1

Globalization and Feminism

Opportunities and Obstacles for Activism
in the Global Arena

Myra Marx Ferree

Globalization is the word of the decade. In newspapers as well as

scientific journals, globalization is invoked in relation to everything from
moviemaking to unemployment. Much of this discussion implies that
globalization is a wholly new phenomenon, that this is only a top-down
phenomenon that is happening to people rather than also a grassroots
process in which individuals and groups are actively engaged, and that
there is nothing particularly gendered about it. This book arises from our
conviction that none of these three assumptions are true.
A variety of sociological statistics at the macro level suggest the extent
of global integration of the early twenty-first century is more like that of
the 1910s than of the 1950s. For example, in 1910 levels of global trade
measured by imports and exports and of human interconnection in the
form of immigration and transnational organizations were at levels very
similar to those we experience today. Two violent world wars and a long
cold war reduced these international ties to their low point in the 1950s
and 1960s. It may be more accurate to see the end of the cold war as
allow ing the tide to turn back toward greater global interaction in 2000-
2010.
To be sure, many linkages between states and across national bound
aries have been created only relatively recently. The European Union is
one of the most spectacular of these current experiments in reshaping the
meaning of sovereignty, but the African Union (as Melinda Adams shows
here) is also an important regional form of integration. These pacts follow
in the footsteps of other, older links such as the World Council of
4 MYRA MARX FERREE fundamentalisms, as well as the more

Churches and the United Nations that continue to be important. Such

continuing global associations should be understood in the context of
other, now-obsolete efforts to integrate political and economic life across
national borders, be it the Warsaw Pact or the British colonial system.
The commitments, perspectives, and processes that connect the globe
today are different in interesting ways from what has gone before, but
they are not unprecedented in their scope or consequences, including their
facilita tion of feminist organization. Comparing 2005 to 1955 and 1905
suggests that feminist mobilization has always been increased by greater
globaliza tion.
One way in which global integration today does differ from that of
the past is the extent to which it involves ordinary citizens and social
move ments, not merely governments and elites. Despite the typical
assumption that globalization is a massive force bearing down on
helpless populations, to look at the actual process is to see a great
variety of social actors including many who are not educational or
political elites-engaging in diverse types of integrative work. Social
movements of many kinds are finding a voice, alongside more
privileged actors such as states and corpo rations. Certainly there are
structures and processes at work here that are far larger than any one
individual, group, or even state can control, but this has always been
characteristic of the world since the age of global nav igation and the
emergence of industrialization. What is more striking in the present
moment is the intersection of the global with the local, and the
expansion of popular, decentralized, and democratic forms of
interpreting and responding to the top-down challenges posed by a
world economy.
Moreover, rather than a hierarchical colonial world system or the duel
ing blocs of the cold war, the reconfiguration of the world order is arising
today from multiple locations and pulling in diverse directions. Because
"the West" is no longer held together by its anticommunist mobilization,
Europe and the United States are discovering new tensions and
differences in their relationship. The "third world" is no longer merely
defined by its history of colonization but by its own diversity, regionally,
economically, and politically. Democratic India and authoritarian
Pakistan, prosperous Singapore and economically ravaged Zimbabwe all
came into the twenti eth century as part of the British Empire, but they
enter the twenty-first century with very different concerns. World bodies
such as the UN are faced with new conflicts that include citizens
challenging their national governments for democratic participation,
ethnic conflicts within states, and gender conflicts fed by religious
 Globalization and Feminism 5

familiar tensions among national and class interests. Globalization is

today as much about the multiplicity of centers of power as it is
about increases in their interrelationship.
From these diverse local centers, a variety of nongovernmental
groups are engaging in the complex process of political renegotiation
that hides under the label of globalization. Social movements like
Attac, an interna tional mobilization for democratic control of
financial markets and their institutions that was founded in France in
1998, raise questions about the justice of international debt
management and call for a "Tobin tax" (a fee placed on economic
transactions to help defray the costs of development). Such groups are
listened to by governments from Iceland to South Africa, although
they are less well known in the United States. The World Social
Forum connects social justice activists globally, allowing for a sharing
of tactics and resources. Democracy movements in Ukraine, China,
and Syria have used both mass media and Internet connectivity to
draw popular support from abroad in struggles with their own
governments. Globaliza tion is also a form of political mobilization,
and this grassroots involve ment is also growing in scope and
significance in many parts of the world. Among the social actors most
mobilized in the context of global oppor tunity structures are women's
movements worldwide. We emphasize that women's global
mobilization is neither something wholly new and unprecedented nor
unconnected to the variety of local and regional con flicts that are part
of the process of reshaping the world system. Gender is very much a
part of the structure of the social order globally. Gender is therefore
also part of what is being remade in the current reconfiguration of
power relations. As with other aspects of this global reorganization,
this restructuring involves women and men in a variety of local and
transna tional settings. Some of these women's movements are
feminist, but others
are not.
This book looks at this diverse and contested process called
globaliza tion from the vantage point of feminism and women's
movements. This chapter has three specific goals and sections. First,
I offer a conceptual def inition of both feminism and women's
movements, and an argument about why it is important to
distinguish between them. Second, I discuss the transnational
opportunity structure that affects how even local femi nists act, and I
raise some questions about what its most promising and most
dangerous features may be. Third, I present an overview of the chap
ters that follow and discuss why they offer important and
complementary insights into how the process of globalization matters
for feminism.
6 MYRA MARX FERREE
Globalization and Feminism 7

