Gender and Social Movements :

North to South and Right to Left

First semester2016/2017, L2, 24h (12x2h classes)

TEACHER : Kyra Grieco

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course aims to introduce students to the issues of gender, understood as a hierarchical mode of social categorisation, and social movements, understood as forms of collective action for social change. It will focus both on gendered social movements and on gendered participation to social movements across the political spectrum, in order to interrogate the articulation of social hierarchies and political participation at grassroots’ level.

To begin with, the course will initiate students to the key concepts of sex and gender, through the history of feminist movements. A chronological approach to key authors and movements will allow to shed light on the parallel evolution of feminism-as-a-movement and of feminism-as-a-discipline since the late 19th century. We will focus not only on the main stages of this double process and their socio-political context, but also on the different political and theoretical currents which can be recognized at each period (liberal, socialist, materialist, etc.), in order to highlight the tension between equality and difference which characterises feminist mobilisation and theory.

In the second part of the course, we will take a step back in order to demystify the widespread opinion that women’s participation to social movements is something “new” and/or eminently connected to contemporary western feminism. In order to do so, we will turn to history and ethnography in order to provide examples of women’s participation to social movements at different times and places : hunger riots, worker’s rights movements, guerrilla movements, environmental mobilisations, anti-colonial protests, etc. This will allow to focus on how social movements’ (and social sciences) tend to obscure gendered participation in ways which can be coherent– or in open contradiction– with the social change being pursued. It will likewise afford for a more nuanced understanding of different costs and advantages of gendered participation to social movements, and a discussion of “feminine” and “feminist” mobilisations, as exemplified by Latin American women’s movements.

Finally, we will tackle the idea of social movements and feminism as necessarily progressive in nature. In order to do so we will discuss right and left-wing feminisms, progressive men’s movements, and gendered participation to mobilisations at opposite ends of the political spectrum in Europe and Latin America (from revolutionary guerrillas to anti-gay marriage mobilisations in France in 2012/2013). This will lead us to approach gender as a factor of power, identity and social organisation amongst others : re-embedding gender in complex social relations allows to consider the intersection and interaction of different forms of social inequality (class, race, sexuality, etc.), and to reflect on the variety of political projects which feminist discourses may serve.

The course will rely on an interdisciplinary body of texts (history, anthropology, sociology, political science, etc.) combining gender studies with social movement studies. Students will be asked to read, research and discuss ethnographic case studies of same-sex and mixed social movements from different historical periods and social spaces. Statements produced directly by militants will also be analysed, in order to “ground” the gender and social movement theory dealt with in class. In some cases, excerpts of documentaries will be shown in class or assigned as homework (instead of readings) to exemplify case studies or issues raised in class. The case studies and authors presented will mainly focus on European, North and Latin American social movements, with a few South-East Asian and Middle-Eastern cases. The course will be taught in English, but end-of-term papers may handed in both in English and French.

EVALUATION :

 In-class participation (40% of final grade) : active participation to discussion on the basis of assigned readings/films (1 per week)  Presentation (by groups of 30% of final note): summary and discussion of one optional reading assigned of the day (max 15 minutes at beginning or end of lecture, with PPT) in order to introduce topic and start the discussion. Students may choose from a list of texts provided by the teacher or propose a text/case study of their own choice, with prior approval by the teacher.  Paper (30% of final grade) : In-depth discussion of one of the topics of case studies dealt with during the course, on the basis of the course bibliography and other pertinent texts (20.000 signs maximum).

All the articles assigned for reading will be made available in a shared platform (moodle) by the teacher, except for certain books (extra readings) which can be found in the library.

LESSON PLAN:

1. Introduction to the topic, bibliography and evaluation modes

What do we mean when we speak about « Gender » ? and what when we speak about “Social Movements” ? What are the connections between these two « objects », and why is it useful to deal with them together ? How can the study of social movements help us understand gender structures, and vice versa ?

