Women's Conference Research Articles

A Woman's Place Is in Her Union: The UAW's 1944 National Women's Conference and Women's Labor Activism

A Woman's Place Is in Her Union: The UAW's 1944 National Women's Conference and Women's Labor Activism

A Woman's Place Is in Her Union: The UAW's 1944 National Women's Conference and Women's Labor Activism

A Woman's Place Is in Her Union: The UAW's 1944 National Women's Conference and Women's Labor Activism

Feminism-Experience and Utopia in Local, National, and Global Activism

Women's Movements in the Global Era: The Power of Local Feminisms. By Amrita Basu. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2010. xii + 495 pp., $36.91 paperback (ISBN 978-0-813-34444-7). Making Feminist Sense of the Global Justice Movement. By Catherine Eschle, Bice Maiguashca. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2010. xiii + 266 pp., $26.95 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-0-742-55592-1). That feminist ideals, penned by individual women, amplified by women collectively voicing lived experiences, and embraced as national demands, have now become part of a global movement is not in doubt. These two works examine women's movements and feminist initiatives in their diverse encounters with local, national, state, and global environments, illustrating their complex interactions at these multiple levels. During recent decades, rapidly developing global forces have increasingly impacted national women's movements. Women's Movements in the Global Era, edited by Amrita Basu, is a collection of essays concerned with women's movements that engage in local-level activism. The focus is on movements of women to achieve social change—rather than feminism, defined by its aim of challenging gender inequality. Amrita Basu's introduction situates these diverse national women's movements in a global context. Global forces have been critical in shaping women's movements over the past two decades, Basu writes. Transnational advocacy networks and international organizations providing funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and organizing international conferences have promoted global discourses about women's rights and facilitated collaboration between states and women's movements. However, she adds, the impact of global forces is mediated by national differences. The United Nations' (UN) support for women's movements has been crucial. Over several decades, it organized a series of international women's conferences in Mexico City, 1975; Copenhagen, 1980; Nairobi, 1985; and Beijing, 1995. These initiatives have increased global interactions among national women's movements and have facilitated contacts between movements and states that have helped women's organizations to influence state policy. This high-profile support has had a significant positive impact on women's organizations in Africa and other developing areas and has legitimized women's movements in authoritarian societies where civil society has been repressed. Despite this support, however, many feminists find that the UN's practice is still permeated with male bias. As …

Passion: Driving the Feminist Movement Forward

Passion:Driving the Feminist Movement Forward Devaki Jain (bio) One of the volumes on the intellectual history of the United Nations, produced by the team of Richard Jolly, Louis Emmerij, and Thomas Weiss, suggests that the UN is a "market place for ideas."1 This description really sums up what it was, I suggest, for the women's movements too. The UN provided a forum for learning from women from other places, which generated the excitement of finding extraordinary similarities of our gendered living and our shared ideas. We wrestled with power, all the time arguing, negotiating, loving, and sometimes merging identities. At the UN itself, a new constituency called "women" was created. However for many of us, I think, the UN conferences on women have only been a very small part of our work and participation in the larger transnational spaces. In fact, while the UN-sponsored conferences gave feminists a base and a space for making ourselves into "transnationals," that space was fed and sustained by national and sub-national issues and angst-derived engagements. The decades of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, were heady times. In India, the political climate was one of self-reliance and renaissance. In the New Delhi arena, there were extraordinary people connecting with each other, partly through the Delhi University. There were struggles for freedom everywhere. While Gandhi had left behind a radical moral model for helping the poor and exploited in India, our leaders were attracted to socialism, and we were open to many different ideas about liberation. Gandhi's movement had attracted many women; he urged women to challenge their men, writing that "Marriage is an institution designed by men to tyrannise women" in the 1930s, long before feminism became a vivid ideology for Indian women. The independence movement had made some women into prominent leaders of social and economic struggles and helped to establish national women's organizations. These women led unconventional lives. So when the 1975 UN Women's Conference in Mexico City was announced, many of us were already engaged in movements for liberation. I had returned to India in 1956, from Oxford University in the United Kingdom, having received a diploma in economics and political science. I plunged into a revolutionary movement of the 1950s, the Bhoodan movement, which was a land donation movement led by a Gandhian named Vinoba Bhave, who appealed to rich and middle-class peasants to donate land voluntarily to the landless and poor. This unbelievable way of redistributing wealth actually seemed to be succeeding. I also wrote a book [End Page 201] entitled Democratic Alternative, for the socialist Praja Party, arguing for a non-Marxist equality driven alternative for economic change. I went on to work for the Swedish economist, Gunnar Myrdal on his book The Asian Drama in 1958. I then went back to Oxford for a better degree in economics and in 1963 returned to India to teach economics. In the 1960s and 1970s, the University of Delhi was a vibrant place. Some of India's most brilliant economists were teaching there: Amartya Sen, Sukhumoy Chakravarty, Jagdish Bhagwati (now at Columbia), and K.N. Raj. In the evenings we converged to debate policies, social movements, and social issues. We were die-hard patriots, wanting to live in, and develop with, India. I was the Gandhian in the midst of these mostly Marxist economists. Many of the lecturers were active in the political parties and strong supporters of the struggles. My walking the villages with Vinoba Bhave had given me clear ideas on what was wrong with the economics that we were teaching and subscribing to. Gandhi, I believed, had figured out the most relevant economic engine for our country. In some sense I was always a part of the women's movement even from my childhood. There was a clear demarcation of roles and attitudes between boys and girls, men and women, in the large and very heterogeneous joint family into which I was born. Girls learned dancing and vocal music and did not go out, while boys played outdoor games and were "free." In addition, women in groups or sanghas, were always present in my life. My mother...