Feminism and Women's

Because feminism challenges all of gender relations, it also addresses
Movements: A Difference That
those norms and processes of gender construction and oppression that
Makes a Difference
differen tially advantage some women and men relative to others, such as
devalu ing "sissy" men or the women who do care work for others. There
Although some scholars use the terms "feminism" and "women's move
is no claim being made that one or another particular aspect of gender
ment" interchangeably, this usage creates certain problems. In some con
rela tions, be it paid work or sexuality, motherhood or militarization, is
texts, it makes it seem doubtful that men can be feminists, since how can
the best, most "radical;' or most authentic feminism. Feminism as a goal
they be members of a "woman's movement"? In other contexts it can can be adopted by individuals of any gender, as well as by groups with
seem problematic to apply the label "feminist" to activist women, whether any degree of institutionalization, from informal, face-to-face, temporary
because they refuse to use this term for themselves or because the associations to a legally constituted national or transnational governing
women's movement in which they are engaged has other goals, even ones body.
in opposi tion to any change toward greater gender equality. When
Feminist activists and activism typically are embedded in
women mobilize, as they do, to pursue a wide variety of interests, are all
organizations and institutions with multiple goals. To have a feminist goal
such "women's movements" automatically to be considered feminist?
is in no way inconsistent with having other political and social goals as
To make clearer just what kinds of activism are feminist, it is helpful to well. The ques tion of where feminism stands on the list of priorities of
separate this concept from that of a women's movement. Organizing any individual or group is an empirical one. It is not true by definition that
women explicitly as women to make social change is what makes a a person or group that calls itself feminist necessarily puts this particular
"women's movement." It is defined as such because of the constituency goal in first place, since in practice it could be discovered to be displaced
being organized, not the specific targets of the activists' change efforts at by other val ues (such as achieving or redistributing power or wealth,
any particular time. The movement, as an organizational strategy, defending racial privilege, or fighting racial discrimination). Nor is it true
addresses its constituents as women, mothers, sisters, daughters. By using by definition that a person or group that does not call itself feminist does
the language of gender, it constructs women as a distinctive interest not have fem inist goals, since the identity can carry other connotations in
group, even when it may define the interests that this group shares as a local set ting (whether of radicalism or exclusivity or cultural difference)
diverse and not necessarily centered on gender. Naming "women" as a that an activist may seek to avoid by choosing another label.
constituency to be mobilized and building a strategy, organization, and
These two definitions together generate a dynamic picture of both fem
politics around issues defined as being particularly "women's" concerns
inism and women's movements. On the one hand, women's movements
are the two factors that make a women's movemerrt, not a statistical head are mobilizations understood to be in a process of flux in which feminism
count of the gender of the membership, though typically women are the may be becoming mo e or less of a priority issue for them. Regardless of
activists in such movements. This definition of "women's movement" their goals, mobilizations that use gender to mobilize women are likely to
explicitly recognizes that many mobilizations of women as women start bring their constituents into more explicitly political activities, empower
out with a non-gen der-directed goal, such as peace, antiracism, or social women to challenge limitations on their roles and lives, and create net
justice, and only later develop an interest in changing gender relations. works among women that enhance their ability to recognize existing gen
Activism for the purpose of challenging and changing women's subor der relations as oppressive and in need of change. Thus the question of
dination to men is what defines "feminism." Feminism is a goal, a target when and how women's movements contribute to increases in feminism is
for social change, a purpose informing activism, not a constituency or a a meaningful one.
strategy. Feminist mobilizations are informed by feminist theory, beliefs, On the other hand, feminism circulates within and among movements,
and practices, but they may take place in a variety of organizational con takes more or less priority among their goals, and may generate new
texts, from women's movements to positions within governments. Femi social movements, including women's movements. Successful feminist
nism as a goal often informs all or part of the agenda of mixed-gender mobiliza tion creates more places and spaces for feminism to accomplish
organizations such as socialist, pacifist, and democratization movements. its aims,
8 MYRA MARX FERREE Globalization and Feminism 9

