Transnational Feminisms and Women's Movements

Since the 1995 UN World Conference on Women in Beijing (and its associated NGO Forum), feminist activities at the transnational level and awareness of their significance have expanded significantly. Building on organizational frameworks that can date back to the previous century, and drawing on a view of human rights as transcending nation-states, feminists today campaign with increasing success for recognition of women’s full personhood. The growth in consensus in gender politics has been produced by global dialogue and interactions, often led by non-western countries, and is reflected in the UN Platform of Action and other international agreements. At the same time there is increasing polarization over some issues (e.g., trafficking in women), the ways in which issues are treated, and the means of rendering international support. Continuing challenges to this consensus are offered by the Vatican and some predominantly Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and Libya.

Among the key issues concerning researchers involved in this network are the following:

• What is the relationship between feminism as a goal and women’s movements as a form of organization? How do feminists work transnationally and how has this changed since Beijing?

• How do the social history and contemporary politics of nation-states shape how feminists work in the transnational arena? With what effect is the language of universal human rights used in a variety of contexts? What do regional differences in feminist experiences with networks and discourses about women’s rights suggest about future developments?

• How are endemic problems such as poverty, famine, corruption and armed conflict, which disproportionately endanger and kill women addressed by feminists inside and outside of conventional international organizations?

• How has the end of the Cold War and the realignment of international power away from an East-West axis changed the attention paid to specific countries or issues globally? Why has the United States been so much of an outsider to the global process of developing transnational feminism?

• What relationships do feminists have with other social movements?

• What is the impact of the growth of global internet communications on transnational movements around women’s rights?