Liberal States and Print Media Coverage of Global Advocacy Events: The Case of the UN Beijing Conference for Women

Abstract UN conferences and summits have played a critical role in bringing local activists’ claims to international audiences. One might assume that UN conferences, like other fora of “information politics,” rely on the global media to convey advocates’ messages. Yet, extensive research on U.S. media portrayals of UN women’s conferences, 1975–1995, have not found this to be the case. To the contrary, U.S. press coverage of these conferences follows a seemingly universal pattern of negative representations of female political candidates and public officials in the media. However, since there are sharp national differences in social policies related to women, we question whether media in other liberal democracies follow the U.S. pattern for covering UN women’s conferences or reflect the more variable pattern of diverse national policies. Comparing elite media from the United States, Canada, and Britain, we find evidence suggesting variable coverage across countries.

Regional versus International: Women's Activism and Organisational Spaces in the Inter-war Period

This article explores the increase in regional women's organisations and conferences in the ‘non-West’, including the All-India Women's Conference, the Pan-Pacific Women's Association and the All-Asian Women's Conference, from the late 1920s, and to what extent they represented a challenge to the hegemony of the international framework established by Western members of organisations such as the International Council of Women, the International Alliance of Women, and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom earlier in the century. In particular, it examines what this ‘regionalisation’ signified, whether these regional forums presented themselves as colleagues or rivals of existing international women's organisations, and to what extent these regional organisations offered an alternative space to their international counterparts, by introducing a new type of internationalism characterised by somewhat different values and the pursuit of other topics to those of international organisations.

The Rise of Women's Internationalism in the Countries of the Asia-Pacific Region during the Interwar Years, from a Japanese Perspective

When the first wave of the international women's movement was emerging in the Atlantic during the interwar years, Hawai'i's elite haole (white) women took an initiative to convene the first Pan-Pacific Women's Conference (PPWC) in Honolulu in 1928. The first PPWC was attended by a broad spectrum of women from the Pacific nations, and resulted in the inception of a permanent international women's organisation, the Pan-Pacific Women's Association (PPWA) in 1930. Among the numerous international women's organisations that emerged during the era, the PPWA, founded under the leadership of women of European origin, was unique in its Pacific focus and its inclusive outreach toward Asian and Polynesian women. How and why was this so? By examining the emergence of the PPWA and the sustenance of its activities, this article examines the nature and structure of the rise of internationalism in the Pacific during the interwar years from a Japanese perspective.1

Virginia Henderson International Nursing Library

Virginia Henderson International Nursing Library

Liberated through submission? The Worthy Woman's Conference as a case study of Formenism.

In this article, Nadar and Potgieter use the Worthy Women's Conference as a case study, describing and analyzing how this movement creates and maintains what they call the for men ist position. For men ism, like masculinism, subscribes to a belief in the inherent superiority of men over women, but unlike masculinism it is not an ideology developed and sustained by men, but an ideology designed, constructed, and sustained by women . Like its phonetics suggests, this is a concept for men—that is to say, men are the chief beneficiaries of the hierarchical social positioning that it advocates. They conduct their evaluation of the movement through a feminist analysis of the discourses presented in various sources. Nadar and Potgieter argue that the complementarian liberation through submission discourse created through the formenist position seems palatable for at least three reasons: (1) because it relies on a power that is not forceful (sovereign) but disciplinary a la Michel Foucault's notion of power, (2) because patriarchal bargaining pays a dividend of increased responsibility for men that ultimately reduces the burdens of family life that women have traditionally carried, and (3) because it aids in the reduction of existential anxiety caused by radical changes in South Africa. Nadar and Potgieter assert that while the for men ist discourse might seem liberatory and harmless, when one views it through a feminist lens, a number of drawbacks come into focus—drawbacks that can ultimately put women's well-being and fundamental freedoms at risk.