within movements and within institutional power structures. Thus, for global capitalism, and associating the alternative values and social rela
example, feminism can percolate into organized medicine, where activists tions with women and women-led groups. To define feminism in a way
may then construct women's movement associations of doctors, nurses, or that limits its applicability only to those mobilizations that exclusively
patients, develop new tools to recognize and treat illnesses that affect focus on challenging women's subordination to men would exclude both
women and men differently, and make institutions deliver services more these types of feminism.
appropriately to women in their communities. Feminist mobilizations When analysts do this, they discover that the groups that are left to
often intersect with other forms of transformative struggles. Activists study are typically mobilizations of relatively privileged women who are
orig inally inspired by feminism may expand their goals to challenge seeking access to the opportunities provided by social, political, and eco
racism, colonialism, and other oppressions, and activists with other nomic institutions to men of their nationality, class, race, ethnicity, and
primary agen das may be persuaded to adopt feminism as one of their religion.1 The middle-class, white, Western bias observed in studies of
objectives, espe cially as feminist activists show them how mutually "feminism" is at least in part a result of such an inappropriately narrow
supportive all these goals may be. Thus, it is also a meaningful question and static definition of the object of study ("feminism"). Defining femi
to ask how feminism contributes to creating and expanding social nism should not be confounded with other criteria such as the preferred
movements, including women's movements. constituency addressed (women or both genders), the organizational form
As a consequence of both these processes, feminism and women's preferred (social movement, community group, state or transnational
movements dynamically affect each other. In this set of changing authority), the strategy pursued (working inside or outside institutions,
relations, to restrict analysis to only those temporary phases in which more or less collectively, with transgressive or demonstrative protest
women's movements have chosen to focus exclusively on challenging activ ities or not), or the priority feminism takes in relation to other goals
gender subor dination or seeking equality with men of their own group (antiracism, environmentalism, pacifism, neoliberalism, etc.). Feminists
marginalizes the ongoing intersectional elements of both. Distinguishing do many different things in real political contexts in order to accomplish
between femi nism and women's movements, and then relating them their goals, and working in and through women's movements can be very
empirically, moves the multiplicity of constituencies and dynamic important strategically. But especially when trying to see just how femi
changes in goals among activists "from margin to center" among the nism as a goal is being advanced in and through a variety of transnational
questions for analysis. When and why do women's movements embrace strategies, it becomes self-defeating to presuppose that only women's
feminist goals-and when not? When and why do feminists choose to work movements can be the carriers of feminism.
in women's movements rather than in mixed-gendered ones or Moreover, by stressing how feminism as a goal is characteristically
policymaking institutions-and when not? When and why do com bined with other goals .and making its relative priority a question
democratization, peace, or economic justice movements make feminism open to empirical examination, this approach more readily looks at the
part of their agenda-and when not? These are important questions that influence of the transnational opportunity structure upon both feminism
can only be asked, let alone answered, if there is a clear definitional and women's movements. "Political opportunity structure" (POS) is the
distinction between feminism and women's movements. The scope of pre ferred term among scholars interested in the positive opportunities
feminist theory and its overall social critique is also obscured if the and the obstacles provided by a specific political and social structure.
difference between feminism and women's move ments is not made Global ization is made concretely meaningful by seeing it as a process
explicit. For some feminists, feminism means simulta neously combating that increases the importance and level of integration of transnational
other forms of political and social subordination, since for many women, political structures. At this transnational level, the POS can vary
embracing the goal of equality with the men of their class, race, or nation substantially from that provided at the local level alone. Thus Zapatista
would mean accepting a still-oppressed status. For some feminists, rebels reach out through the Internet for support from people and groups
feminism means recognizing ways in which male-domi nated institutions spread around the world to counter the repressive power exercised locally
have promoted values fundamentally destructive for all people, such as by the Mexican government.
militarism, environmental exploitation, or competitive
10 MYRA MARX FERREE Globalization and Feminism 11