Readings :

No readings (introductory session)

2. First wave feminism(s) : the movement for women’s suffrage

This lesson will provide an overview to the movements for women’s suffrage across the world, from mid-19th century to the end of WWII. Particular attention will be devoted, on the one hand, to contextualising the differences between different national movements in the political environment of the time and, on the other hand, to describing the different currents within each national movement. Presenting the heterogeneity of early suffragist movements will allow to counter representations of suffragettes as being exclusively middle-class, white women residing in industrialised countries, and highlight both the differences and the tensions within the movement.

Compulsory Reading : Ellen Carol DuBois, "Woman Suffrage Around the World: Three Phases of Suffrage Internationalism" in Ellen DuBois and Vicki Ruiz, eds. Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History, 3rd ed.

Optional Reading (for presentation) : Davis, A. “Working Women, Black Women and the History of the Suffrage Movement” in Women, race & Class, Vintage Publishing, 1981.

Suggested Movie : The Suffragettes (2015) - actually a good film, which presents the less well-known, militant face of the movement for women’s suffrage in England.

3. Second wave feminism(s) : the women’s liberation movement(s)

In this lesson we will present what is perhaps the best known face of feminism : the women’s liberation movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s in its North American version, issued from a convergence of the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement and the “new left” inspired by Herbert Marcuse. We will focus on these different political currents and social actors in order to highlight the diversity of the feminist movement(s), and the strategies which were brought forth both to acknowledge and to bridge this internal difference. Second wave feminism best known also for this paradigmatic shift summarized by the phrase “the personal is political”, and from the demand for equality to the right to difference, which coincides to a more general shift towards identity politics in post-war social movements’. To this extent, second wave feminism can be considered as a paradigmatic “new social movement”.

Compulsory Reading : Hanisch, C., 2006, "The Personal Is Political: The Women's Liberation Movement classic with a new explanatory introduction"

Optional reading ( for presentation) : Steinem, G., 1969, “After Black Power, Women's Liberation” + 1 of the films proposed

Suggested Movies : She is beautiful when she is angry (2014) ; Free Angela and all political prisoners (2011)

4. Third wave feminism(s) : from sexual difference to gender as a system

After the 1970s, feminist movements undergoes a process of gradual political de-mobilisation, which leaves the place to an increasing academic activism and theorisation. During the 1980s and 1990s feminist studies, gender studies, queer studies and critical race studies make a place for themselves in (mainly Anglophone) academia. This transition also coincides with a growing theorisation and debate on the difference between biological sex and social gender. The term gender hence comes to be identified as a criterion of social differentiation and hierarchy, which does not merely concern sexual difference but also social relations of race, class, and coloniality

Compulsory Reading : Scott, J.W. ‘Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis’, The American Historical Review, 91.5 (1986), 1053–75.

Optional Reading (for presentation) : Christine Delphy, ‘Rethinking Sex and Gender’, Women’s Studies International Forum, 16.1,pp. 1–9, 1993.

Suggested Movies: Boys don’t cry (1999); Danish Girl (2016); Je ne suis pas féministe, mais… (2015) ; L’Abécédaire de Christine Delphy (2015) ; Judith Butler : Philosophe en tout genre (2008)

5. History and Herstory : women and social mobilisation through time and space

After having provided a comprehensive overview of feminism as a social movement, we will turn our topic upside down in order to look at other social movements and women’s militancy therein. This change in approach will serve the double end of de-mystifying feminism as the “only” women’s movement in history, and of highlighting the plurality of forms of women’s participation to social movements at different historical and cultural contexts. It will therefore allow to further challenge the private/public divide, as the foundation of modern and contemporary (democratic) politics.

Compulsory Reading : Bouton, C.A. “Gendered Behaviour in Subsistence Riots: The French Flour War of 1775” Journal of Social History Vol. 23, No. 4 (Summer, 1990), pp. 735-754

Optional readings (for presentation) : Bohstedt, J. “Gender, Household and Community Politics: Women in English Riots 1790-1810” Past & Present No. 120, pp. 88-122 (1988)

Ann L. Stoler, ‘Making Empire Respectable: The Politics of Race and Sexual Morality in 20th-Century Colonial Cultures’, American Ethnologist, 16.4, pp.634–60, 1989.

