Grassroots Women Research Articles

“Taak op, wats yu (s)touri?”: Dancehall storytelling and Tanya Stephens’ grassroots feminism

In (re)considering the viability of Jamaican dancehall and reggae artist Tanya Stephens’ rejection of the label ‘feminist’, this paper uses her song, Wats Yu (S)touri, from her 2004 Gangster Blues album to trace several critical grassroots performativities which address popular forms of Jamaican grassroots women’s activism. These modes of activism are regarded as reflective of traditional feminist practices which carry over to dancehall. The paper is primarily concerned with the context of Stephens’ music, specifically regarding whether some of her storytelling practices conform with the vernacular tradition of taakin op (a strident retort). It offers a reading of feminism against Stephens’ claim, suggesting that dancehall practices like taakin op are also linked to longer histories of Jamaican grassroots performativities which extend beyond the dancehall itself. The aim is to understand how Stephens’ feminism, albeit disavowed, enlarges ideas about dancehall as a subversive hi/story of post/colonial Blackness in Jamaica. Accordingly, specific attention is paid to themes of romantic love, work and ‘gyangsta feminism’, a coinage following the title of a track on the same album.

Barriers to Women’s Gaining a Role in Grassroots Government: The Case of a Questionnaire Survey of Grassroots Civil Servants in China

This dissertation investigated the barriers faced by female civil servants in grassroots government in China when it comes to work and promotion. On the basis of the existing literature, three research questions are posed in this dissertation:1) Do women face barriers when seeking access to local government? If so, what are these barriers? 2) Does gender socialisation and gender norms have an impact on women’s representation in government? 3) What are the career goals of women entering government at the primary level? To address these research questions, this dissertation used mixed methods research methodology, which employed a non-quantitative questionnaire to collect data. To ensure the accuracy of the final questionnaire, this dissertation conducted a Pilot Study to get feedback from the target people. According to findings and discussion, this dissertation found that traditional Chinese gender norms and gender-based discrimination, including internalised sexism constrain the job development of female civil servants at the primary level. It also found that the weakness of China’s elderly care facilities makes daughters-in-law the primary bearers of elderly care responsibilities, which can place additional family burdens on grassroots women and discourage their job advancement. The study further found that the patriarchal dominant ‘guanxi’ culture is unfair to the development of female civil servants at the grassroots level. This dissertation mainly reveals the restrictions and barriers imposed on women under the patriarchal culture.

Grassroot Women’s Perspective on Interreligious Issues: A Sociocultural Analysis

Due to the presence of migrants and three large mosques that serve as centers of religious activities, 6,183 housewives in Pogung Kidul, or 18.02%, begin to interact with the growing diversity. Given their significant roles in promoting an open and inclusive understanding of religion within their families and social circles, this study aims to analyze how grassroot women’s interactions and involvement influence their perspectives on interfaith relations. Employing purposive sampling followed by semi-structured interviews with six housewives from the three large mosques of Pogung Kidul, namely Pogung Raya Mosque, Pogung Dalangan Mosque, and Pogung Baru Mosque, this qualitative study intends to investigate the complex interaction between women’s understanding of interfaith relations and the variables that influence their perspectives. Personal life experiences and the interaction of religious teachings emerged as the two primary factors that shaped their understanding and behavior within the context of the social community. They then internalized religious and social ethics, resulting in performative behaviors and attitudes that demonstrate piety and symbolize the spirit of Islamic revivalism while fostering positive social relations in an interreligious setting.