Preface: Gender and forestry

Since the 1995 United Nations Women's Conference in Beijing 1995, numerous activities have been undertaken and reports written to implement gender mainstreaming as a strategy for involving and inte...

Gender mainstreaming in education at the level of field operations: the case of CARE USA’s indicator framework

Following the adoption of gender mainstreaming at the Beijing Conference for Women in 1995 as a major strategy to promote gender equality and the recognition of gender analysis as central to this process, Gender and Development (GAD) frameworks have provided tools for gender analysis in various sectors. Gender mainstreaming in basic education has received limited attention to date, however, especially in development agencies at the level of operations (i.e., field offices in partnership with the community, school, and classroom). We contend that gender analysis in education – especially at the level of operations for development agencies – could be enhanced through the use of robust education and gender (EDGE) analysis frameworks that integrate dimensions of educational quality and attainment with equality and empowerment. We explore this idea by examining CARE USA’s comprehensive Common Indicator Framework (CIF) that integrates these four areas and was designed for use in the basic education sector. We review and compare the findings from the initial use of the CIF to guide data collection for a situation analysis in two countries, Mali and Cambodia, and we critique both how it is contributing to gender mainstreaming at the level of operations and ways in which it needs to be refined.

Forging a Feminist Vision for Dealing with the Past in Northern Ireland: What Role for the UNSCR 1325

These Remarks were presented to a local women's conference in Northern Ireland. They consider how UNSC Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security might be utilized by women attempting to influence official processes to deal with the past in Northern Ireland. In the Remarks, two aspects of the Resolution are considered, namely the protection of women as victims of violence, and the participation of women in peacemaking. The commentator suggests that, to date, interventions from Northern Irish women into official processes to deal with the past have concentrated on the participation aspect of the Resolution. Drawing on international experience of feminist engagement with transitional justice, the Remarks contend that women in Northern Ireland would do well to focus greater energy and attention on the protection aspect of the Resolution, articulating more fully and comprehensively the diverse forms of violence to which women were subjected during the conflict, and demanding accountability for that violence. In this way, UNSC Resolution 1325 might facilitate a conversation that has long proven difficult and divisive amongst women in Northern Ireland on the nature and extent of the gender-specific impact of the conflict violence, and ultimately, provide a platform to influence official conversations about dealing with the past in Northern Ireland.

2010 in Conferences for Women

2010 in Conferences for Women

Liberated through Submission?: The Worthy Woman's Conference as a Case Study of For<em>men</em>ism

In this article, Nadar and Potgieter use the Worthy Women's Conference as a case study, describing and analyzing how this movement creates and maintains what they call the formenist position. Formenism, like masculinism, subscribes to a belief in the inherent superiority of men over women, but unlike masculinism it is not an ideology developed and sustained by men, but an ideology designed, constructed, and sustained by women. Like its phonetics suggests, this is a concept for men—that is to say, men are the chief beneficiaries of the hierarchical social positioning that it advocates. They conduct their evaluation of the movement through a feminist analysis of the discourses presented in various sources. Nadar and Potgieter argue that the complementarian "liberation through submission" discourse created through the formenist position seems palatable for at least three reasons: (1) because it relies on a power that is not forceful (sovereign) but disciplinary à la Michel Foucault's notion of power, (2) because patriarchal bargaining pays a dividend of increased responsibility for men that ultimately reduces the burdens of family life that women have traditionally carried, and (3) because it aids in the reduction of existential anxiety caused by radical changes in South Africa. Nadar and Potgieter assert that while the formenist discourse might seem liberatory and harmless, when one views it through a feminist lens, a number of drawbacks come into focus—drawbacks that can ultimately put women's well-being and fundamental freedoms at risk.

Revisiting the United Nations decade for women: Brief reflections on feminism, capitalism and Cold War politics in the early years of the international women's movement

Between 1975 and 1985, there were three U.N. conferences on women held in Mexico City, Copenhagen and Nairobi. This article is a brief reflection on the tensions that informed these first 10 years of the international women's movement seen from the point of view of the American women who believed that their leadership of that movement was being challenged by the strident anti-imperialist rhetoric of the Soviet Union and its allies. Soviet support for the international women's conferences was instrumental in forcing otherwise reticent American politicians to take the emerging international women's movement seriously. Fearing that socialist women would hijack the deliberations with their anti-capitalist “peace” agenda, U.S. congressmen became actively involved in constructing a definition of “appropriate” women's issues for the U.S. delegates attending the conferences, laying the bedrock of what would later become the relatively hegemonic, internationalized form of Western feminism that would ironically be exported to Eastern Europe after the collapse of communism in 1989.

