Feminist Movement Building

Feminist Pocketbook

TIP SHEET #10:

Feminist movement building: Taking a long-term view The Coalition of Feminist for Social Change (COFEM), created in 2017 to reassert a feminist perspective in violence against women and girls (VAWG) work, is a collective of activists, academics, and practitioners working globally to end VAWG.

This Tip Sheet is part of COFEM’s Feminist Pocketbook. For access to the full Pocketbook go to: www.cofemsocialchange.org.

Tip Sheet 10 discusses the importance of local and national feminist and women’s movements to catalyse political and transformational change to end gender-based violence (GBV) and promote gender equality. It offers tips for supporting local women’s movements to be at the forefront of efforts to address and end GBV.

Key points • Historically, feminist movements catalysed global efforts to address and prevent gender-based violence (GBV) and promote gender equality. Today, however, mainstream development and humanitarian organisations often lead this work. • Spaces for feminist movements are shrinking, particularly in a development climate of funding scarcity and the push for prioritising projects with measurable, quantifiable impact, even with short-term funding. • When pursued from a feminist foundation, efforts to end GBV and create gender equality are inherently political; they need to remain political to promote transformative change. • For feminist and women’s movements to lead efforts to address and end GBV, we need to ensure that local and national women’s movements are funded and at the forefront of research, programming and decision-making.

What is the issue? this issue to national and global health and hu- Over the past three decades, local, national and man rights policy agendas. Women’s movements international women’s movements have brought also mobilised collective action to shift attitudes GBV into the public domain as a development, and behaviours around GBV, challenge gender public health, international peace and security, inequality at institutional levels, and advocate for and women’s rights issue. This collective, feminist creating environments that foster the achieve- action to improve women’s status highlighted ment of women’s rights. and defined the very concept of ‘violence against women.’ Women’s movements articulated that More recently, we are experiencing shrinking space violence against women and girls (VAWG) links for women’s movements and rights. Mainstream directly to women’s subordination and elevated development and humanitarian organisations Intersectionality and feminist movement building Progressive social movements, including feminist Tip Sheet 1 explains that intersectionality means movements, are not immune to discrimination identifying and challenging diverse and intersect- and inequality. Internal power hierarchies can exist ing power structures. Feminist movements must wherein privileged groups or members dominate explicitly confront internal hierarchies and inequal- the space and exclude the voices of diverse and ities to be genuinely inclusive and representative marginalised women. When only privileged and of diverse women. This means those with privilege powerful groups of women, such as those from the must step back and engage in critical self-reflec- Global North and/or with other privileges, have un- tion across the movement, from individual activists equal influence over agenda setting and action, the to leadership and representation at the movement movement cannot represent or respond adequately level. Feminist movements must amplify the voic- to the needs of all women. This can result in serious es of women who are historically marginalised and harm, for example, when white feminists and activ- support women leaders from diverse backgrounds ists perpetuate colonialist and saviour mindsets that who actively drive changes in their own lives and further oppress and subordinate women of colour. communities.

increasingly lead global efforts to address GBV. ed that the presence of a strong and autonomous These mainstream organisations are well funded feminist movement was the single most important in comparison to local and national women’s or- factor in catalysing action to recognise and address ganisations, but they often lack a political analysis GBV in a country. of gender inequality and GBV. Further, women’s organisations are increasingly missing from critical Further, turning points in history — such as the agenda-setting spaces. Large-scale global meet- #MeToo movement — do not happen in a vac- ings on women’s issues, for example, often do not uum.3 Rather, they are the result of decades of prioritise, or adequately resource, participation for activism and consistent, hard work by women’s ac- civil society organisations. In addition, resource and tivists and movements across the world. Women’s funding scarcity can result in donor and organisa- movements can secure a national response to GBV tions’ failure to take the long-term view of ending grounded in legal protections, accessible services patriarchy in order to end GBV. Instead, most ac- and inclusivity of vulnerable groups. These exam- tors invest and commit to programmes that aim to ples are precisely why we need local and national show tangible and quantifiable results in the short women’s movements at the forefront of research, term, as well as ‘value for money.’ programming and decision-making.

Why does this matter? How to create and sustain feminist Preventing and ending GBV is inherently political movements to improve gender work that requires transforming deeply embedded equality and address GBV patriarchal structures. A major consequence of the Strong feminist movements consist of inter-re- shrinking space for women’s movements is the dilu- lated elements that, together, create greater tion of the political and transformational dimensions gender equality and reduce GBV. Developing and of this work. In response to donors’ and policy-mak- enhancing these key elements can transform the ers’ demands, much GBV programming has become structural drivers and dimensions of gender in- overly premised on technocratic, data-driven, short- equality and GBV: term and quantifiably measurable programming.1 • Grounded in local knowledge: Feminist move- The shift away from long-term investment in local, ments have the capacity to use and promote national and international women’s movements local expertise, knowledge and solutions. Local occurs despite research showing that women’s women and organisations are expert ‘knowers’ movements drive progressive policy and social who understand intimately what women’s lives change around women’s rights. Political scientists are like, what violence looks like in their com- Htun and Weldon’s 2012 global study2 demonstrat- munities, how people talk about violence, and