Table Banking and Women Economic Empowerment in Nakuru County, Kenya

This publication is part of a wider study which aims at evaluating Women Economic Empowerment programme, which is being implemented by the Women Empowerment Link (WEL) in several counties across Kenya, since 2015. In Nakuru the programme targeted grassroot women in table banking. To make the evaluation comprehensive in determining the level of women economic empowerment, this study adopted Kabeer’s (2005) theoretical framework for measuring women’s empowerment. The objective of the study was to establish the extent to which table banking had increased women economic empowerment in Nakuru County. Specifically, the study sought to assess the extent to which; the WEL’s project had enhanced women’s participation in county governance, women’s participation in the project had increased access to services and resources; and finally Identify success stories, lessons learnt and challenges that women in the project encountered. The study reached a total of 206 out of the 473 women who had been trained on basic financial literacy from 35 table banking groups. In each of the selected groups, three officials (the chairperson, secretary and the treasurer) and three members participated in the study. Key informants, 2 gender officers, 1 gender champion also participated. Data analysis revealed that 80% of the women were business owners, 10.21% were employed while 6.6% were domestic workers. The study’s findings revealed that WEL’s programme on Strengthening Inclusive Leadership had mixed results in enhancing participation of women in leadership and governance. Only half of the women at 49.51% had offered themselves for leadership and governance positions yet their capacities and availability to participate in leadership and governance were rated very high. The study also found that women’s participation in the WEL’s project had increased access to services, resources and women’s participation in governance opportunities to a large extent. Finally, the study appreciated that the WEL project in Nakuru targeted most vulnerable, low income i.e., economically vulnerable grassroots women. Among the obstacles found to be hindering Women Economic Empowerment were poverty, high level of illiteracy and lack of information. Among other recommendations, women requested additional seed capital from either WEL or County Government to increase their borrowing power within their groups and expand adult literacy programme by the County Government. The study also recommended concerted campaign to include more women in leadership and governance.

International Women’s Year and women’s activism: a comparative look at Poland and Spain

ABSTRACT This paper provides a comparative study of the impact of the 1975 International Women’s Year (IWY) on women’s activism in two non-democratic European countries: Spain and Poland. Intended by the United Nations (UN) to advance women’s rights globally, the effects of IWY were significantly influenced by national contexts. In Spain, activities relating to IWY unfolded in two interconnected spheres: the official arena controlled by the authorised Francoist women’s organisation, and the unofficial, where legal and illegal activists came together to combine a feminist agenda with anti-Francoist activity. At both levels, transnational and international relations were established or further developed during IWY. In Poland, celebrations were dominated by state-approved women’s organisations to a far greater extent, although diverse initiatives did develop on the margins, providing a space for critical debate on gender equality. However, IWY neither provided a trigger for grassroots women’s activism in Poland, nor significantly secured women’s issues on the anti-regime agenda.

Gendering grassrootscapes: The sociospatial relations of lower working-class women dwelling in the socialist Workers’ New Villages in post-reform Shanghai

ABSTRACT Women of the lower working-class in Shanghai are seemingly invisible in Chinese urban scholarship. Drawing on fieldwork conducted between 2017 and 2021 in Shanghai, this article sheds light on the social lives of lower working-class women dwelling in the Workers’ New Villages in the wake of rapid urbanization. Mounting a threefold conceptual exploration of grassroots urbanism, genderscapes, and guanxi (social connectivity), the article develops and coins the term grassrootscapes to explicate grassroots women’s sociospatial relations with housing units, the community, and the city. Probing these multi-layered horizons to trace women’s life trajectories and gendered experiences, the article discerns how sociospatial dynamics of grassrootscapes are produced under a socialist system, in which women’s day-to-day suffering is a by-product of market reforms. Socialist workers’ housing is employed as a case study to show how the conceptualization of grassrootscapes can be a useful tool to examine the social transformation brought about by the drastic changes in urban policies in globalizing cities.

Gender and climate change ‘through other eyes’: Grassroots women’s responses to changing environments in southern Africa

abstract In this article we draw on the first-hand experience and close walk that the first author (Dorah Marema) has had implementing various projects over a 10-year period with GenderCC Southern Africa – Women for Climate Justice (GenderCCSA), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working on the intersection between climate change and gender in South Africa. In particular, we examine how issues of vulnerability, agency and gender are used/misused and understood in the contexts of the period of the first author’s work with GenderCCSA. We first trace the shifts in the climate change narratives and discourse, examining how terms such as gender and vulnerability are used or misused, before presenting some of the initial assessments of how ‘transformational’ and ‘empowering’ the projects that were implemented have or have not been for the participants who were engaged in the projects. The article draws from three cases, illuminating the diverse roles, many of them related to leadership and agency, and actions that women are taking when faced with current and past climate risks. We interrogate the ‘northern gaze’ of climate issues and pay particular attention to what a ‘southern view’ may offer – is this different to ours, similar and why and what can we learn and gain from the perspectives and views on enhanced agency in the face of climate stresses and challenges? The role of funders in shaping the work that GenderCCSA has been involved in over the years and how has this support either enhanced or weakened women’s agency in climate change, is also interrogated. By illuminating the valuable experiences derived from the three climate action projects over a decade of effort and actions viewed through a gendered lens, we hope to enhance and add to the critical work that points to the need for a more nuanced appreciation of grassroots women’s experience and learnings in the Southern climate change experience.

