs' respond distinctively towards various dimensions of entrepreneurial satisfaction, i.e., quality of married life, overall venture satisfaction, achieved innovation, achieved freedom, team orientation, achieved recognition and identity and achieved employee trust.

Study of Feminism and Women's Existence in the Novel Bumi Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Women are so close to idioms such as adversity, oppression, even to the "concept" that is already accepted by most people, that they are "objects" not "subjects" for men. Gender inequality is manifested in various forms of injustice that occur at various levels of society. This study aims to analyze the personality of the female characters, the gender injustice experienced by the female characters, and the value of character education contained in the novel Bumi Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. This study uses a qualitative descriptive technique. The object of this research is the meaning of the existence of women in the novel Bumi Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, a review of feminist literary criticism. The data in the research are in the form of dialogues, paragraphs, and narrations contained in the novel Bumi Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Based on the results of the analysis and discussion, the data shows that the author describes several female characters who experience gender bias treatment, namely Nyai Ontosoroh, Annelies, Maiko, Min Hwa, and Sie-sie. The novel Bumi Manusia tends to use socialist feminism. Gender injustice experienced by female characters is the marginalization of women, subordination of women, stereotypes of women, violence against women, and double workload against women.

FEMINISME SEBAGAI KRITIK KAPITALISME: MEMPERKENALKAN TEORI KRITIS NANCY FRASER

<em>This article is an overview of the intellectual and historical background of Nancy Fraser's thought. Intellectually, Fraser is a socialist feminist and critical theorist of the Frankfurt school who sought to reconnect gender analysis and the critique of capitalism. According to Fraser, the shift from state-managed-capitalism to neoliberal capitalism is the historical context that separates gender analysis and capitalism criticism in such a way that feminism is trapped as a handmaiden of neoliberalism. Based on an examination of Fraser's works and related literature, this article shows the problems of feminism in the neoliberal era and Fraser's critical theory offers to reclaim it.</em><br /><br /><strong>Key words:</strong> socialist feminism, critical theory, the Frankfurt School, gender, capitalism.

The Partnership of Patriarchy and Capitalism in Cho Nam-joo’s Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

Socialist feminism, which emerged in the 1970s, aims to solve female oppression and make a comprehensive and innovative understanding of gender, class, capitalism, and male domination. As the mainstay of the socialist feminist school, the ideas of Hartmann and Young make significant contributions to the development of the theory. Hartmann first proposed dual systems theory, and Young published her single system response shortly after. To a certain extent, Young’s new thinking and questioning of dual systems theory also supplement and go into some of the arguments by Hartmann that are not clear enough. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is an English-translated novel written by contemporary South Korean writer and screenwriter Cho Nam-joo. The novel was translated into English by award-winning translator Jamie Chang in 2020. The plight of women highlighted in this novel caused widespread controversy in the international community, especially in East Asian countries. This article examines the oppression of women in Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, by the long-term interaction between patriarchy and capitalism. This study adopts a research method combining theoretical interpretation and close reading of the text. It addresses the research gap by focusing on a new perspective on the causes of Cho’s female characters’ oppression through the dual systems theory by Hartmann.

Strong Female Characters in the Contemporary Anglophone Kenyan Novels: Socialist Realism Perspective

This paper entitled Highlighting Strong Female Characters in the Contemporary Anglophone Kenyan Novels: Socialist Realism Perspective tried to explore the creation of Strong Female in Anglophone Kenyan novels. In Socialist Realism portraying a positive hero is a crucial aspect in their writing. However, many writers used males as their positive heroes, those Kenyan novels focused on creating strong female characters/ positive heroines/ in their famous works. The research used Socialist Realism Literary theory as a theory and a method to employ this paper. In doing so, the paper aims to show the re-emergence of Socialist Realism literary theory and Socialist Realist authors. After it was considered an outdated literary theory, and how different novelists from Kenya have applied the feature that Socialist Realism is known for. Three novels have been chosen for this study namely; Dust, A Journey Within, and Was Nyakeeru My Father?. All the novels were published after 2000 G.C. To read these novels, a theoretical framework is formed using Socialist Realism’s feature theorized by different critics. The study concludes that different novelists in Kenya used the Socialist Realism feature Strong Female Characters associating it with their contexts, connecting it with their respective historical background, shared current statues, commenting on existing economic, social, and political situations. Besides Female Empowerment, Socialist Feminism, and Contemporary Kenyan Females were the approaches to discuss those Strong Characters.