The transnational opportunity structure is a political context that effective strategies to make feminist social change, including sometimes
seems open to feminism, particularly as it takes up the discourses of building women's movements.
human rights and development, as Pietila argues in her chapter. What
other goals are combined with feminism in which local contexts, and how
does that help or hinder these ideas to travel transnationally? For Transnational Opportunity Structures: Looking for Levers to
example, if feminism is connected to the defense of class privilege, and Move the World
upper-mid dle-class women's ability to enter the paid labor market is
given priority over migrant women's ability to earn a living wage by their Women's movements are far from the only tools that feminists have taken
domestic work, then feminism is not going to be an appealing identity for up to try to challenge and change male domination. Globalization in the
those who do not already enjoy economic advantages. sense of integration means speedy flows of ideas across great distances.
The intersectionality of social movements characterizes them and This has contributed to the sharing of strategies that also reach beyond
shapes how they position themselves in the transnational arena in which classic women's movements, protest demonstrations, and projects. Three
they operate. Interst:ctionality means that privilege and oppression, and groups of strategies for making feminist change have spread like wildfire
movements to defend and combat these relations, are not in fact singular. through the wo ld system: developing a "women's policy machinery"
No one has a gender but not a race, a nationality but not a gender, an edu within state institutions, building an issue advocacy network outside of
cation but not an age. The location of people and groups within relations formal institutions, and developing women's movement practices that are
of production, reproduction, and representation (relations that are orga knowledge-creating, many of which link policy machineries with
nized worldwide in terms of gender inequality) is inherently multiple. advocacy networks to multiply political effectiveness. None of these is
These multiple social locations are often-not, as is often assumed, atypi without its problematic aspects in the transnational system.
cally-contradictory. Organizations as well as individuals hold multiple First, women's policy machinery has now been put in place in most
positions in regard to social relations of power and injustice, and typically countries of the world, nearly all of which has come into existence since
enjoy privilege on some dimensions even while they struggle with oppres the first UN Conference on Women in Mexico City in 1975. Such policy
sion on another. This multiplicity and the contradictions to which it gives machinery includes specific national, local, or regional administrative
rise are rarely acknowledged theoretically. As Ferree and Roth (1998) structures that are targeted to women as a politically relevant group.
argue, scholars of social movements have instead tended to construct Women's policy machinery includes ministries of women's affairs, agen
ideal-typical movements, envisioning these as composed of ideal-typical cies charged with "mainstreaming" gender perspectives into policy and/or
constituents: thus "worker's" movements are imagined as organizations of bringing women into administrative positions, and programs designed to
and for white men, "nationalist" movements as of and for indigenous ensure that women receive a certain share of seats in elected and/or
men, "feminist" movements as of and for white, middle-class women. 2 appointed bodies, from parliaments to corporate boards of directors.
The reality is of course, much more complex, but it only emerges clearly Women's policy machinery, unlike a women's movement, is formally
when the goals and constituents of movements are acknowledged as dis embedded in state or transnational structures that have institutionalized
tinct. authority. Policy machineries differ widely in their form and
In sum, this book approaches feminism as one important goal of social effectiveness, from the old but weak and bureaucratically low-level
change. It asks the question of how feminism is being related to women's Women's Bureau in the U.S. Department of Labor to the Ministry for
movements and other organizational strategies that are being pursued Women's Affairs in France.3
locally and in transnational spaces, as well as to the various other goals Women's policy machinery is a mechanism by which gender inequality
that specific women and men have when they engage in social and politi can be addressed, but it offers no guarantee that this is how it will be
cal activities. And it looks especially at globalization as a process that is used. The competing goals of those who occupy the positions that this
potentially empowering as well as disempowering women as they look for machin ery creates as well as the different interests of those to whom they
are
12 MYRA MARX FERREE Globalization and Feminism 13

accountable-typically authorities above them as well as constituents can be transnational in membership (individuals and groups not repre
below-make for a mixed picture of what the machinery could produce. senting nations but belonging regardless of nationality).
The term "policy machinery" itself is one that arose within administrative NGOs are also linked in wider transnational networks around certain
elites and diffused among activists, but it is not a bad image to use in con issues and values, as Keck and Sikkink (1998) pointed out, and
sidering the consequences of these structural innovations. Rather than coordinate the pressure the groups bring on national governments, as
achieving feminist goals by the very fact of their existence, they are tools, Swider shows here in the case of migrant and labor groups in Hong Kong
like levers, that require active use-there needs to be pressure put on the and Bagic shows with regard to NGOs operating in the former
lever for it to budge anything within the system of male power. Paradoxi Yugoslavia. Such net works are thus becoming potentially powerful
cally, sometimes the creation of women's policy machinery seems to be transnational actors in their own right. Rather than one unitary principle
mistaken for an end in itself or a substitution for active mobilization to of feminism being the basis for networking, as the International Council
exert pressure for change, and thus in practice can lead to demobilization of Women adopted at the beginning of the last century, the actual political
by the women's movements that helped to create them. Chapters in this work of such NGOs and networks is differentiated and issue-specific. The
book focus attention on the emergence and use of women's policy flexibility and issue focus of networks on specific problems, from the
machinery in the UN (Snyder) and in the nation-states of Europe access of women to scientific professions to the work conditions of
(McBride and Mazur) and of Africa (Adams). migrant domestic workers or female genital cutting, makes them
Second, globalization has facilitated the emergence of feminism as a politically able to span a wider range of activist groups. Paradoxically,
goal in a wide variety of issue advocacy networks active at the transna while feminism has entered a great many of these networks, the very
tional level. Overtly feminist discourse is heard in a variety of nongovern variety of their goals fragments feminist attention and makes women's
mental organizations that operate across national borders, working on a movements as such seem exclusionary, overly broad, and less attractive
huge variety of issues from HIV/AIDS to literacy to economic restructur forms of mobilization. Networks instead tend to com bine paid
ing, and in contexts as different as the World Bank and the World Social professionals and unpaid local activists, men and women, inside and
Forum. Gender equity as a principle has been taken up in networks con outside of government, and in many countries.
cerned with health, peace, and social justice, as well as in networks orga Global terrorism and "national security" are also increasingly recog
nized directly to deal with issues seen as especially affecting women, nized as being intertwined and gendered issues. This feminist concern can
such as trafficking in human beings, prostitution and other forms of sex take the form of considering how religious fundamentalism, control over
work, and the use of genetic and reproductive technologies. women's bodies, national identity, and male pride and privilege are being
Many of these issues cut across national boundaries, and the networks negotiated and renegotiated in diverse transnational as well as national
constructed to deal with them are not organized as much on the basis of settings. Both fundamentalists (Christian, Islamic, Jewish, and Hindu) and
nationality as was true of their predecessors in the early twentieth century. those who challenge them are linked in networks that may include state as
A typical organization of a hundred years ago was "inter-national" in the well as nonstate actors. Among the interesting questions that this increas
sense of multiple national organizations belonging to a coordinating ingly global conflict raises is how and when feminist principles become
umbrella organization to which each national member group sent repre co-opted in the national interests of either liberal modernist states or reli
sentatives. By contrast, in a world today characterized by Internet gious fundamentalism.
linkages, cheap airfares, and widespread telephone service, more fluid In 'the cold war era, the communist states co-opted the idea of
networks made up of individuals and organizations from many parts of women's liberation as an accomplishment of state socialism, which
the world actually interacting with each other more routinely can allowed the communist countries to divert attention from the ways in
supplement or even supplant the conventional, hierarchical styles of which women in fact were far from liberated under their regimes, on the
international non governmental organizing. NGOs are ever more diverse one hand, and on the other hand placed Western countries in the position
in their form and of resisting feminism as godless, antifamily, and a threat to (Western)
civilization.
14 MYRA MARX FERREE
Globalization and Feminism 15