Towards Ladyland: Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and the movement for women's education in Bengal, c. 1900–c. 1932

This paper analyses the work of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880–1932), urban Bengali Muslim educator and writer, placing her in the wider context of women organising themselves in associations to create social change through education for women, in the province of undivided Bengal in colonial India, from c. 1900 to c. 1932. A subject of the British Indian Empire, Rokeya, and many of her colleagues, wrote back to the empire against both colonialism and patriarchy, and created innovative educational discourses and practices. The history of education is inscribed not merely in the formal school that Rokeya founded, but in her larger career as writer and builder of women's associations. An analysis of the enmeshing of women's writing and women's networks thus yields a creative, nuanced history of women's education. This paper also connects micro‐histories and macro‐histories of women's education, correlating macro‐level data about Indian non‐governmental agency in advancing female education with the work of individual figures such as Rokeya. The paper analyses Rokeya's novella Padmarag (“The Ruby”), showing that the integrated paradigm of women's educational and welfarist work found here has many similarities with the actual educational‐welfarist work done by women such as Ramabai, Sarala Ray, or Abala Bose. Through her activities and writing, often made in alliance with other educating women such as Sarala, Rokeya gave voice to ideologies and views widely at variance with conservative Indian nationalists and hegemonic British colonial officialdom. The paper also shows that women of different races and religions formed networks and alliances, in the transnational British Empire, to further women's emancipation and education, in bodies such as All India Women's Conference and Bengal Women's Education League. The paper recognises how much women such as Rokeya were able to actually be and actually do in achieving social change in education.

Gender in the Malestream—Acceptance of Women and Gender Equality in Different United Nations Organisations

The author outlines changing approaches to women's issues and gender equality in the UN system both before and since the International Women's Year in 1975 and describes how different UN organisations followed up the recommendations made by the large global women's conferences. Besides the UN itself the focus is on the large specialised agencies: FAO, ILO, UNESCO and WHO, two technical agencies in male-dominated areas—IMO and UNIDO—and two funds specifically related to women and children—UNFPA and UNICEF—during the period up to the end of the 20th century. The recommendations adopted by the women's conferences required a rethinking and a reorganisation of work in the UN organisations, but the follow-up encountered bureaucratic problems and resistance to change as well as to gender equality. Although some progress was made—more in some organisations than in others—implementation of the recommendations was slow, cumbersome and incomplete.

From Nation of Islam to Goodwill Tourist: African-American women at Pan-Pacific and South East Asia women's conferences, 1937 and 1955

Synopsis Fiona Paisley follows the impact of PPWA in another direction and into a later period. Just as Bosch's article considers the internal complexity of Dutch national womanhood in an international environment, so too does Paisley trace how international venues such as the PPWA facilitated the diversification of feminist practice in the United States. She focuses on two very different figures, both of whom used the PPWA to make the case for African American women on an international feminist stage, and for international women's organisations as a venue for African Americans and other national minorities. The first of these women, Pearl Sherrod Takahashi, is one of several fascinating and idiosyncratic characters brought to a wider audience in this special issue. Much like the PPWA itself, Takahashi's career of feminist activism illustrates the transformative (and subversive) uses that subordinated peoples could make of European traditions of racial uplift. The second of Paisley's figures, Ella P. Stewart, helped to transform this tradition even further. Following Stewart's participation in the renamed Pan Pacific and South East Asian Women's Association, Paisley brings the first wave of international feminism through WWII and into a new period, shaped by the cold War and the growing assertions of the Non Aligned Nations.

GAB[riela]Net[work]: A Case Study of Transnational Sisterhood and Organizing

For decades, women's organizing has been predominately territorial-bound and geographically placed. However, since the 1990s there has been a shift to broader theorizing of global sisterhoods and the opportunity for solidarity, especially around gender justice and liberation movements. The United Nations Decade for Women (1976 to 1985) opened a dialogue of North/South and First World/Third World dichotomies. The 1995 Fourth United Nations Conference on Women and NGO Forum in Beijing, China brought the issue of solidarity practices to the forefront. The rise of international women's conferences has aided in the push for more transnational feminist organizing and the need to address economic, political, and social arenas of women's struggle.

Creative Moments in Relational-Cultural Therapy

SUMMARY Creative moments in therapy are those occasions when something new and growth-fostering occurs. This article offers three illustrations and a discussion of these characteristics. It is based on a panel discussion held at the Stone Center-Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Hospital “Learning from Women Conference” in April, 2000.