A conceptual model and assessment criteria to inform gender-smart entrepreneurship education and training plus

PurposeThis study aims to problematize how gender is enacted within entrepreneurship education and training (EET).Design/methodology/approachUsing a social feminist lens, this study advances principles, a conceptual framework, assessment criteria and illustrative performance metrics to inform gender-sensitive EET programs and courses. Findings are based on a cross-case thematic analysis of two large-scale case studies conducted in Canada and Jordan.FindingsThe findings bridge social feminist theory and EET studies. The originality of the research rests in its utilization of the principles and conceptual framework to examine EET and to inform the development, design and assessment of gender-sensitive programs and courses.Research limitations/implicationsThe framework and criteria do not differentiate types or levels of EET. The investigators lead the assessment of curricula and co-construction of gender-sensitive course content. Interpreter bias cannot be ruled out.Practical implicationsThe proposed principles, framework, criteria and performance will assist stakeholders in EET program/course design, content, delivery and evaluation.Social implicationsAligned with the United Nation Sustain Development Goal 5 (gender equity), the findings demonstrate the value of adapting a critical lens across all elements of EET and responding to biases in participant selection and engagement, program design and curricula.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is among the first studies to use a social feminist perspective and case study methodology to inform criteria to assess EET.

Airing Egypt’s Dirty Laundry: BuSSy’s Storytelling as Feminist Social Change

In this paper, I examine alternative feminist activism and social movements in Egypt by analyzing BuSSy. BuSSy is a performance art group that hosts storytelling workshops and monologues of taboo and “shameful” personal stories that challenge societal and state-sanctioned normative discourses on femininity/womanhood and masculinity/manhood. Drawing on transnational feminist scholarship and queer theory and using collective memory as a lens, I argue that BuSSy’s storytelling is an act of airing Egypt’s dirty laundry, queering normative discourses to enable feminist counter-memorializing. Based on content analysis of secondary data including BuSSy’s published interviews, YouTube videos, website and Facebook images, and testimonies from 2006 to 2020, my analysis reveals BuSSy as curating an “archive of feelings” centralizing gendered narratives of shame. I examine how BuSSy’s affectively contagious storytelling leads to feminist social change by empowering storytellers and listeners. BuSSy’s works create cathartic experiences to shed stigma and shame. Finally, I reconceptualize feminist activism and collective memories outside of the 2011 Egyptian revolution and contribute to the literature on shame by analyzing how BuSSy identifies and counters shame’s silencing power.

Dissertation Data Collection During a Global Pandemic: Barking Dogs, Crying Babies, and Feminist Social Work

COVID-19 has had a profound impact on our society. Research evidence has surfaced that there is a gender disparity in research productivity due to COVID-19. Notably, women in academia have been less productive in terms of academic publications since the beginning of the pandemic, likely due to the day-to-day responsibilities of childcare and domestic work; and according to pre-print literature, women of color may be more significantly impacted. As a woman of color, PhD candidate, mother of a toddler, wife, advocate for mental wellness, researcher, and social worker, reflecting on these recent articles was quite disheartening. Additionally, the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on doctoral students has had detrimental impacts on our ability to collect data we need to forge our paths through this academic journey. This in-brief paper is written in response to the numerous questions I have been asked by other doctoral students around how I collected 41 in-depth, semi-structured interviews while working from home during a global pandemic, with my toddler at home with me. I reflect on how I pivoted to recruit participants, scheduled interviews, and conducted interviews from home, and how I believe COVID-19 has created space for a more accessible qualitative data gathering experience.

