slides from a women and policy course

2. Brief History of US Women’s
(Feminist) movements & its global
effects
Intersectionality & Black Feminism
Women & Revolutionary Movements
Case study: Islamic Feminism,
Women & Change

3. US President Nixon (1969-74) once said, in a
conversation with aides: "I’m not for women in any job. I
don’t want any of them around. Thank God we don’t have
any in the cabinet ... I don’t think a woman should be in
any government job whatever. I mean, I really don’t. The
reason why I do is mainly because they are erratic. And
emotional. Men are erratic and emotional, too, but the
point is a woman is more likely to be.”

4. Three waves of the women’s liberation movement
1. 19th – early 20th century
› Main goal – political equality (suffrage); overturning
legal obstacles to gender equality (right to property)
2. 1960s – 1980s
› Main goal – Women’s Liberal Movement; ‘revisionist
feminism’ - social and cultural equality (civil rights,
sexuality, family, workplace, reproductive rights, legal
and de facto inequalities)
3. 1990s – Continuing struggle for social equality
› based on the critique that differences between women
exist. There an acknowledgement that not all women
“suffer equally” – class, race, etc. intersect to impact
women’s lives
› 1995 UN Convention in Beijing- Fourth World
Conference on Women

5. Women’s suffrage march, New York, May 1913

9. Intersectional Theory argues that most
sociological theory makes the mistake of
examining only one variable at a time
(single-axis)
Intersectional Theory is particularly
concerned with the formation of social
identities.
At its most basic form, Intersectional Theory
examines the ways that gender, race, class,
and sexuality work in concert to create
inequality—“interlocking systems of
oppression.”

10. “When race is discussed in sociology, it tends to be
analyzed in terms of the problem of racism and its
effects on African Americans and not in terms of
how Whites are socialized to see themselves as
raceless. This lack of sophistication around the
social construction of race has had consequences
for the nature of feminist sociology because it has
led feminist scholars to assume a race-neutral
"femininity" that, in a society where whiteness is the
norm, becomes a White femininity.”

11. Patricia Hill Collins, Sociologist, University of
Maryland
Collins believes that:
 inequality and oppression are the result of
several forces working hand in hand—the
matrix of domination.
 No one singular force is the cause of injustice.
She identifies class, race, and gender as the
major forces that affect the lives of Black
women.
 these forces also affect many others, and that
other issues come into play as well.

12. “Women are differentially evaluated based on
their perceived value to give birth to the right kind
of children, pass on appropriate American family
values, and become worthy symbols of the nation.
Black women, White women, Latinas, Native
American women, and Asian American women all
occupy different positions within gender, class,
race, and nation as intersecting systems of
power” –Patricia Hill Collins 2000, p. 230

13. Experiences of White,
Middle Class Women
Right to Work
Right to Not have
Children
Stop Violence Against
Women
The ‘Essential’
Woman
Experiences of
Working Class
Women of Color
History of Forced
Labor
Controlled
Reproduction
Violence Inside and
Outside Community
Racialized
Stereotypes of
Womanhood

14. Collin’s ‘Globalized
Gendered Apartheid’
Black Feminists’
Global Movement
Shared Experience of
Marginalization,
Poverty, Motherhood,
Sexuality, Education,
etc.

16. “It aims…at removing all the obstacles to women's
active participation in all spheres of public and private
life through a full and equal share in economic, social,
cultural and political decision-making. This means that
the principle of shared power and responsibility should
be established between women and men at home, in
the workplace and in the wider national and
international communities. Equality between women
and men is a matter of human rights and a condition
for social justice and is also a necessary and
fundamental prerequisite for equality, development
and peace. A transformed partnership based on
equality between women and men is a condition for
people-centred sustainable development. . .”

