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Why is it so hard to get an answer to the question, What is “the” feminist perspective on the War in Iraq? In this paper, I argue that feminist normative perspectives, often misunderstood as specific political commitments to certain forms of social change, are in fact better understood in scholarly research, not as political but as methodological commitments. Feminism like realism and other perspectives on international relations is theoretically and empirically diverse. Despite this diversity, feminist scholars share a set of normative commitments that they realizes through a broadly shared research ethic. Consequently, while the feminist answer to the opening question may be more varied than say “the” realist perspective on the same topic, most feminists share a commitment to certain epistemological premises, including the premise that we should be suspicious of any claims that characterize anything as normatively laden as epistemology to be “shared.” I argue that this irony is one of the features of feminist inquiry in the field of international relations as in other fields of political and social science that keeps it internally dynamic and able continually to adapt its perspective to the phenomena under examination. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) report fails to fully engage the ethical and political dilemmas of alternative concepts of 'responsibility'. The R2P report focuses on strategic benefits of intervention: suffering at the margins of power is implied to be worth addressing only because, if left unchecked, it can produce a threat to the 'civilized' world. Moreover, the R2P report thinly veils a narrative of metaphysical duty reminiscent of colonialism by asserting that there are circumstances in which states have a duty to protect those who have no right to expect that protection. A closer examination of the report's intellectual links to the just war tradition shows that its arguments rely on an obscured set of meta-ethical premises. The way the report's authors seem to conceptualize concepts like 'responsibility', 'obligation', and 'justification' restricts and cheapens the vision they offer for a 'responsible' form of global politics. This paper draws from feminist and postcolonial theorizations of 'global ethics' to critique the R2P concept's privileging of knowing, benevolent, Western decision-makers as those whose task it is to decide which duties must be acted upon and when. By emphasizing the elements of accountability and answerability that are essential parts of the concept of responsibility, it is possible to imagine a new and transformative mode of engagement where global actors would commit to the engaged justification of their actions and truly take responsibility for their failings. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On May 9, 2007, a power-sharing arrangement for governing Northern Ireland was formalized, ending more than thirty years of violence. This followed by nine years, the historic Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement that was the culmination of formal negotiations ending “the troubles.” The Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition (NIWC) was created specifically to give women a seat at the negotiating table so that they would have some input into the formal discussions. Yet, the NIWC was formally disbanded in May 2006, following years in which the party could no longer get representatives elected.This paper will look at societies in the period following the conflict to determine what happened to the women. Preliminary analysis shows the systematic retreat of women from public and political life subsequent to conflict. Country studies of Bosnia, Cambodia, El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala, and Rwanda as well as Northern Ireland all show that women “were only marginally represented initially in post-conflict legislatures” (Bouta, Frerks, and Bannon, 2005). These examples suggest that if women’s political activism is to endure and their agenda is to continue to be felt, it is incumbent upon women to create a structure that will provide a space for their input after the conflict ends, and to enlist women who will continue to participate in the political processes in the post-conflict society. Yet, this has been incredibly difficult. In this paper, utilizing the literature in feminist international relations as well as social movements, we will seek to determine why that has been the case. In other words, the question arises: what factors make it particularly difficult for women to have a voice after conflict ends? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors hypothesize that the effectiveness of the resulting mobilization efforts of transnational advocacy networks around women's and indigenous rights partially account for the differential results of the UN Decade For Women and the UN Decade for Indigenous Peoples. They cite that the two UN decades aim to eradicate inequalities and promote greater group rights for their marginalized groups through redefining human rights legal frameworks. They examine how indigenous and women's social movements have become institutionalized within the UN system.

In this paper we argue that feminist and women?s activists have made good use of the human rights framework. While its use has also introduced some challenges, particularly to the unity of the movement, we argue that a reinvigorated human rights framework is the best resource for promoting feminist and women?s agenda for the next decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a range of women’s movements as the basis for mapping their strategies vis-à-vis states. Relying on the secondary literatures on selected women’s movements in Latin America, North America and West Europe, the paper investigates strategic dimensions of 1) insider v. outsider position; 2) separatist v. coalitional stance; and 3) movement autonomy v. state involvement. Two factors are identified as potentional influences upon women’s movements’ strategic behaviors: the context of movement emergence and anticipation of state reconfiguration. The paper concludes with a schema for testing hypotheses concerning women’s movements’ strategic action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The argument presented here is that the progressive antisystemic movements will find their greatest support in the semiperiphery. Democratic socialist parties and regimes that are coming to