Interestingly enough, in the current global "war on terror" rhetoric it is d through the active participation of feminists engaged in knowledge
the Western democracies that attempt to co-opt feminism as one of their opeduction work in their own countries and transnationally. These ideas
pro h ,
greatest accomplishments. The oppression of women is framed as reli then become part of the shared language and competences t at womens
gious, family-based, and a threat to (Western) civilization, which is now ovements and women's policy machineries in many countries adopt and
defined as the champion of secular modernity and the value of equal muse. Conferences organized on a trans- national basis in and. across ma. ny
rights for all. Diverting attention from the way that women continue to be . ciplines offer social support to women to keep them actively pursumg
dIB .
far from liberated in Western capitalist democracies is one discursive feminist goals in their scholarship and carrying their theory out mto pra_c-
accomplishment of this strategy, and if it succeeds, it could be a demobi tice with activist groups and transnational networks. Knowledge and its
lizing factor for feminist women's movements. creation become a sustaining aspect of the work of making feminist
Thus the strategic use of transnational networks has both a material change, and this work especially blurs the distinctions among th?se in
side in the flow of resources and support for issues they spread globally pol icy machinery, in movements, in social service'. and in acader u .
across national borders and a discursive side in the way that issues are Evalua tion research accompanies social change proJects, and fem1mst
framed and conflicts organized on a global level. The concrete work of theory
building and supporting networks as a way of working on feminist inter informs statistical data collection.
ests is explored in this book by looking at issue-based networks bring All over the world, women's associations fund and conduct studies,
resources to women's movements in the former Yugoslavia (Bagic) and dis- seminate reports, encourage discussion, and train researchers and
labor organizers in Hong Kong (Swider). The relationship offeminism to policy makers to develop greater awareness of gender inequities and
issues of religion, identity, social justice, and economic development is greater commitment to redressing them. Lobbying, monitoring, funding
also examined in both Turkey (Ertiirk) and Finland (Pietila), as women's demon stration projects, assessing best practices, and encouraging new
movements attempt to deal with the challenges of fundamentalism, networks are all activities in which feminist women's movements are
neoliberalism, and ethnic conflict on a global scale. increasingly engaged as they become more institutionalized as policy
The third lever with which feminists have tried to change the world is relevant actors in
with knowledge-creation strategies. Women's movements have been pro their own right.
lific producers of "new words" to name old problems from sexual harass Knowledge work links policymakers and social movements, serving as a
ment, acquaintance rape, wife beating, the double day/shift, and the nanny powerful strategy for spreading feminism. But feminist ideas can spread
chain. Women's movements have been important places for the develop without any accompanying feminist identity. Feminist women's move
ment of transnational feminist theory and identity, creating the free spaces ments struggle to create and sustain feminist identities that women will
that foster ideological innovation and strategic inventions, like the find meaningful for themselves, and through such identities, movements
women's policy machinery of the 1990s and the shelters for battered give meaning to even the losing battles that they fight. As crucibles of
women of the 1980s. Creating the space to produce new feminist analyses identity, community, and commitment for feminists, women's movements
of gender and of gender systems' effects on both women and men, the can play a critical role in sustaining activism across time (generations)
many national women's movements and the journals, magazines, and and space (geography). However, feminist women's movements do not
women's studies programs to which they gave rise have developed just provide the sometimes-comfortable homes where valiant feminists
feminist theory. As McBride and Mazur indicate for Europe, and Ferree can return and refresh themselves but are themselves at times sites of
and Pudrovska show for the World Wide Web, these new ideas are now tremen
moving in a transnational space. dous diversity and conflict.
Conferences share this knowledge, none more spectacularly than the Thus the decline in popular mobilization in the form of autonomous
1995 Beijing Fourth Women's World Conference and NGO Forum. Ideas feminist women's movement organizations and mass demonstrations can
such as "gender mainstreaming" and "gender budgeting" become <level- be partly attributed to the crucible for conflict that they can offer. Femi
nist identity is a highly charged and much-debated concept, and for some
networks and organizations it may be more convenient and effective to
simply avoid the issue. But the heat of conflict in feminist women's
move-
16 MYRA MARX FERREE
Globalization and Feminism 17