17. Overall, the 20th century brought changes for women around the
world.
› By the end of the 20th century, most countries granted women
suffrage.
Women still can’t vote in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Kuwait
Additional voting qualifications for women in Lebanon
› By the end of the 20th century, most countries granted women the
same economic and property rights as men.
Exceptions are found in some Middle Eastern Countries (lack legal rights to
own land)
Most land is still officially owned by men
Remember, poor women have always worked
› By the end of the 20th century, the literacy rates for women had
increased dramatically from the 19th century.
In Europe and North America more women than men pursue secondary
education.
In poorer nations, few families can afford to educate girls – they choose to
educate their sons

20. In India, Gandhi encouraged women to participate in the
independence movement; Indira Gandhi (no relation) served as the
leader of India; cultural issues in some parts of India limit role of
women
In 1929 women led “unrest” movements in Nigeria and other
women were active in other African independence movements;
however, their involvement did not translate into great change for
women in African countries.
› Most Africans live in rural areas where tradition remains firm about gender
issues; men left the countryside to move to cities – leaving women and children
behind to care for themselves; polygamy is still a common practice in most
African countries (either legal or not) and AIDS has caused huge death tolls for
women; in most countries literacy rates are below 50% for men and even lower
for women; democracy is still a challenge in most African nations, but current
leaders of Mozambique and Liberia are women

21. Why would women join revolutionary
movements that appears against their best
interests?
What happens to women following
revolutionary movements that promised
equality?
Why are women often relegated to lower
status and less benefits in the post-
revolutionary period?

23. After the March Revolution, the provisional government of Russia
did set up full voting rights for women; however, women still had
few social rights.
The tenets of communism do not differentiate between men and
women – all work to the best of his/her ability and all gets what they
need.
› "To effect her complete emancipation and make her equal of the man it is
necessary for house work to be socialized and for women to participate in
common productive labor. Then women will occupy the same position as men“
› Lenin
Women served as soldiers during the Russian Revolution (and later
WWII). After the Revolution, women had equal opportunities to go
to university and to work in all fields of employment. The state
provided medical care, education, and day-care for all women (and
men). “Feminism” was discouraged as communism would allow all
people of all classes to have equal rights (in theory).

24. Under the Soviet Union, women enjoyed the same legal, social,
and economic rights as men.
Efforts were made to ensure these same standards in land
“secured” by the Soviet Union.
In Central Asia (Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadzhikistan,
Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) Soviet policies challenged
traditional Islamic law relating to women. Soviets banned
polygamy, bride-price, and raised the minimum age for marriage
to 16. Women were also educated in the law and were trained to
take political posts; however, as in the Soviet Union, rural areas
were slow or unwilling to accept equal roles for men and
women, so most fundamental change for the sexes occurred in
urban areas (minority of the population lived).

26. Prior to the Communist Revolution(s) women had very
limited legal and social roles. Foot-binding had been a
common practice (outlawed, but still practiced).
The 1911 Revolution overthrew the emperor, but under the
republic women still were denied basic equality rights.
In 1919 the May Fourth Movement did bring women out to
protest for equality; however, little changed until the 1930s
when women were granted the same property and marriage
rights as men.
In 1949 the Communist Revolution brought Mao to power. In
the 1950s laws were formalized recognizing the equality of
women in marriage, voting, and inheritance rights (end of
primogeniture) . With the redistribution of land in the 1950s,
both male and female peasants were given land.

27. The education of women greatly expanded. Prior to
1949, only 10% of women in China were considered
literate. Throughout the 1950s millions of women began
to attend schools and universities.
Women suffered just as much as men during the
Cultural Revolution.
The role of women in China is limited primarily as it
relates to rural traditions and family preference for male
children.
There are currently 37 million more men in China than
women.

28. Many women supported the nationalistic
movement defined by Ho Chi Min.
As in other Communist-inspired nations,
legal treatment of men and women are
guaranteed by law. Legally women have
rights to education, inheritance, and
suffrage. Culturally women are not always
treated with the same level of equality.

30. Why would women join revolutionary
movements that appears against their best
interests?
What happens to women following
revolutionary movements that promised
equality?
Why are women often relegated to lower
status and less benefits in the post-
revolutionary period?