power in the semiperipheral countries will be the forereachers that show how the progressive transnational movements (feminism, environmentalism, labor, indigenism) can work together to democratize global governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My paper argues for an incorporation of gender studies into peace theories, by analyzing what is missing by not confronting feminist contributions to a theory on violence. I take Johan Galtung’s theory of violence as a point of departure, as a theory that is widely uncontested in peace studies. Galtung’s articulation of direct, structural and cultural violence offers a unified framework within which all violence can be seen. On the other hand, confrontations with feminism enrich Galtung’s theory by seriously tackling issues of power and gender, which are essential to an understanding of violence as a process through which (violent) social relations are built, legitimized, reproduced, and naturalized. By understanding gender as a social construct that embodies relations of power, feminism shows that violence is made possible by the existence of power/gender relations. This has important implications for Peace Studies: only by taking gender seriously as a category of analysis, can prescriptions for a violence-free society be more than temporary solutions to deeply-ingrained attitudes to accept violence as ‘natural’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, considerable transnational feminist effort ? and money ? has gone to establishing women’s crisis centers in Russia to help combat violence against women. Yet, in the 1980s, if Russians had been polled, very few would have any idea what was meant by the term violence against women. This paper will explores the ways that transnational feminism has encountered the Russian women’s movement ? and the power inherent in each of these encounters ? in the processing of naming violence against women. By naming, I mean more than coming up with a term for the problem. I refer to the new understanding that the various forms of violence against women are a problem worthy of state response. Transnational feminism has served as precedent, an earlier movement in the cycle of movements challenging violence against women, a source of repertoires of action and discourse. Transnational feminism has also provided crucial foreign assistance. This intellectual and financial assistance has come with strings attached, yet has been essential to the development of a movement that many activists in Russia see as crucial to improving women’s citizenship. This paper draws upon a variety of literatures -- social movement literature (e.g. Tarrow), social constructivism (Finnemore 1996, Keck & Sikkink 1998), and feminist theory (e.g. Mohanty 2003) ? and fieldwork in Russia on the women’s crisis center movement in 1997, 1999, and 2002. It is part of a draft manuscript titled, Naming Violence Against Women in Postcommunist Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: Debates over electoral reform are pervasive in the United States. A host of key political developments of the 20th century are telling in this regard, including direct primaries, expanded voting rights, campaign finance reform, and more. This examination of public financing of campaigns in the city of Seattle, state-level term limits in Michigan, and national voter registration reform reveals, however, that electoral reform was not on the agenda of second wave feminists in the U.S. When women were involved in these policy debates, it was not typically as women but instead as members of ?good government? groups (e.g., the League of Women Voters) making ungendered arguments for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates in security studies in the U.S. and Europe have drifted almost completely apart. In Europe it is common to present the theoretical landscape in terms of, say, critical security studies, the Copenhagen School, traditionalism and feminism. In the U.S. it is more common to see the major debate within security studies as being the one between offensive realism and defensive realism! Previously, almost all theoretical inventions in IR were made in the U.S. Currently, distinct theories are widely associated with places like Aberystwyth (Critical Security Studies), Paris (Bigo’s Bourdieu-inspired work) and Copenhagen (securitization). The new European approaches differ not only from security studies in the US, they also stand apart from most work done in other parts of the world. Are these theories peculiarly ‘European’ and if so, why? The paper aims at explaining the emergence of these European security theories. The explanation draws partly on the political context in the different regions, and partly on features of the intellectual fields, International Relations and Security Studies. The theories are also assessed briefly as to their relevance and usefulness. To what extent are they bound to local, European problems or relevant to the issues that are addressed elsewhere and vice-versa for the theories that flourish in the U.S. and the periphery respectively? Can they travel to the other parts of the world in a helpful role? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposed paper begins by outlining a set of continuities and differences between traditional, critical and feminist security studies. It argues that while there are continuities in terms of a broadening and deepening of security studies, differences e ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Social Forum is a novel form of political organizingâ€"a new principle of progressive politics that brings together numerous movements for exchange and dialogue in a single space. Feminists and/or women’s organizations are an active part of the forum and gender and the rights of women have been present in its thematic organization and in the various events held. Yet many feminist and women’s organizations are critical of the Forum and Forum organizers and the reluctance to include women in leading committees and locate gender inequality and the subordination of women as an important nexus of neo-liberalism.Feminist literature that reviews women and feminism in progressive or leftist struggles such as anti-colonial or nationalist struggles, trade union movements, and the US civil rights movement, often make the case that women active in these struggles were encouraged by men leaders or decided on their own to put the struggle for gender equity and women’s rights aside until what was determined the “larger battle”â€"national independence, higher wages and better labor conditions, or racial equalityâ€"was fought. Yet in most cases women’s equality remained neglected after these struggles were over. In this paper we review the literature on women and social movements and assess the World Social Forum. Empirically we focus on events organized by feminist organizations and the women’s movement during and prior to the forum such as the Feminist Dialogues. Drawing on both participant observation and content analyses of activist-generated documents we consider: 1) if and how the WSF operates differently from other leftist or progressive struggles on the question of gender equality and women’s rights and 2) how the forum as a transnational space may have shaped and constrained the development of transnational feminist agendas and discourses. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because of their ontological and epistemological scepticism about its claims, feminists have not, for the most part, engaged closely with the different theoretical and methodological variants of realism. By contrast, this chapter critically explores the neoclassical and elaborated versions of structural realism from a feminist perspective concerned with the social sources and gender dimensions of global politics. It scrutinizes claims within these theories that argue it is possible to make realism more rational, more historical and pluralistic, better able to explain cases beyond great power politics, and more internally coherent and relevant as a guide for foreign policymaking. The dialogue between feminism and realism is now overdue given the growing body of research using gender analysis to explain aspects of international conflict. The debates within realism over the strengths and weakness of encompassing diverse theories within a larger paradigm or tradition offer lessons for feminist IR. Similarly, feminist experiences with defining a subfield that eschews definition provide a counterpoint for reflection among realists and suggest an unlikely coupling of feminism and realism as ‘broad churches’ in the field of International Relations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender activists who espouse state feminism prioritize using government structures, resources, and institutions for the advancement and empowerment of women. Over 90% of countries worldwide now have some form of state agency focused on improving the quality of life for women. Most typically, this comes in the form of a national agency for women, such as a women?s ministry, department, or commission. Interest in state feminism has experienced a resurgence in the last decade, particularly in states undergoing democratization and political reform. The recent push toward state feminism is an interesting and unanticipated event, given the often-contentious relationship between feminist movements and state institutions. Rather than vilifying the state as an institution to resist, international feminists and gender advocates are developing ways to utilize state power and state resources to improve the quality of women?s lives. This project compares the use of state agencies for implementing gendered policy in three southern African cases. There are two models of state institutions favored by African women legislators. The first type, seen in Botswana and Namibia, is the centralized model that involves the creation of a single government department or ministry that focuses on policy implementation. The idea is that this centralized model will serve as the focal point for gender legislation and policy implementation for the government. South Africa has developed an alternative model, one that locates women's interests a dispersed national network of institutions in the executive branch, the parliament, and civil society. This paper examines (1) why gender advocates and women?s organizations in southern Africa made the choice to pursue insider-strategies for feminist change, (2) the challenges and opportunities of harnessing the state to alter both the quality of life for women as well as the social and political status of women in Africa, and (3) the implications of institutionalizing women?s movements within state structures. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social movement literature does not adequately address issues related to the development and deployment of tactics during the initial phases of a social movement. This study is a qualitative assessment of the women's movement in Iraq during 2004-2005. It focuses on the movement's choice of tactics and activities as well as on the effects of gender on tactical decisions and protest rhetoric. Three hypotheses are examined utilizing the process tracing method. These hypotheses are inspired and informed by some of the major assumptions in social movement literature, gender studies, and feminist theory as well as by the history of women's activism within Iraq. The study concludes that the movement has been consistent in its use of tactics, which have been shaped by mounting violence and the gender identity of movement activists. Although the movement appears to be in decline, cautious optimism is warranted about future activism and movement momentum. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits and revises arguments we made in the first edition of our edited volume, Gender and Global Restructuring: Sightings, Sites and Resistances (Routledge 2000). We made the case for the centrality of gender, as relation of inequality based on social constructions of masculinity and femininity. In the post-9/11 era in which we have seen a more pronounced militarization of globalization and a concomitant discursive and analytical shift from economistic accounts of globalization to a focus on empire, we are even more convinced that the term ?global restructuring? is more useful for capturing the ever-changing dynamics of this process. More recent feminist scholarship on gender, globalization, and empire further elucidates our understanding of varying interstructurings of gender, race, nation, and sexual identities, ideologies, and practices produced through and productive of global restructuring. These offer richer ?sightings? of the relationship between gender (and related power relations) and global restructuring, while also complicating and expanding ?sites? of global restructuring, taking them beyond bounded geographical places and regions to borderland spaces and re-siting gendering in relation to colonizing, racializing, and