ments has also been accompanied by the light of developing feminist the
transnational cooperation over issues of development highlights the
ory and the warmth of a feminist community in times of struggle. If femi
important role that the UN itself played in creating the venues (from con
nism becomes so diffused in networks and policy institutions that
ferences to committees) where fruitful interaction could occur. Unlike
women's movements themselves fade out as an active part of the picture,
McBride and Mazur, who see movements as the actors and political insti
there paradoxically might emerge a time in which we have feminism
tutions as their targets, Snyder highlights the way the programs and prior
with out feminists. In this book, feminist identity is considered both as a
ities of the UN affected women's movements, and in some ways even
trans versal, linking strategy (Yuval-Davis) and as a contested and much
could be said to have created the transnational movement that we now
avoided term (Ferree and Pudrovska). The specific knowledge and frames
observe. Because the UN's structures give political voice to otherwise
for issues that women's movements have developed have spread, often
weak states and perspectives, the concerns of women from the global
from the "bottom up" from local movements in the global South to
South could be brought to the attention of more privileged women and
transnational networks and state institutions in the affluent countries of
raise their consciousness. Similar to what Sarah Swider shows at a local
the North, raising issues of control for those still in local settings (Tripp)
level in Hong Kong, the structure of representation makes an enormous
and highlighting the danger of not taking differences seriously into ac
difference in just whose concerns are heard and how the overall agenda is
count (Yuval-Davis).
set at this global level. Peg Snyder argues that the UN structures were
suitable to be actively used to create empowerment opportunities for
women, a clear case of co-opting and changing the UN as an institution,
Global Feminism, Situated Activism: Perspectives on Power
as well as making it a "godmother" to a variety of local feminist
and Social Change
initiatives. Tripp then takes up this theme to spell out the ways that local
women's movements seized the chances thus created. She argues that the
Although the present wave of globalization is different than the one that
UN forums and resources offered more than a "boomerang" to influence
crested in the early twentieth century, some questions about the relation
gender politics at the national level, instead creating a truly transnational
ships among feminism, women's movements, and globalization persist.
opportunity structure. One of the key contributions of this transnational
How can women's movements manage the challenges of diversity, of gen
POS was in allowing local activists of the global South the opportunity to
erational succession, and of organizational institutionalization that are
challenge and change the perspectives and priorities of the North.
posed by becoming a more fragmented field ofspecial interest groups that
The next part of the book addresses the concrete ways in which femi
share a concern with women's equal rights but differ in so many other
nist challenges are met in specific movements and networks that operate
regards? How can the inequality of resources around the world be used to
on this modern transnational terrain. The purpose of these chapters col
create constructive flows of support? What conditions foster democratic
lectively is to indicate how the world-traveling concept of feminism
participation transnationally and build solidarity for addressing problems
meets the needs of local women's movements-or, as is often the case, does
not one's own? These are the types of issues that the chapters of this book
not. As Tripp's contribution here suggests, in these chapters the
address as they situate feminism in its current transnational context.
transnational level is taken as an opportunity structure that allows for but
Just as this chapter offers a theoretical orientation to the issues facing
does not insist on positive uses of transnational resources in local settings
feminists and women's movements globally, Margaret (Peg) Snyder
and cre ates spaces for locally based ideas to be taken up by other actors.
offers an empirical perspective on how the UN facilitated the emergence
Yakin Ertiirk has a particularly valuable perspective to offer on this
of both feminism and women's movements worldwide. As the longtime
question, bringing together her years at the Division for the Advancement
director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women
of Women at the UN and her teaching and administrative experience in
(UNIFEM), Snyder has a perspective on networking that comes from
higher education in largely secular and democratic Turkey and in funda
inside the policy machinery, specifically from her decades of work inside
mentalist, authoritarian Saudi Arabia to consider the various meanings
the UN. Her view of how feminist NGOs gradually changed and were
that transnational Islamicist mobilization can have for women. Focusing
changed through their
 18 MYRA MARX FERREE
Globalization and Feminism 19

