Identity Politics, Coalition Possibilities, and Feminist Organizing Erica Townsend-Bell
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Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences Spring 5-2007 Identities Matter: Identity Politics, Coalition Possibilities, and Feminist Organizing Erica Townsend-Bell Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Townsend-Bell, Erica, "Identities Matter: Identity Politics, Coalition Possibilities, and Feminist Organizing" (2007). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1667. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/1667 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Sciences at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Department of Political Science Publications 5-1-2007 Identities Matter: Identity Politics, Coalition Possibilities, and Feminist Organizing Erica Townsend-Bell Copyright © 2007 Erica E. Townsend-Bell Comments A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Hosted by Iowa Research Online. For more information please contact: [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY Department of Political Science Dissertation Examination Committee: Sunita Parikh, Chair Lisa Baldez Andrea Friedman Gerald N. Izenberg Mona Lena Krook Guillermo Rosas Andrew Sobel IDENTITIES MATTER: IDENTITY POLITICS, COALITION POSSIBILITIES, AND FEMINIST ORGANIZING by Erica E. Townsend-Bell A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2007 Saint Louis, Missouri Copyright by Erica E. Townsend-Bell 2007 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Who knew that six years could be so long and yet go by so quickly? If the time has flown by it is only because of the love and support of so many people. First I would like to thank the activist women and men who graciously granted me interviews for their candor, their insightfulness, and their time. I could not have completed this project without their generosity. In particular, I would like to thank Elena Fonseca of Cotidiano Mujer, who didn’t bat an eye when I asked her to tell me about the history of the Uruguayan women’s movement in one sitting; and who was a constant source of information during my fieldwork. I am grateful to Alicia García, Beatriz Ramírez, Claudia de los Santos, Mirta da Silva, and all the women of GAMA for their support, and their inspiration. Thank you to Romero Rodríguez and all the people of Organizaciones Mundo Afro. Stateside, I could not have completed this project without the help of my wonderful, extended dissertation committee. John Carey helped to stoke my interest in Latin America and provided me with funding for exploratory field work trips to Uruguay. He also assured me funding to participate in the Arizona State University Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research, which helped to provide the methodological framework for this dissertation and for future work to come. Sunita Parikh has been a wonderful chairperson. I continue to be amazed by her ability to cut right to the heart of the matter and see things in a way that others do not. I can only hope that a little bit of that ability has rubbed off on me in the years that I have worked with her. This dissertation is much better and more cohesive because of her guidance; all remaining errors are mine alone. Finally, I want to thank Sunita for providing me with a model of how to conduct oneself as a colleague and a professional within the discipline. I simply cannot remember when I became interested in the subject of gender and politics, but I suspect that Lisa Baldez had a lot to do with it. Lisa, I thank you so much for your help, advice, and especially for your encouragement over the years. Mona Lena Krook and Guillermo Rosas graciously agreed to serve on my committee in the late stages of the game. I thank you both for your patience and your help. And I thank you especially for your mentoring. You may not have known it, but I watched you both closely for clues as to how proceed as a junior faculty member and I have learned much. Andy Sobel was kind enough to offer to serve on my committee if I needed it, and I was more than pleased to take him up on his offer. Thanks Andy! A very special thank you the people who really make a dissertation possible: Janet Rensing, Heather Sloan-Randick, and Kerri Therina. I learned so much from the courses that I took with Andrea Friedman and Gerald N. Izenberg, of the history department. You both helped me to think about things from a different perspective, and to recognize the true interdisciplinary nature of this dissertation project. Many thanks to both of you for your continued support of this project. ii The Chancellor’s Fellowship for African-Americans provided the financial support for my graduate education. However, more important was the emotional support and sense of community that it offered to me. I would like to thank all of the Chancellor’s Fellows, Amy Gassel and Dean Robert Thach. I was grateful to be able to spend time with colleagues who would ask how my work was going and then immediately move on to more important things, like babies, and marriage, and movies, and shopping! I would especially like to thank Dr. Sheri Notaro for her kind words, encouragement, and her wonderfully deadpan humor. Thanks Sheri! The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Political Science, the Center for New Institutional Social Sciences, and the Danforth Scholars all provided institutional and financial support for my graduate education and research. This project could not have proceeded with these crucial funding sources. The people of the National Library of the Republic of Uruguay were also an enormous help in my archival research. I am especially appreciative of Ana Binz for her assistance. Thanks to the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture and the Center for Gender Studies at the University of Chicago, for providing me with an intellectual home away from home during my time in Chicago. I really appreciated the opportunity to present my work. I was even more appreciative of the chance to hear about other’s work when I could not imagine the thought of staring at my own for another second. I am especially grateful to Professor Waldo E. Johnson for and the CSRPC for providing me with much needed library privileges and access to the University of Chicago facilities and services. None of this would have been possible without the support of family and friends. I would especially like to thank my adopted Uruguayan family, Jimena, Carmen, Nicolas, and Fernando. You taught me much, fed me well, and made my time in Uruguay immensely enjoyable. Thank you so very much. Mercedes, it has been a pleasure to know you these last few years and to call you my friend. We won’t see each other as often now that my time at Wash U is drawing to an end, but I do hope that this is the beginning of a lifelong friendship. The graduate student community at Washington University helped to make my graduate career so much more pleasant. Thanks to Martin Battle, Juan Gabriel Gomez Albarello, Tobias Gibson, Chad Haddal, Scott Hendrickson, Rene Lindstaedt, Michael Lynch, Rumel Mahmood, Jason Roberts, Matt Schneider, Marshall Thompson, and Joe Tonon. Special thanks to Ingrid Andersen, Zdravka Brunkova, Ann Collins, Scout Gibson, Frances Henderson, Ana Jacobsen, Stephanie Milton, Celeste Montoya, Yordanka Nedyalkova, Gina Reinhardt, Meg Rincker, Karli Sherwinter, Jen Nicoll Victor, and Jennifer Wistrand for the ladies nights, girl talk, mentoring, and friendship. iii Finally, my most special thanks go to my family. To my parents, Leroy and Cynthia Bell, who have encouraged and supported me from the very beginning. Your love and sacrifices have not gone unnoticed or unappreciated. My grandparents, Dan and Hattie Townsend, provided me a home away from home as a young girl, and allowed me to assert my independence. For this I will always be grateful. Thanks to the entire Townsend, Bell, and Duncan clans for your love and support over the years. Thank you to my new extended family: my mother- and father-in-law, Reginald and Linda Hall have been a wonderful and supportive second set of parents. My sister- and brother-in-law, Regina Hall-Ngorima and Reginald Ngorima, and the rest of the Hall family have also been extremely supportive. And my most precious thanks go to my husband, Brian Geoffrey Hall. More than anyone you have provided me with a sense of perspective throughout this process. Your love, strength, and guidance are unequalled and I could not have done this without you. iv In Loving Memory of my Grandfather, Dan Townsend v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ii List of Tables and Figures viii List of Abbreviations ix Abstract xi Chapter One: Identity Politics and Coalition Possibilities 1 I. Overview and Argument 1 II. Case Selection 4 III. Framework 7 IV. Organization of the Dissertation 12 Chapter Two: Data and Methods 17 I. Methodology 17 II. Data 22 Chapter Three: Theories of Identity and Coalition Politics 25 I. Introduction 25 II. History of Identity and Identity Politics 27 III. Working Definitions of Identity Politics 29 IV. Recent Perspectives on Identity Politics 33 VI. A Working Definition of Identity Politics 45 VI. Recent Perspectives on Coalition Politics 46 VII.