33. Women’s movement 1890-1950, a global
attempt
International Collaboration 1911-1950 with
Middle Eastern women’s movement
International Woman Suffrage Alliance and
Equal Citizenship & the International Alliance
of Women (IAW)
Orientalism and its effects

35. Reasons for failure:
› 1) IAW could not acknowledge Islam’s
potential as a basis for feminist activism
› 2) Patronizing belief of ‘helping’ the
oppressed women of the Middle East to realize
that their seclusion signifies total helplessness
› 3) Could not acknowledge the problems with
Western imperialism, causing a rift in the
Palestinian dilemma

36. Is Islamic feminism an oxymoron?
How do women envision ‘Islamic feminism’?
How is it different from western (White)
‘feminism’?
What historical factors affect the current
Muslim women movement? (past
constraints, present problematics)
Why are women’s body a source of
contention for power?

38. Women’s Mosque Movement and the Islamic
Revival
Not related to the trend of religious violent
“Islamist” extremism
Liberating by offering an opportunity to gain
intellectual ownership of Islamic teaching
Women’s Study Circles: varies by country
› Informal to more formal

39. “…one who adopts a worldview in which Islam
can be contextualized and reinterpreted in
order to promote concepts of equity and
equality between men and women; and for
whom freedom of choice plays an important
part in expression of faith.” (Umm Yasmin,
Centre for Muslim Minorities and Islam Policy
Studies at Monash University, Australia)

40. Increase in popularity in 1990s
› Fatima Mernissi
› Ziba Mir-Hosseini
› Nilufer Gole
› Leila Ahmed
› Amina Wadud
› Rifat Hassan
› Saba Mahmood

41. https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=q6zsX4Kn
LVY&list=PLF7981214
F62A7E5A&index=27

42. SHAHMOHAMMEDREZA
PAHLAVI
AYATOLLAHRUHOLLAH
KHOMEINI

43. “Persian” women have had a long history of education –
in the early 20th century many women were journalists
and educators.
The Shah and the Ayatollah
Women under the Shah:
› Family Protection Act 1967 & 1973 (restricted
polygyny, raise marrying age, women’s right to
divorce)
1979 Revolution & the Islam Republic of Iran
› Economic & demographic needs gave women
positions in public sphere
› Flexibility & cooption to dissenting voices

44. In 1919, the Ottoman Empire crumbles.
In 1923, Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) becomes the first “President” of
Turkey and leads “western-style” changes throughout the Muslim
country.
Ataturk instituted laws that called for the equality of women in all
aspects of society.
Efforts have been made to keep “Turkey” secular (limit influence of
Islam). This has led to laws against head scarves for women in
public. In the later 20th century further laws were abolished that
limited roles of women (permission from husband to work), etc.
Women gained the right to vote in Turkey in 1929 (first elections in
1930).
Just as in other countries, law and practice are different. Social and
religious attitudes do restrict the lives of women to certain norms –
fewer in universities and certain professions than in others;
arranged marriages are still common

45. Remember of all the world religions and belief systems,
Islam (as written in the Qur'an) actually has more protections
and rights for women than any other. Muhammad outlawed
infanticide, legalized women-initiated divorce, set out clear
property rights for women, and declared that women as well
as men should be literate.
Many Muslim women enjoy great many rights in many
countries, including Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. In addition
women have been heads of state in “Islamic” countries such
as Pakistan, Senegal, Turkey, Kosovo, Indonesia, and
Bangladesh. There was even a female vice president of Iran
at one time.
Most of the ways women are treated in some societies are
not based upon the teachings of Islam, they are based upon
cultural traditions that existed long before Islam emerged.

46. Is Islamic feminism an oxymoron?
How do women envision ‘Islamic feminism’?
How is it different from western (White)
‘feminism’?
What historical factors affect the current
Muslim women movement? (past
constraints, present problematics)
Why are women’s body a source of
contention for power? (i.e. the veil)