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.

‘Noon Al Niswa’ – N is for the female collective: contesting androcentric power structures through grassroots women’s groups in Sudan

ABSTRACT This article explores the constraints on women’s political participation in Sudan and the lack of a unified feminist agenda due to the performative involvement of elite female politicians. It focuses on the No to Women’s Oppression Initiative (NtoWRI), a civil society group that utilized both digital and traditional communication methods to advance a more inclusive women’s rights agenda. NtoWRI’s successful campaign for the ratification of CEDAW and the Maputo Protocol was attributed, in part, to the group’s radical inclusivity towards marginalized women. The involvement of grassroots women’s groups with the margins provides an opportunity for social justice, amplifying the voices of marginalized communities and linking their struggles to broader social movements. The article emphasizes the need to confront the male-dominated power structures in Sudan with a feminist perspective to establish a genuine feminist collective.

The Role of Self-help Women’s Groups in Disaster Risk Reduction and Community Resilience in Nepal

Introduction:The differential impact and needs of women during disasters are highlighted in contemporary research, there is limited understanding of the distinctive contribution they make and the ways they cope. Women are the key drivers of livelihood, therefore, the economic losses resulting from natural hazards may have massive impacts on their mental health. This study examines how the self-help women's groups in rural Nepalese communities provide economic, social, socio-political, and public-health support to build safer, sustainable, and resilient communities.Method:In-depth open-ended interviews were conducted between January 2021–April 2021 with grassroots women leaders(n=8) representing their (women’s/mother’s) group inquiring about their activities related to risk reduction and perspectives on how they cope during natural hazards. The findings were analyzed and discussed using two analytical frameworks namely, the Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) and Bronfenbrenner’s Socio-Ecological Model (SEM) as scaffolds. Data analysis followed the thematic analysis technique.Results:Two major themes emerged from the in-depth interviews: 1) Women are doing their part and 2) Help-seeking behavior as a barrier and facilitator. The traditional female household roles such as cooking, feeding, and caring during pre-disaster states are extended to rescuing, protecting, laborious cleaning, and providing physical and emotional support during disasters. The pre-and post-disaster care responsibility and help-seeking behavior have implications for health, safety, well-being and sustainability. The findings also suggest the inevitability of self-care for women during and post-disasters.Conclusion:The care roles of women involve both livelihood and health benefits for the family and the entire community. To mitigate the physical and mental health burden for women amplified during natural hazards, self-care should be a critical component of advocacy in disaster awareness campaigns and help-seeking behavior should be promoted as a strength rather than insufficiency.

South African Women and the Politics of Peace in the 1950s

ABSTRACT This article uses a feminist intellectual history methodology to analyse debates around ‘peace’ within the Federation of South African Women in the 1950s. While many scholars have produced insightful analyses of the Federation’s work, this article is the first to examine specific debates around the idea of peace within the organisation. Through a close reading of these discussions as they played out in Federation meetings, this article argues that Federation leadership was eager to link with global left-wing peace politics in the 1950s. The membership, however, was more sceptical of the connection: while drawing inspiration from global women’s struggles, many members suggested that peaceful methods were no longer meaningful in their own political context. This study yields new insights into grassroots women’s analyses of apartheid and the strategies they advocated. It argues that intellectual historical approaches offer an important supplement to social historical analyses of women’s politics.

Disrupting the Saviour Politics in the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in the Global South: Grassroots Women Creating Gender Norms in Nepal and Sri Lanka

Saviour politics permeates some understandings of global gender norms by those who construct the Global North as the origin of global gender norms, and less attention is given to how saviour politics functions within the Global South, wielded by some privileged women against grassroots women. We argue that grassroots Global South women, despite their marginalisation, are global gender norms actors and deserve greater decision-making power on the local and international stages. We show how the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) and the broader WPS agenda focus on global gender norms construction in Nepal and Sri Lanka. We rely on qualitative methods. We highlight work done by grassroots women from diverse castes, ethnicities, religious backgrounds, abilities, education and social locations that construct global gender norms. This article adds to the WPS, Global South-Global North relations and global gender norms building.