on the experiences of women in relation to the changing fortunes of the

of feminist politics in practice than a shining example of transnational
Islamicist political party in Turkey, she argues that both (un)veiling as a
understanding and organizing.
symbol and women's movements as a form of politics need to be seen in a Hilkka Pietila takes advantage of her years of experience in women's
historical context to understand their feminist implications. Rather than development politics in the UN and in transnational bodies coordinating
forcing them into universalist categories, Ertiirk indicates the open-ended women's international agenda setting to raise some questions about the
negotiations of identity conducted by women through a diversity of nature of these transnational agendas in an era of militarization and
women's movement organizations. But she also places these in the context neoliberal economics. She uses the example of Finland as a state that was
of a global mobilization of fundamentalist Islam that has put pressure on relatively rural, poor, and "underdeveloped" until a few decades ago to
politicians and movements in Turkey and the equally transnational pres suggest what a constructive agenda for development would be. In her
sures arising from Turkey's desire to enter the European Union, where view, gender and development are strongly intertwined, and women's
gender equality is treated as a test of human rights. movements have a key role to play in directing this development toward
Sarah Swider then takes up the way that transnational support can peace and social justice. The UN, rather than the EU, provides a model in
matter for women's practical organizing by looking at the innovative mul her view for how women's policy machinery and knowledge-production
tilevel association that migrant domestic workers formed in Hong Kong. work can be directed in fruitful lines. Economic and social development
Using resources drawn from transnational NGOs concerned with migrant for the nation-state becomes a process of building capabilities among the
rights and local resources that support union organizing, the Filipina poor rather than competition among the rich. As Pietila conceptualizes it,
majority among domestic workers and the more disadvantaged Indone this sort of national development and women's rights are dual engines for
sian and Thai women migrant workers built a network of associations that women's empowerment. She argues the two women's movements in Fin
gave nationalities representation and offered grassroots-level support ser land complemented each other successfully because each chose one such
vices for each ethnic/national community. Unlike the conventional labor agenda to emphasize, and suggests that women's mobilizations globally
union structure that collapsed based on differences in interests among the might be wise to create a similar division of labor today.
women, this multilevel "women's economic association" had the structural In the next part, the book moves from the organizations that pursue
ability to accommodate minority perspectives. It mobilized the migrant feminist goals to the contexts in which they now operate. Rather than
domestic workers to protect themselves from state cutbacks in maternity looking at specific local groups that have been more or less successful on
benefits and to fight for equal pay across divisive lines of nationality, thus the terrain created by global connectivity, these chapters focus on where
striking the balance between universal rights and specific needs that Nira and how new political opportunities are being created and used. In differ
Yuval-Davis later associates with successful transversal politics. ent parts of the world, diverse transnational mechanisms are emerging as
Aida Bagic also focuses on the question of how transnational support
important.
and national differences in a locality can aid or interfere with women's The African Union as a source for transnational standards for gender
movement organizing. Looking at the support that transnational donors equality is the focus of Melinda Adams's chapter. Adams focuses on the
channeled to women's NGOs in the late 1990s, she shows how donor pref regional level, one that is often overlooked and undervalued in
erences followed media attention to what were defined as the characteris discussions of global integration. Her model makes clear that women's
tic problems of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia, and movements in Africa have built up their own NGO networking, similar to
Montenegro. The women's NGOs in these post-Yugoslav states responded that found in Latin America, and these movements drew on transnational
to donor preferences as well as local needs in setting their own priorities, resources to lay a groundwork for a transnational policy machinery in the
thus developing sometimes stereotypical national profiles for organiza African Union. At the regional level, the African Union, the NGO
tions. Although the women's NGO scene flourished in the western feminist policy networks, and the universities and research institutes
Balkans, her case study provides more of a cautionary tale about the limits producing feminist knowledge are clearly active and effective.
Autonomous, rather than state-
 20 M Y R A M A R X F E R R E E
Globalization and Feminism 21