sexualizing narratives and practices. Some of the latest scholarship on transnational feminism and feminist anti-globalization activism also raises new questions about and approaches to the issue of ?resistances? to global restructuring through a more complicated gender lens that foregrounds decolonizing and queering lenses and strategies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will examine the nature of feminist intellectuals in the first, second and third phases of the women?s movement. It will raise and seek to address the following questions. What constitutes a feminist intellectual from an ontological, epistemological and political perspective? Are there unique reflections on theory and practice? How do traditional versus organic intellectuals relate to emancipatory feminist movements? How has each phase of these movements from the 1800s to the present related to questions of global order and politics? How have feminist intellectuals engaged with malestream thought in each of these phases and what is their contribution to thinking about the present and future moments of global order? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops addresses two issues: strategy as a motivation for feminist policy-making in global politics, and a strategy-based defense of gender mainstreaming. I contend that feminism can serve to critique the fighting of wars, but that gendered perspectives have insight and explanatory power beyond feminisms' ethical recommedations for policy making and policy analysis. I argue that effective implementation of gender mainstreaming in military policies would increase both military readiness and efficiency. I argue that gender is an effectiveness issue in the making and implementation of military policy, and that therefore militaries have a strategic interest in mainstreaming. I characterize feminist policy in the global security arena as a case of confluence of interests, rather than direct efforts to achieve gender emancipation. I explore the implications of this understanding for Feminist Security Theory, both in theory and in practice. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the postulation of there being a viable and discrete onto-epistemic category, or rather Form, of Female being, problematiques emerge pertaining to the authenticity, epistemology, and possibility of there being a state of affairs that can be rightly termed Female. This paper will explore the consequentiality of the Female vis-à-vis notions of power, control, order, and epistemology. Can the Female (Fe-Male) be considered a manifestation of the larger schema of power and control within which it is manufactured? Is the contention that the Female is a true entity, in and of itself, a preposterous exercise that reifies the systemic/systematic ?super-masculinity? that gives rise to it? This paper will explore how various strains of feminist thought (e.g., standpoint, amongst others) seek to extricate the Female from ?Masculine? power, and how such attempts go about effectuating what they consider exercises of power. Overall, such attempts fail to obtain the desired result via the establishment of an epistemology of Female power All that is produced ? be it the production of the female/woman itself, objects, products (theoretic as well as corporeal) and the means of production themselves ? falls within the registers of what the Female terms super-masculine/ordinate Male power. The power of the feminine then, is premised upon Male power, is beholden to Male power, has intimate, inextricable ties to all that is considered Male. The dissolution, de-linkage, of the Female from the Male is a facile exercise. In the end, Feminism, as onto-epistemic signifier and signified, is seduced by the notion that it can and does possess an anterior essence of being that can be situated, manifested, in an ideo-moral landscape independent of its source (be it in IR or any other field of perception/manifestation). The Feminist project relies upon its biaxial Other to concoct itself, sustain and nurture as well as perpetuate itself. The aggressive posture of the Female (Fe-male) ? compared to the notion of female ? reflects what can be termed specular, subjective absorption, emotional subjective reaction, and the (re)activation of ?primordial? trauma/frustration (subordinate masculinity) within the subject (Lacan). The female has always been sited, sighted, and cited in the discursive modalities of actuality that have taken precedence at different times. The philosophic?theoretic implications that stem from the privileging of a particular ?correct,? ?proper? onto-epistemological interpellation of the Female pose insuperable difficulties for, and overlooks the consequentiality of, what it means to be Female. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though the emergence and development of transnational feminist networks have been well documented by feminist scholars (Friedman 1995, Keck and Sikkink 1998, Moghadam 2005), these phenomena have received surprisingly little attention from scholars of social movements. In particular, systematic explanations of feminist political strategies and the outcomes of their efforts are sorely lacking. This paper represents part of a larger project seeking to address this gap by examining the efficacy of various discursive strategies of transnational feminist networks in the post-Beijing era.Drawing on the framing perspective in social movements, I consider 1) the degree to which two very different master frames (Snow and Benford 1992), anti-fundamentalism and women's human rights, promote cross-cultural, cross-issue collaboration among feminist and women's activists, and 2) the political and organizational circumstances under which they do so. In comparing these discursive strategies, I rely largely on a content analysis of organizational materials such as newsletters, position papers, press releases, action alerts, meeting minutes, and scholarly articles from 1995-2005. I conclude with remarks on how such an analysis might inform both the strategic discursive choices of transnational feminists and the developing theories of framing processes in social movements. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the fit between the concept of structural inequality and its operationalization? The diverse measurements scholars use to try to capture structural differences that result in varied treatment of men and women is one of the most intriguing aspects of feminist research. This paper will compare various measures both qualitatively and quantitatively. I will examine both what they propose to measure and what they lack when accounting for societal differences between men and women. These measures will then be integrated into a study of conflict in order to ascertain whether the facets of inequality captured by the measures result in different outcomes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world of the academe holds different views regarding scholarship and its relationships to the centers and peripheries of various power structures, as it holds different views regarding its impact: whether it should be designed within existing political structures or structurally transformational. This paper wants to explore the impact of American feminism, as part of the American postmodern thought on equality, on a world in transition where American-backed ideologies promote uncontrolled market hegemony and an emaciated ?night-watch? state which is unable to protect its citizens and residents.This paper argues that a feminist critique of equality needs to involve a state narrative both domestically and internationally. The argument is two-fold. First, it will emphasize that equality, in any of its meanings -- formal, social, or substantive -- involves state action. From formal equality ? equality in front of the law, which means being a subject of equal rights (to men), to substantive equality ? socio-economic equality -- equality involves the state directly. The state is the one which defines its terms. Women have been more successful in terms of formal equality than substantively. This incremental dual approach has not been limited to domestic systems; it has been mirrored by theoretical distinctions between formal and substantive rights at the international level as well. (see the two conventions on human rights both at the UN and European level).Next, the paper will discuss the critical paradigm needed to compel states to guaranty substantive equality from an international point of view: the discourse on substantive human rights. Any discourse involving substantive human rights requires a discussion of the role of the state as a guarantor of those rights. The state is the entity that can ensure public education, health care, and can even design the power of the different religious establishments. Furthermore, the only current mechanisms for accountability at the international level are against the state. Recently, the international human rights discourse seems to engage more the market than the state, as if there were a choice. It seems quixotic to compel the market to end violations of substantive human rights, if that means a loss of profit, without involving the state. Absent clear regulations the market (shareholders) would not stop doing what comes natural to it: making profit. Feminism cannot afford ignoring this reality if it wants to remain a relevant theory, both domestically and internationally. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feminist accounts of economic restructuring have provided extensive research on the question of North-South divisions and the gender implications of the development, entrenchment, and persistence of divisions in the context of restructuring. These accounts provide insights into the ways in which multi-leveled and multi-layered divisions reinforce and challenge existing hegemonies. Where there are common points of interest, sites of resistance can arise and may be exploited by counter-hegemonic social forces.In 1994, Gabriel and MacDonald examined the potential space for a (counter-hegemonic) ?feminist internationality? expressed in the North American context. According to Gabriel and MacDonald, ?NAFTA has thus given rise to innovative forms of collaboration between Canadian and Mexican women.? (1994, 561) their research serves as a springboard, or an entry point, for my exploration of North-South divisions, patterns of resistance in the intervening years since 1994, the role of social movement based consciousness in organizing against restructuring, and the potential for counter-hegemonic sites of resistance to develop in North American today. My analysis extends, as well, from by previous research on conditions for transnational resistance in Eastern Europe and, in particular, Hungary and the utility of the concept of ?feminist internationality? in a context where existing divisions limit the willingness of agents to position themselves as members of ?a feminist movement?. Despite the challenges to feminist organizing in the Eastern European context, imagining the prospects for the formation of feminist transnational movements globally is still possible, and doing so opens space to consider count-hegemonic challenges to current social, political and economic order, now often articulated as neo-liberal globalisation or as a developing ?market civilization? (Gill, 1993). My focus remains ?the limitations and potentialities of organized social movement based consciousness (?global feminism? together with ?global labour?) to disrupt and transcend the hegemonic corporative consciousness supporting the current ?market civilisation? (Gill, 1993; 2003)? (Mayhall, 2004: 1). As in previous research, I explore the relationship between discourse and material conditions of existence, applying this framework to the North American context. It is my contention that such research is essential to the project of building truly transnational counter-hegemonic networks of resistance. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feminist scholars have usefully offered explanations for why women?s social movements emerge, but rarely have they explored why the goals of these movements often remain out of reach. Building on a detailed analysis of Malaysia?s anti-gender violence movement, I pose the question why, in spite of decades of activism against gender violence, has gender violence not abated? The typical response of feminists is to focus on the embeddedness of masculinism ? where masculinist attitudes and behaviors that sanction and sustain gender-based violations such as rape and domestic violence are approached as intractable and potentially unchangeable. In the present study, I instead raise the possibility that feminist practices may have unintentionally contributed to the undermining of transformative change.Feminist analyses that explore a politics of inclusion and exclusion associated with women?s movements have had a tendency to center on criticizing the essentialization of ?women? and ?women?s interests? that often forms the basis of these movements, which has served to obscure attention to how gender intersects with other identity signifiers, such as ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and geographic location. In the course of two cycles of field research in Malaysia in 1997 and 2002, I confirmed that identity-based divisions among women in Malaysia persist, undermining the cohesiveness of activists within the anti-gender violence movement while also limiting how representative the movement is with respect to women within Malaysian society. But I also identified other lines of fracture that are associated with the movement that haven?t been adequately problematized to date ? including issue-based, resource-based, and gender-based divisions.In my proposed paper, while approaching these lines of fracture as inter-related, my analysis of Malaysia?s anti-gender violence movement will concentrate on problematizing gender-based divisions, in light of my contention that the most far reaching fault-line across feminist theories and feminist-inspired practices is that between ?women? and ?men.? Building on extensive interviews with Malaysian activists, I explore why the exclusion of men from the practices of women?s activists persists and the implications this exclusion has had for the (in)ability of activists to achieve their broad objective of ending men?s violence against women. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responding to the marginalisation of feminist activism in dominant accounts and practices of the so-called ?anti-globalisation movement?, this paper describes and explains the emergence and contexts of what we are calling ?feminist anti-globalisation activism?. Part of a larger project being developed with Bice Maiguashca on the shape, nature and implications of that activism, based on fieldwork conducted at European and World Social Forum sites, what is offered here is a diachronic narrative of movement emergence. We recognise this narrative to be sketchy, partial and contested but we think it offers interesting insights into the character of contemporary feminism, North and South, as well as enriching understanding of ?the anti-globalisation movement? itself. After briefly establishing the contours of feminist anti-globalisation activism, the first part of the paper offers a broad brush account of the main structural and institutional factors that have shaped the emergence of this activism at the state, regional and global levels. We point here to the homogenising and divisive impact of economic globalisation, the constraining and facilitating role of international institutions and regimes, and the major continuities and shifts in global political norms, ideologies and frames. The second part focuses on movement predecessors of feminist anti-globalisation activism. We begin by sketching the reorientation of transnational feminist networks toward anti-globalisation politics, in large part due to the growing influence of Southern feminists, before complicating the story by outlining distinctive trajectories of feminist movement activism in the four countries visited in the course of the fieldwork: Brazil, India, France and the UK. The paper ends by discussing the tensions involved in constructing transnational movement histories: striving to reflect and nurture nascent solidarities across borders while being reflexive about our own situated perspectives and sensitive to the conflicts and contestations between different localities and between North and South. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My paper follows the policies of an international women’s organization (the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom) on the conflict in Israel/Palestine from 1946 to 1975 to demonstrate that their idea of ‘peace’ was influenced and shaped by the two intertwined ideological discourses of modernity and Orientalism. The WILPF eventually came to reframe their idea of ‘peace’ through their increasing reliance on feminist social criticism, thus contributing to reshape the ideological context in which they were situated. I argue that feminist social criticism made possible for the WILPF to break the entrapment of the context that created and shaped it, to the extent in which it: 1) was self-reflective about its often unstated but constitutive values, practices, and norms; 2) practiced inclusivity in deliberations; and 3) subjected its own values, practices, and norms to critical and continual evaluation. This is a methodological process that Brooke Ackerly identified in the practice of Third World feminist activists and that she thinks improves on deliberative democratic theory, making it ‘deliberative democracy in the real world.’ ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few decades, two strategies for improving women?s political representation have become commonplace around the world: state feminism, which involves national policy machineries for improving gender equality, and gender quotas, which encompass national and party policies for increasing the number of female candidates for elected office. These two strategies seek to improve women?s representation in very different ways: state feminism aims to incorporate women's gender interests into public policy, thereby improving women's substantive representation, while gender quotas seek to improve women's access to electoral politics, thereby increasing women?s descriptive representation. Although recent work has analyzed the global diffusion of these strategies, as well as their adoption and implementation in individual countries, much less attention has focused on differences in their origins and outcomes in different world regions. Seeking to initiate a dialogue across research on the global North and South, we outline and compare trends in both policy areas in Western Europe and Latin America. We discover that in Western Europe, state feminism grew largely out of mobilization by women's movements and gender quotas were generally adopted voluntarily by political parties, while in Latin America, state feminism emerged from a combination of activism by women's movements, international organizations, and state actors and gender quotas were more often imposed through national legislation on all political parties. Probing these differences, we then utilize the comparison to assess the strengths and weaknesses of state feminism and gender quotas as strategies for improving women's descriptive and substantive representation. We conclude by arguing for more explicit cross-regional analysis of developments in gender and politics as a means for not only improving the study of women in politics, but also for devising more effective policies for incorporating women and women's concerns into the political arena. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International relations like domestic politics have remained under the monopoly of men. In the words of a pioneering feminist,? Representation of the world like the world it-self is the work of men, they describe it from their own point of view which they confuse with absolute truth.?(Simone de Beauvior.1953,p.161)Several scholars in the post-cold war phase have made a systematic effort to re study IR from the feminist perspective. Their discourse has synchronized with the global quest for new paradigms since the 1999s.These scholars have discussed the global events through the gender sensitive lens in order to offer an alternative view of the world from a rational and non-conflictual point of view.With a broad overview of the feminist critique of IR we will closely examine the phenomena of eco-feminism as it has gradually caught the imagination of scholars and activists all over the world. For instance, the Women?s Environment and Development Organisation (WEDO) has united 283 women?s NGOs into a caucus at the national and international level. One group of WEDO focuses on the need to develop environmental programs aimed at assisting women to become environmental resource managers. Another group approaches the issue from an eco-feminist angle emphasizing women?s unique ties to the forces of nature .While highlighting on eco-feminism we will try to illustrate with some examples from India as to how the women folk in Garhwal Himalayas have saved the large-scale deforestation of the Himalayas through the Chipko movement. Similarly some prominent social activists like Medaha Patkar and Arundhati Roy have fought a heroic battle through the ? Narmada Bachao Andolan(NBA) movement to fight against the desalination and denudation of large tractss of forest lands occupied by thousands of aboriginals in India. END ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contends that just war theory pays too little attention to one of the most important ways in which the distinction between ethical and non-ethical political violence is able to be drawn. In order for war to be ethical we need to accept that a certain kind of violent body (subject) is ethically unproblematic. The production of the ethically violent body (subject), whether in the service of the state (Machiavelli?s soldier) or of the oppressed class or nation (Fanon?s revolutionary) is fundamentally gendered. How do we judge the ethics of the production of these violent bodies (subjects), and what, in turn, does this tell us about the ethics of war from a feminist point of view? ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Conferences on Women (Mexico City 1975, Copenhagen 1980, Nairobi 1985, Beijing 1995), and more specifically the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) fora held in conjunction with these events, are frequently described as significant events in second wave international feminist organizing. The significance of the fora lies not in any particular decisions or agreements, there were no official decisions made in the name of the fora, but in the networking, organizing and activism that occurred as a result of these events. Of special interest is the networking that took place across the multiple borders that are seen as dividing women. Although these events are often described as significant, there is little scholarly work that tries to understand the fora together. One reason for this, perhaps, is that there were no documents debated or easily measurable outcomes. It also frequently remarked that there were as many forums as there were participants. Nonetheless, considering the ways in which those who participated in these events discussed and talked about their visions of a feminist movement can expand how feminists understand themselves as a movement that stretches across borders. The goals of this paper are twofold. The first is to show how feminist conceptions of the public sphere provide a useful framework for understanding the variety of discourses that circulated in these contexts. I emphasize how the notion of a counter-public, the idea that marginalized groups circulate counter-discourses which suggest different interpretations of their needs and identities, brings our attention to the fact that these events were composed of multiple and unequal groups. By emphasizing these counter-discourses, greater understanding of the discourses surrounding the fora emerges. My second goal is to show that not only are feminist conceptions of the public sphere useful for making better sense of the fora, but the discussions that take place at the fora also contribute to feminist thinking about transnational public spheres. Feminist theorists of the public sphere are only beginning to engage with conceptualizing a transnational feminist public sphere (McLaughlin 2004). The discourses surrounding the fora can contribute to these conceptualizations. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Womanism as a concept has been employed by a number of African feminist writers as the tool for development. The western concept of feminism therefore on the surface appears to be disclaimed by many as foreign concept. It also has served to aleniate male support as it seems rather confrontational while womanism seems to be consiliatary. But as these concept really different, the paper explores writers who have espoused the womanist tradition in contrast to feminist American writers and conclude the womanist tradition and feminism are different faces of the same coin. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, critiques about the gender implications of macro economic policy and the institutions that manifest such policies are being articulated and given some credence (e.g., World Development Report, 1995). As part of this work, feminist organizations are using the rubric of anti-globalization discourse and the anti-globalization movement to frame and channel their endeavors. Feminist activists are using a host of trans- and international spaces to do this work: the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil as well as Social Forums held in other parts of the world, the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, the World Trade Organization, and the myriad of United Nations conferences. Feminist efforts can, in this way, be seen as in line with the political left’s efforts to challenge international economic processes. For feminists however, the language and framework of anti-globalization organizing also provide a way to identify and articulate the impact that neo-liberal economic restructuring has had on women and men by showing that patterns of gender-based inequities are not inevitable, but rather are the product of particular policies and decisions. As this paper will show, feminist activist and scholarly attention to globalization have grown rapidly in a short period of time, but the consequences and efficacy of this trend have been inadequately assessed. The final document of the 1995 United Nations’ IV World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China, for instance, included significant discussion of women’s poverty, labor and gendered economic inequalities, it did not generally frame these issues through a globalization lens. Yet, five years later as the nations of the world reviewed the agreements they had made in Beijing, the discussion of gender and globalization moved to center stage. Indeed, the language on globalization was among that which was most contentiously debated. This paper takes up why this shift has occurred. I examine what the gender/globalization framework means and adds to previous activism to redress gendered economic inequalities and then highlight the political strengths and weaknesses of this conceptual and practical move. The increased use of the globalization framework by women’s organizations around the world has been accompanied by a parallel process in feminist scholarly debates. Along with their activist counterparts, many scholars have adopted the discourse of globalization to frame and explain gender-based patterns of inequality (Mohanty 2003; Tickner 2001; Signs, Summer 2001 [special issue on globalization & gender]). Yet, as this paper will argue, increased attention to the nexus of gender and economic globalization has not always led to clarity about what the concept means or how specifically to take the critiques leveled and transform them into concrete policy changes. In this paper, I develop a framework for understanding how it is that feminist activists are using the globalization framework to articulate their concerns and to organize their work. In so doing, I show that this shift in rhetoric and increased activism can not be expected to automatically result in concrete policy changes. Indeed, simply increasing activism focused on gender and globalization will not, and has not, been enough to result in significant substantive change. Activists and scholars alike will have to focus more on the structural or systemic barriers to efficacy if such activism is going to articulate viable alternatives to the dominant neo-liberal globalization paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internationalisation of discourses of equity, empowerment, autonomy, democratisation, participation and human rights have been both initiated and utilised by women’s networks worldwide. The relations between feminist theorists, policy makers and activists have been complex though there is also overlapping movement between these identities. This paper argues that only an alliance between local women’s movements and the transnational women’s peace movement can meet the challenge of bringing peace and justice together. It is based on the premise that past abuses of women in historical conflicts are a devastating reality for the victims even in the present in many post-conflict societies and is urgently in need of redress as a continuing human rights violation. A coordinated effort of practicing research on marginal sites that the international community has traditionally ignored and of applying transnational feminist approach to make survivors’ rights more visible will be the best strategic move to address women’s rights violation. For this purpose the paper interrogates ways of applying transnational feminist theorising and activism around women’s experiences in war zones including mass rapes in order to seek redress for historic wrongs. It further asks, when the wall of silence that surrounds abuses of women’s human rights breaks down with testimonies and evidences, how do we then translate emotions and passions into practical actions? In order to address these questions the paper focuses on how local women’s movements that are working to transform the limited interpretations and applications of women’s rights could form a collaborative network with international feminist and human rights organisation to advocate and organise a war-crime tribunal in Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will explore the ways that feminist literature and various social movements have employed the link between women’s bodies and their role as caregivers to claim that women have a natural affinity with peace. It will assess the subversive potential of such claims in terms of bringing women’s subjugated knowledges into the public sphere. Women’s subject position as mothers has afforded them a unique vantage point from which to criticize visions of security as articulated by the military state. However, this representation is ill-equipped to take us out of what Foucault identified as the central antinomy of modernity, by which the transformative potential of care becomes inextricably entangled with the instrumental rationality and the totalizing objectives of the state. To get beyond this antinomy requires undoing - and not merely inverting - dichotomies that have positioned feminist/maternal virtues of nurturance and peace as subservient to masculinist rationalities and acts of violence associated with reasons of state. Undoing dichotomies demands more than a late-modern recognition of the differences between women. It requires that we as feminist scholars forego our innocence by acknowledging our involvement with power and the intricate and sometimes unforeseen connections between the feminist representations that take place on the basis of women’s maternal identities and the interpellation of such identities by the liberal democratic state. Finally, it requires that we abandon the dream of feminist unanimity while remaining cognizant of the need for a gender-based analysis to fundamentally disrupt the narratives that constitute masculinist modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]