Countermapping SDG 5 to address violence against women and girls in the favelas of Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

ABSTRACT Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) remains one of the most significant problems affecting women globally with its elimination being central to achieving SDG 5 on gender equality. While information on its prevalence is increasing globally, this is often at the national scale with limited local-level data. Responding to feminist critiques of SDG 5 and target 5.2 in terms of the importance of capturing more nuanced data on grassroots women’s experiences as agents rather than victims, this paper reflects on countermapping VAWG in the favelas of Maré in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Drawing on countermapping methodologies, it analyses a series of countermaps highlighting the prevalence of VAWG, but also the need to report and resist it locally. Only by revealing the complexity of VAWG and women’s practices to deal with it can such violence be truly eliminated in order to meet SDG 5 and target 5.2.

Barefoot nisswiyya in practice and theory: the case of grassroots feminists in Jordan

ABSTRACT This paper attempts to connect my personal experiences as an academic activist, along with my first-hand experience in rural areas in Jordan, to ‘barefoot nisswiyya’ [barefoot feminism], a concept I coined in 2002 and have been developing through praxis since then. These experiences have helped me connect with nature in the countryside as a ‘Fourth Space’, as articulated by Nigel Thrift, disrupting some hierarchical and power-related practices in an attempt to bring about more balance in overdue social change and transformative paradigms within my own self and community. By using the two methodic tools that I crafted of Bawh بوح [spontaneous intimate articulation and disclosure] and Ishrah عشرة [engaging connectedness], I explore how this practised form of nisswiyya has helped me, first and foremost, to build Ishrah with grassroots women (shepherdesses, farmers, factory workers, janitors) while they are articulating their Voices and vernacularising their Stories that manifest their nisswiyya. These stories illuminate how barefoot nisswiyy(at) [feminists] navigate through patriarchal and hierarchical spaces to mobilise the ‘barefooted’ Fourth Space (Nigel Thrift constructed four different spaces: (1) the empirical; (2) the unblocking, fluid space; (3) the image, virtual space; and (4) the Fourth Space that he calls the Place Space). The paper discusses all these experiences as rooted in barefoot nisswiyya, a form of feminism/nisswiyya(ism) which aims to narrow the divide between theory and praxis, connect the personal to the political, step away from ‘femocracy’ and power-over empowerment, and widen the scope of feminism to encompass expressions of indigenous knowledge that is driven by homegrown grassroots women’s agency.

African Women’s Active Participation in Politics and Nation–Building: The Case of Nigeria

Women have played a significant role in the development processes of various societies of the world, most importantly their participation in social, economic life. Discrimination against women in politics is a phenomenon that excludes majority of women from taking part in the politics of their country. Nigerian women constitute about half of Nigeria’s population. Their participation in the political arena is below expectation. Women remain a segment of the population that has been disadvantaged for ages. Women are underrepresented in roles that involve leadership, intelligence or a balanced psyche and could not inherit property and their social standing was primarily determined through marriage. The paper examines the status of women in Nigerian politics, challenges women encountered in their bid to participate in politics as well as the way out of such challenges. The paper explores the use of relevant information from primary and secondary sources. It further adopts descriptive approach and content analysis as its methodologies. The paper tries to answer why men are considered superior to women in Nigerian politics and how this can be amended so as to improve the position of women in Nigerian politics and nation building. The paper recommends among others that: legislative changes in favour of gender equality be implemented, that economic power of women should be increased and reinforced so as to diversify their means of survival, and the establishment of a coalition of NGO and grassroots women association that coordinate the support and advocacy for women aspirants.

Toward Synodality and Social Transformation: Lived Religion of Select Catholic Women Servant Leaders

Basic ecclesial communities (BECs) are flourishing in the Philippines. While many Filipina Catholics are leading the “new way of being Church,” little research has been conducted on their lived religion. Investigating the servant leadership of women in BECs provides us with a better understanding of the indispensable contributions of grassroots women to the Church and society toward synodality and transformation. As a response to this research gap, this study explores the concepts of faith and praxis among Filipina Catholic servant leaders (bai) of BECs in Mindanao. In this article, laylayan theology is used as a framework, and empirical phenomenology as a method of analysis to draw attention to BECs as a locus theologicus and privilege the marginalized voices of the bai. The study reveals that the select bai conceptualize the Catholic faith as personal yet ecclesial. The Church can participate in the missio Dei by fostering the communion of communities and engaging in social transformation. In addition, the bai maintain that the Church can remain relevant to the signs of the times by fostering fraternal collaboration of communities, evangelizing the youths, and promoting sacramental attitudes. The study affirms that women have the genuine freedom to realize their Christian identity and vocations, and one way to achieve this is through active participation in BECs.