1 See Tip Sheet 5, Feminist approaches to building knowledge and evidence on GBV. 2 COFEM: Feminist Pocketbook — Tip Sheet 10 — Tip Pocketbook Feminist COFEM: Htun, M. and Weldon, S. L. (2012), The Civic Origins of Progressive Policy Change: Combating Violence against Women in Global Perspective, 1975–2005, American Political Science Review, Vol. 106, No. 3 August. 02 3 See Tip Sheet 3, Connecting gender-based violence, sexual harassment and everyday sexism. Figure 1. Elements of strong feminist movements

Grounded in local knowledge Work to strengthen civil society and feminist networks Led by feminist women

Share knowledge

Align goals

Set the policy agenda

how unequal power between women and men and collective action. Collaborative networks al- is manifested and sustained. This local ‘knowing’ low for holistic action, building on expertise and supports programming, service provision and specialisations across individuals and organisa- advocacy that is appropriate, relevant and safe. tions. Formal and informal networks strengthen and unify the GBV community across diverse • Led by feminist women: Feminist movements geographies and sectors. are made up of individual women leaders with the vision, insight and courage to identify the • Share knowledge: Knowledge-sharing is an complexities, challenges and possibilities to essential part of strong feminist movements. address priority women’s issues in their com- Actors and organisations at all levels need to munities. When diverse groups of women be able to disseminate, receive and learn from mobilise together, they are better able to lead the knowledge generated across anti-violence change and garner widespread support. In- movements. Both local and institutionalised clusive feminist movements are comprised of forms of knowledge need to be widely acces- diverse female leadership, which brings togeth- sible for the variety of women’s rights actors to er different types of resources, creativity and the inform their strategies and work collectively to- power to enable real and innovative solutions. wards progressive change.

• Work to strengthen civil society and feminist • Align goals: Strong feminist movements in- networks: Strong feminist movements drive clude many different actors and organisations social and financial investment towards long- who unite through a common goal and collec- term and sustainable civil society infrastructure. tive strategy. More actors lead to greater support The creation of new organisations, and the toward a common aim, thus increasing the like- strengthening of existing organisations, enables lihood that a movement will achieve its goals. grassroots and local civil society actors to con- Further, articulating a shared vision and action tinually develop and implement GBV initiatives plan maximises scarce resources. COFEM: Feminist Pocketbook — Tip 10 Sheet as social change occurs and contexts change. Feminist movements necessarily involve net- • Set the policy agenda: Strong feminist move- work- and alliance-building among women’s ments mobilise masses of public support for organisations and other groups for coordinated advocacy, activism and making concrete political

Case study: Mama Cash Founded in 1983 in the Netherlands, Mama Cash globally. Grantees are supported to identify their mobilises resources from individuals and institu- own priorities around GBV and are resourced to use tions to fund and support women’s, girls’, trans’ innovative, non-traditional mechanisms and strat- and intersex’s groups through grant-making and egies to achieve their aims. Mama Cash’s unique partnership building. Mama Cash’s work is driven philosophy towards catalysing and growing femi- by the understanding that feminist movements nist movements across the globe contributes to the need to be autonomous and well-funded in order dismantling of structures that create and maintain to defend and advance women’s and human rights GBV. 03 demands. Social movements have the power to variety of mechanisms including lobbying, gen- shape public agendas and mobilise political will erating lawsuits, educating citizens, organising to demand institutional reforms. Feminist move- protests, and establishing large forums or meet- ments can and have influenced policy through a ings for strategising and collective action. Practical tips

Practitioners, researchers, donors to nurture their capacity to design and imple- and policy-makers ment their own activities and agendas.

• Support and centre local women’s rights organ- • Strengthen partnerships and networks and isations already working for gender justice and cultivate a spirit of collective action rather than human rights in all GBV efforts. competition towards creating the multi-faceted and holistic changes needed to address GBV in • Build inclusive alliances, develop shared anal- the long-term. yses and establish common cause across and within movements. Donors and policy-makers • Prioritise the inclusion and empowerment of women from diverse and marginalised • Ensure a policy and funding balance be- backgrounds when engaging with feminist tween short-term technical interventions and movements and women’s rights organisations. longer-term transformative social change approaches that are founded in grassroots activism. Practitioners • Invest in strengthening the capacity of local and • Build capacity, promote leadership devel- grassroots women’s organisations and leaders. opment, centre the voices of marginalised women across feminist platforms, and advocate • Advocate for the bi-directional transfer of for inclusive decision-making and participatory knowledge, skills and other expertise between coordination structures. international organisations and local and national civil society organisations. • Support and centre local women’s rights organisations already working for gender justice and • Promote and facilitate networks and partner- human rights. Share knowledge with them and ship-building among diverse organisations provide material, financial and other resources and actors and across disparate sectors and geographies.

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Suggested citation: Coalition of Feminists for Social Change (COFEM), Feminist movement building: Tak- ing a long-term view, Feminist Pocketbook Tip Sheet www.cofemsocialchange.org 10, 2018.

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COFEM: Feminist Pocketbook — Tip Sheet 10 — Tip Pocketbook Feminist COFEM: COFEM would like to acknowledge the Equality Insti- tute for its role in writing the Feminist Pocketbook and 04 the many COFEM members who contributed to it.