“I think the men are behind it”: reproductive labour and the horror of second wave feminism

ABSTRACT Horror stories often express social anxieties and new possibilities in times of dramatic transition. Iconic films like Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives, which emerged during earlier and later periods of second wave feminism, were no exception. Existing literature tends to apply psychoanalytic frameworks to horror texts, but the lens of reproductive labour is a surprisingly underdeveloped analytic. As I argue, reproductive labour is key to understanding how these horror films reflected and misunderstood feminist struggles during the late 1960s-mid-1970s. In particular, reproductive labour was a major concern for socialist feminists, who highlighted women’s intensified exploitation within capitalism. As Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives are popular cultural artifacts centred on feminist themes, a critical analysis of them through the lens of reproductive labour can help us better understand feminist concerns and fissure points of that era.

“Women Against the EEC!”: Limits of Transnational Feminist Solidarity

ABSTRACT During the first half of the 1970s, Swedish and Danish new women’s movements campaigned against their respective countries joining the European Economic Community (EEC). In doing so, socialist feminist activists in Denmark and Sweden were confronted by questions regarding how to navigate international solidarity between women and where to draw its limits. This article explores these limits by examining Danish and Swedish feminist campaigns against EEC membership from a transnational perspective. I do this by firstly providing a comparative overview of the two Scandinavian countries’ anti-EEC discourses, arguing that they were transnationally interlinked via border-crossing feminist protest culture. Secondly, I explore the political and ideological underpinnings guiding these feminist anti-EEC campaigns, contending that the nationalist and protectionist socialist discourses that emerged from Swedish and Danish new women’s movements’ anti-EEC campaigns were in part discordant with contemporaneous transnational feminist calls for a “global sisterhood”. This article is based on extensive archival research in Sweden and Denmark, with a focus on examining the anti-EEC print culture produced by socialist feminists in the early 1970s.

A Study of Local Government in Africa through Participatory Action Research (PAR)

A Study of Local Government in Africa through Participatory Action Research (PAR)

Jill Craigie, Post-war British Film Culture and the British Film Academy

This article seeks to locate the socialist feminist film-maker Jill Craigie in the British film culture of the post-war period. Long regarded in scholarly accounts as something of an outsider, a woman who was effectively shut out of the industry during the 1950s, this article seeks to position Craigie rather differently. While acknowledging the obstacles she undoubtedly faced, it details aspects of her achievements and her visibility in the British film culture of the immediate post-war period. Craigie's politically driven documentaries and realist film practice accorded with prevailing discourses of ‘quality’ and she acquired the status of what would today be termed a media personality who worked across film, radio, television and print media. Considering Craigie as a figure embedded in the British film establishment, this article gives particular emphasis to her role in the British Film Academy (BFA), arguing that the significance of this practitioner-led organisation has yet to be fully recognised in British film history. The argument draws on archives held at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to begin a discussion of how the BFA, and Craigie as the first woman to be elected to its Management Council, played its part in the development of British film culture.

How female entrepreneurs build strong business relationships: the power of gender stereotypes

PurposeAdopting a feminist constructionist perspective, this article proposes an analysis of the micro-level processes and dynamics of interpersonal, gendered, business relationships between female entrepreneurs, therefore constituting an extension to network theory in the women's entrepreneurship research field.Design/methodology/approachThe qualitative research builds on a single, longitudinal case study of a successful, 15-years long collaboration between two female entrepreneurs. Qualitative data were collected over two years, through formal and informal interviews with the entrepreneurs, observations and complementary documentation. The data analysis is based on a grounded theory and narrative approach.FindingsThe article proposes a thick narrative of the evolution of the dyadic business relationship, and reveals the power of gender role stereotypes in its progressive formation and development.Research limitations/implicationsThe article produces situated knowledge about female entrepreneurs and strong interpersonal business ties. The limitations relate to the specificity of the case analysed, representing the viewpoint of privileged, white, Western, educated and wealthy female entrepreneurs. It therefore does not account for the diversity of women's entrepreneurship.Originality/valueThe article enriches and extends social network theory in the women's entrepreneurship field through analysing how gender is done in discursive and social practices at the interpersonal level. The case also constitutes an illustration of social feminism in women's entrepreneurial practice, challenging dominant gender stereotypes.