Reflections on intersectionality: a journey through the worlds of migration research, policy and advocacy

The term ‘intersectionality’ is usually attributed to Kimberlé Crenshaw, a legal scholar, who coined the term in 1989. In this paper, we reflect on how the concept has travelled through both space and time. We trace the longer history and more complex geography of intersectional approaches rooted in grassroots women’s movements in the Global South, where radical claims were made against the dominance of white, middle-class women’s analysis of the situation of women in the world. These, together with the Black women’s movement in the US, paved the way for the emergence and coining of the term intersectionality. We then reflect on how the concept travelled in three domains of migration-related knowledge: academic research, international policy and advocacy politics. We find that, while some academic research is true to the original politics of intersectionality, there is also some research that has strayed much further away from the original aims of intersectionality, to the extent that we would question whether it can be called intersectional at all. In international policy, we find that the original radicalism of the term has been watered down in the translation of the term into policy targets and measurements. Finally, in advocacy politics we find the greatest continuity with the original aims of the term.

STANDPOINTS OF GRASSROOTS WOMEN ON DEVELOPMENT: LEADERSHIP BEYOND THE STATE

The development perspective is associated with women's security, their participation in programme implementation, and clear roles and responsibilities. Studies have revealed that programmes that build women's skills are immediate development factors. Development is also about upliftment, which offers justice and equality in society. It means improving all forms, including health, education, gainful employment, and infrastructure. The study describes the views of some grassroots women leaders that they put forward, including adequate communication, women's literacy, women's empowerment on social platforms, elimination of gender gaps, and the recognition of women as active social workers and volunteers. Development is the improvement of physical structures and facilities that involves improving knowledge and motivating people to contribute to the cause of the improvement of society. There are women in positions of authority, but few are involved in implementing programmes. Participation at all the stages of the programme for women leaders is vital to understand and deal with the developmental issues within the stipulated time frame and for the effective functioning and implementation of schemes at the village levels. Hence, the inclusion of women in programme delivery is one of the critical perspectives of development. Thus, the explorative study outlines the viewpoints of grassroots women leaders regarding how women perceive development, their awareness of different schemes and programs, their participation, and the factors contributing to their involvement. Finally, the finding proposes some glimmers for strengthening women's leadership and development from the standpoint of female leaders. For this study, the authors relied on fieldwork and applied In-depth Interactions (IDIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) to gather primary data. Simultaneously, secondary information has been collected from various sources and pieces of literature.

Speaking up versus standing one's ground: The role of women's social networks in confronting street harassment

AbstractStreet harassment against women is an understudied form of gender‐based violence that severely limits women's safety and freedoms. One potential way of addressing street harassment is directly intervening against it, that is, the woman experiencing harassment confronts the perpetrator. However, this may be difficult to do in contexts where harassment is pervasive. In the context of a grassroots women's empowerment organisation in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I examined the relationship between women's positions in the social network structure of a group that espouses a norm of speaking up against street harassment, and their levels of displaying this behaviour. I hypothesised that an individual's network centrality would be associated with their engagement in behaviours that are prescribed by the group social norm; specifically, speaking up against street harassment. This hypothesis was not supported. However, exploratory analyses indicated that network centrality was a significant (negative) predictor of the participant's tendency to remove herself from the situation when harassed and a significant positive predictor of self‐efficacy for intervening against street harassment. This indicates that position in the network may play a role in confronting street harassment, though not through originally hypothesised mechanisms. Theoretical and pragmatic implications of these findings for engaging in intervention against street harassment are discussed.

Rethinking women, peace, and security through the localization of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 & National Action Plans: A study of Nepal and Sri Lanka

This article examines the localization of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (hereafter 1325) on women, peace, and security (WPS) and its successor resolutions, which call for equal participation of women in conflict resolution, peace negotiations, and postconflict development. The article asks: How, and to what extent, does 1325 and any accompanying National Action Plan (NAP) address grassroots women's issues to transform the WPS agenda in Nepal and Sri Lanka's postwar development? Nepal's NAP (2011–2016) is applauded for its localization efforts. Because Sri Lanka does not yet have a NAP, we explore its informal adoption of 1325. Using interviews and a review of policy documents, this article demonstrates that grassroots women's lived experiences support 1325, even as they are often left out of 1325 processes, both state-led and NGO-led. The paper argues that inclusive and bottom-up localization of 1325 and NAPs is critical to achieving the WPS agenda.