THIS WEEK THERE WILL BE TWO PRESENTATIONS

Suggested Movies : La révolution au féminin (2004) ;

6. Gender and social change : participation as a means, participation as an end

Having extended our understanding of women’s participation social mobilisation (and politics more generally), we will proceed to identify the commonalities and differences which can be observed. More in particular, we will present some Latin American women’s movements, which do not take issue with the structure of gender relations but on the contrary build on the essentialisation in order to legitimate political participation. This will lead us to discuss the distinction which Maxime Molyneux (1985) operated between “feminist” and “feminine” movements, and raise the question as to whether participation can be conceived not only as a means, but also as an end in itself.

Compulsory Reading : Maxine Molyneux, ‘Mobilization without Emancipation? Women’s Interests, the State, and Revolution in Nicaragua’, Feminist Studies 11, no. 2 (1985): 227–54

Optional Reading (for presentation) : Stephen, L. ‘Gender, Citizenship, and the Politics of Identity’, Latin American Perspectives 28, no. 6 (2001): 54–69

Suggested Movie : The Mothers: Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo (1985)

7. Gendered costs and advantages of participation

Following up on the last lesson, we will continue to delve in to the relative costs and advantages which can be identified in connection with gendered participation. On the basis of different case studies, we will discuss and try to find answers to the following questions. What are the particular costs and benefits of gendered participation to social movements? Does women’s participation lead to a “democratisation” of gender relations in everyday life (Melucci 1988)? If gender equality is not perceived nor put forward as an issue at stake, can these movements still promote women’s rights? If the costs of participation are generally higher for women than for men, why do they continue to join in mobilisations?

Compulsory Reading: Rousseau, S. “Indigenous and Feminist Movements at the Constituent Assembly in Bolivia: Locating the Representation of Indigenous Women” Latin American Research Review Vol. 46, no.2, 2011

Optional Reading (for presentation) : Grieco, K., « Motherhood, Mining and Development: from corporate development to social mobilization” in Dhawan N., Fink E., Leinius J. & Rirhandu M-B. (eds) Negotiating Normativity. Postcolonial appropriations, contestations and transformations, Springer, London (2016).

Suggested Movies : The suffragettes (2015); Bread and Roses (2004); The Mothers: Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo (1985)

8. Women’s radical movements, left and right.

Having deepened our understanding of forms of gender subversion and conservatism in social movements, we will proceed to widen the political spectrum under study in order to include revolutionary and reactionary social movements, and gendered forms of participation therein. How do extreme left and right wing projects interact with dominant gender roles? To what extent do they demand activists to re-envision and re-define gender roles and relations, and to what extent do they build on existing or “traditional” ones? How coherent (or dissonant) are movements’ representations and gender models with militants’ actual experience and activities?

Compulsory Reading : Bedi, T., “Feminist Theory and the Right-Wing: Shiv Sena Women Mobilize Mumbai”, Journal of International Women’s Studies Vol. 7/4 May 2006

Optional Readings (for presentation) : One chapter/case study from Victoria González-Rivera and Karen Kampwirth, Radical Women in Latin America: Left and Right, Penn State Press, 2010.

THIS WEEK THERE WILL BE TWO PRESENTATIONS (RIGHT WING + ONE LEFT-WING CASE STUDIES)

Suggested Movies : The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008) ; Good Morning, Night (2003); Woman rebel (2010)

9. Conservative feminisms and men’s rights movements

After having dealt with women’s activism in social movements at both ends of the political spectrum, we will delve further in to the relationship between gender and grassroots politics by providing an overview of same-sex conservative and progressive social movements ranging from Femen to the Men’s Right’s movement. These case studies will allow us to further develop our understanding of femininity, masculinity and social change, namely by highlighting the diverse and often contradictory combinations of gender conservatism/subversion and progressive/conservative politics.

Compulsory Reading : Maddison, S., “Private men, public anger: The men's rights movement in Australia”, Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, Vol. 4/2, 1999.

Optional readings (for presentation) : Channell, E. “Is sextremism the new feminism? Perspectives from Pussy Riot and Femen” Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity Volume 42, Issue 4, 2014 Fekete, L. “Enlightened fundamentalism? Immigration, feminism and the Right”, Race& Class, Vol. 48 no. 2, pp. 1-22, 2006

THIS WEEK TOO, WE HAVE TWO PRESENTATIONS!

10. “There is no hierarchy of oppression” : re-embedding gender in social relations

After having dealt with the many forms and functions which gendered participation can assume in both in conservative and progressive, same-sex and mixed social movements, we will proceed to re-embed gender in social relations of race, class, sexuality and coloniality. Starting from Audre Lourde’s famous text “there is no hierarchy of oppression”, we will focus on the intersectional nature of forms of oppression and inequality, and on the challenges this raises to forms and discourses of mobilization. In order to exemplify the contradictory relationship of subalternity, mobilisation and “voice” (Spivak 1989), we will focus the mobilisation of indigenous women in the Global South.

Compulsory Reading : Mohanty, C., « Under Western Eyes : Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourse », Feminist Review n° 30, pp. 61-88, 1988.

Optional Reading (for presentation) : Mohanty, C., “Under Western Eyes” Revisited: Feminist Solidarity through Anticapitalist Struggles”, Signs, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 499-535, 2003.

11. Feminism, capitalism, and the cunning of history

In conclusion to the course, we will widen our focus in order to discuss the relationship(s) between capitalism and the politics of difference well represented by multiculturalism (Hale, 2002) and feminism (Fraser, 2009). Looking back on the parallel evolution of neo-liberal capitalism, on the one hand, and the mainstreaming of gender and multiculturalism on the other, we will discuss the appropriation of a “cosmetic” diversity. Beyond forcing us to rethink the tensions between individual and collective rights, equality and difference, social solidarity and social change, these topics will allow to return to the issue of participation and “the problem of speaking for others” (Alcoff, 1991).

Compulsory Reading: Fraser, N., 2012, "Feminism, Capitalism, and the Cunning of History", Working Paper Series, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH)

Optional Reading (for presentation): Hale, C. “Does Multiculturalism Menace? Governance, Cultural Rights and the Politics of Identity in Guatemala”, Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 34 Issue N.3, pp.485-524, 2002.

12. Recap lesson

The last lesson will be dedicated to a general summary of material and topics dealt with throughout the course. Students will be invited to choose a case study each – either amongst those dealt with in class or new ones which raised their interest – in order to contribute to in-class discuss and application of concepts and interpretations raised in prior lessons.

No readings – bring a case study to discuss!

Bibliography

(not all readings are listed)

On social movements:

Agrikolianski E., Fillieule O., Sommier I. (dir.) Penser les mouvements sociaux : Conflits sociaux et contestation dans les sociétés contemporaines, Edition La Découverte, Paris, 2010.

Alvarez, S., E. Dagnino and A. Escobar, Cultures of Politics Politics of Cultures : Re-Visioning Latin American Social Movements, Boulder, Westview Press, 1998.

Crossley, N. Making Sense of Social Movements, Buckingham, Open University Press, 2002

Della Porta, D. and M. Diani, Social Movements: An Introduction, 2nd Edition (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005).

Eckstein, S. Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social Movements (University of California Press, 2001);

Edelman, M. ‘Social Movements: Changing Paradigms and Forms of Politics’, Annual Review of Anthropology, 30.1 (2001), 285–317

Fillieule, O. « Propositions pour une analyse processuelle de l’engagement individuel - Post scriptum », Revue française de science politique 2001/1 (Vol. 51

Goirand, C., "Penser les mouvements sociaux d'Amérique latine", Revue française de science politique 2010/3.

Goodwin, J., J.M. Jasper and F. Polletta, Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements, University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Jasper, J.M. ‘Emotions and Social Movements: Twenty Years of Theory and Research’, 2011.

Klandermans, B. and C. Roggeband, Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines, New York, Springer, 2009.

Larana, E., H. Johnston and J.R. Gusfield, New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994.

Mathieu, L. « Rapport au politique, dimensions cognitives et perspectives pragmatiques dans l’analyse des mouvements sociaux », Revue française de science politique 2002/1 (Vol. 52)

Mathieu, L. Comment lutter ?: sociologie et mouvements sociaux, Paris, Textuel, 2004.

McAdam, D., S. Tarrow and C. Tilly, Dynamics of Contention, Cambridge/New York, Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Melucci, A. Social Movements and the Democratization of Everyday Life, 1988.

Nash, J. (ed), Social Movements: An Anthropological Reader, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005.

Neveu, E., Sociologie des mouvements sociaux (La Decouverte, 2011).

Polletta, F. and J.M. Jasper, ‘Collective Identity and Social Movements’, Annual Review of Sociology, 27.1 (2001), 283–305.

Peet, R. and M. Watts, Liberation Ecologies: Environment, Development and Social Movements, London, Routledge, 1996.

Tilly, C. and S. Tarrow, Contentious Politics, Oxford, University Press, 2006. On feminist movements:

Herstory : feminists before feminism

The Essential Feminist Reader, ed. by Estelle Freedman (New York: Modern Library, 2007).

Bohstedt, J. “Gender, Household and Community Politics: Women in English Riots 1790-1810” Past & Present No. 120, pp. 88-122 (1988)

Bouton, C.A. “Gendered Behavior in Subsistence Riots: The French Flour War of 1775” Journal of Social History Vol. 23, No. 4 (Summer, 1990), pp. 735-754

Rowbotham, S. Women, Resistance and Revolution: A History of Women and Revolution in the Modern World, New York: Free Press, 2001

“First Wave feminism”: women’s suffrage and the struggle for political equality

Ellen DuBois, Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's Movement in America, 1848-1869

Janet Zollinger Giele, Two Paths to Women's Equality: Temperance, Suffrage, and the Origins of Modern Feminism (Twayne, 1995).

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. I, 1848-1861, Preface and Introduction.

Barbara Winslow, Sylvia Pankhurst: Sexual Politics and Political Activism (St. Martin's Press, 1996)

Shiela Rowbotham, A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States in the Twentieth Century (Viking Press, 1997)

Ellen DuBois and Vicki Ruiz, eds. Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History, 3rd ed.

Davis, Angela “Working Women, Black Women and the History of the Suffrage Movement,” pp. 73-78.

“Second wave feminism”: sex, race, sexuality and the right to difference

Anzaldúa, G., 1987, Borderlands/La Frontera : The New Mestiza, Aunt Lute Books, San Francisco.

Hanisch, C., 2006, "The Personal Is Political: The Women's Liberation Movement classic with a new explanatory introduction"

Hooks, bell, 1981, “Ain’t I a Woman”, South End Press, Cambridge.

Mohanty, C., 1988, « Under Western Eyes : Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourse », Feminist Review n° 30, pp. 61-88. Moraga, C. et Anzaldúa, G., 1981, This Bridge Called My Back, Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press. Ramos, J., 1987, Compañeras: Latina Lesbians, New York: Latina Lesbian History Project.

Shiva, V., 1988, Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Survival in India, London, Zed Books.

Steinem, G., 1969, “After Black Power, Women's Liberation”.

“Third” wave: from sex to gender

Butler, J. Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex, 1 edition (Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge, 2011).

Delphy, C. L’ennemi principal : Tome 2, Penser le genre (Paris: Editions Syllepse, 2001).

Fraser, N., 2012, "Feminism, Capitalism, and the Cunning of History", Working Paper Series, Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH)

Laqueur, T. Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud, Revised ed. edition (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992).

Scott, J.W. ‘Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis’, The American Historical Review, 91.5 (1986), 1053–75.

Gender and social movements:

Acosta-Belén, E. and C.E. Bose, ‘U.S. Latina and Latin American Feminisms: Hemispheric Encounters’, Signs 25, no. 4, pp. 1113–19, 2000

Alvarez, S. ‘Advocating Feminism: The Latin American Feminist NGO “Boom”’, International Feminist Journal of Politics 1, no. 2, 181–209, 1999

Thanh-Huyen Ballmer-Cao, Véronique Mottier and Lea Sgier, Genre et politique. Débats et perspectives (Paris: GALLIMARD, 2000).

Bayard de Volo, L., Mobilizing mothers for war: Cross-national framing strategies in Nicaragua’s Contra War, Gender & Society 18(6), pp. 715-734, 2004.

Bell, S.E. and Y. Braun, Coal, identity, and the gendering of environmental justice activism in Central Appalachia. Gender & Society 24(6), pp. 794-813, 2010.

Laure Bereni and Anne Revillard, ‘Un mouvement social paradigmatique ?’, Sociétés contemporaines, 2012, 17–41.

Blondet, C., ‘Community Kitchens : A Peruvian Experience’, in Women’s Participation in Social Development: Experiences from Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, ed. Karen Marie Mokate, New York, Washington: Inter- American Development Bank, pp. 111–28, 2004

Borland, E. and B. Sutton, Quotidian disruption and women's activism in times of crisis, Argentina 2002-2003. Gender & Society, 21 (6): pp. 700-722, 2007.

Camille Boutron, ‘Lorsque le genre comme identité sexuée se superpose au genre esthétique : une approche au travers des représentations sendéristes au Pérou dans les années 1980’, in Genres en mouvement, by Joëlle Wasiolka (Paris: Nouveau Monde Editions, 2009).

Culley, M.R., and H.L. Angelique. Women's gendered experiences as long-term Three Mile Island activists." Gender & Society, 17(3), pp.445-461, 2003.

Einwohner, R.L., J.A. Hollander and T. Olson “Engendering social movements: Cultural images and movement dynamics” Gender & Society 14(5), pp. 679-699, 2000.

Evans, S., Tidal Wave: How Women Changed America at Century's End, New York: Free Press, 2001

Falquet, J., De gré ou de force. Les femmes dans la mondialisation, Paris, La Dispute, 2007. González-Rivera, V. and K. Kampwirth, Radical Women in Latin America: Left and Right, Penn State Press, 2010

Hale, C. ‘Cultural Politics of Identity in Latin America’, Annual Review of Anthropology 26, no. 1, pp. 567–90, 1997

Hale, C. ‘Does Multiculturalism Menace? Governance, Cultural Rights and the Politics of Identity in Guatemala’, Journal of Latin American Studies 34, no. 03, pp.: 485–524, 2002

Kuumba, B.M. Gender and Social Movements, Rowman Altamira, 2001.

Kuumba, M. B, “You’ve struck a rock”: Comparing gender, social movements and transformation in the United States and South Africa. Gender & Society 16(4), pp.504-523, 2002.

Molyneux, M., ‘Mobilization without Emancipation? Women’s Interests, the State, and Revolution in Nicaragua’, Feminist Studies 11, no. 2, pp. 227–54, 1985

Moore, H. ‘“Divided We Stand”: Sex, Gender and Sexual Difference’, Feminist Review 47, no. 1, pp. 78–95, 1994

Morales Houdon, A., ‘L’autonomie Comme Demande Centrale Du Mouvement Des Femmes Autochtones Au Mexiqueau Cours Des Années 90’, Recherches Féministes 24, no. 2, pp. 135–51, 2011.

Stephen, L. Women and Social Movements in Latin America: Power from Below, Austin, University of Texas Press (1997).

Stephen, L. ‘Gender, Citizenship, and the Politics of Identity’, Latin American Perspectives, 28.6, pp. 54–69, 2001.