led, women's organizations were the real motors for change in this part of
the world, and their lobbying of AU politicians has produced regional cerned with the problems and policies stemming directly from the enor
level political commitment to feminist policymaking. How well these mous expansion of the European Union. How well they either do
aspi rations translate into national policy or local women's lives remains outreach into other parts of the world or draw global attention to the
to be seen, especially as local-level political policymaking can be more feminist
corrupt or conflict-ridden than the AU itself. political experiments d ne in and throu h- the_ U as a_ n :': type of
transnational body remams to be seen. But 1t 1s striking, as P1et1la suggests,
Dorothy McBride and Amy Mazur ask how women's movements and
that the UN-sponsored agenda seems to diverge from the EU-sponsored
women's policy machineries are faring in Western Europe, where they are
confronting a new transnational space created by the formation of the one among nongovernmental women's groups in different parts of the
European Union. The notion of institutionalizing feminist policy machin world.
In the final part of the book, the chapters address the continuing prob
ery is itself novel, but while this is a strategy that is widespread in Europe
lems facing activists who are attempting to work on the transnational
(unlike the United States) today, the type and degree of institutionaliza
level and begin to suggest strategies for constructively dealing with them.
tion achieved varies between countries. By tracking policy outputs that
Nira Yuval-Davis traces the historical movement of feminism from an
can be defined as feminist, and associating them with variations in the
exclu sionary version of "identity politics" that privileged the definitions
level of mobilization of different types of groups and strategies for work
of the most powerful to a "transversal" version of feminist identity that is
ing in and outside of the state structure, McBride and Mazur lay a frame
dialog ical and reflexive. Based on her work in Britain, in Israel/Palestine,
work for understanding what makes feminist politics effective. As leading
and among transnational feminist groups that are mobilizing against
figures in the transnational feminist research group Research Network on
religious fundamentalists, she highlights the potential for transversal
Gender Politics and the State (RNGS), they have helped to develop the
feminist iden tity to contribute to building awareness and support for
kind of feminist knowledge-producing strategy that can directly inform
human rights across ethnic and political lines of conflict. She argues that
not only policy makers but also activists. Their view of the political oppor
both the uni versalism claimed by the left and the identity politics of
tunity structure for feminists highlights the way that policy issues and
feminists and oth ers have hardened lines of conflict that can be softened
strategies for addressing them spread because of the actions of specific
women's movements. by dialogue that crosses borders both horizontally and vertically
(transversally). "Rooting" arguments in one's own experience while
Myra Marx Ferree and Tetyana Pudrovska look at the tool that is most
"shifting" to encompass the views of the other is crucial to this transversal
seen as characterizing the new phase of globalization, the Internet, to see
process, but in this chapter, Yuval-Davis draws out the specific obstacles
how transnational women's organizations make use of Web pages to pub
that stand in the way of achieving this. She uses the discourse around
licly define themselves and their agenda. As part of the global opportunity
"human rights" to illustrate some of the less than id al ways that feminist
structure, the World Wide Web allows groups to connect without direct
identities and goals enter into dialogue across borders.
physical presence, on the one hand, or the intervention of the media and
Finally, Aili Mari Tripp's chapter concludes by reframing the themes
its priorities, on the other. Thus group Web pages offer a public but
of human rights discourse and transversal strategy that Yuval-Davis lays
unmediated look at the group identities. Using Web sites from groups
out theoretically as being issues of practical interrelationships among
based in different parts of the world, Ferree and Pudrovska argue that
femi nists in and outside of women's movements around the world. How
these identities are still regionally specific as well as transnationally con
can feminist networks really work more fairly and effectively to
nected. The North-South connections that Snyder discusses as so effective
incorporate the voices of the most affected women? What strategies of
at the level of organizational development and face-to-face contacts in the
organization and representation allow for the most democratic ways of
UN setting appear to be similarly important in the virtual world of Web
shaping a femi nist agenda inside and across transnational organizations?
based identities. The transnational women's organizations of Europe stand
When are women's movements from privileged settings using too much
somewhat aside from this North-South axis of dialogue and seem con-
of their financial and logistical power to shape the agenda of
policymakers and women's organizations in developing countries, and
when are they valu-
22 MYRA MARX FERREE
Globalization and Feminism 23

able allies in pressing for human rights and social justice? Using concrete stituents can be theoretically known by analysts with access to the "correct"
cases of difficult-and sometimes failed-feminist efforts to cooperate, under standing of the social structure, but instead works from the idea that
Tripp presents practical politics as an arena needing more than good interests, constituents, and movements all need to be socially constructed. See
intentions from participants to make effective cooperation possible. Ferree and Mueller 2004 for a more developed discussion of this point.
Although Tripp points to the serious problems that have arisen in specific 3. See the discussion of this process especially in Europe in McBride Stetson
cases, she argues that the overall trajectory has been one of greater inclu and Mazur's Comparative State Feminism (1995).
sion, responsiveness, and respect for others.
In Tripp's accounting, as well as in many of the specific case studies in
the previous parts, the issue of representation for the least advantaged BIBLIOGRAPHY
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represen tation of voices from the global South has reoriented the entire Chafetz, Janet S., and Anthony G. Dworkin. 1986. Female Revolt: Women's Move
women's movement. The presence (or absence) of organizational ment in World and Historical Perspective. Totawa, N.J.: Rowman and Allanheld.
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and the transna tional intersect to give women the opportunity to represent (Collective identity and organizational culture: An American perspective on the
themselves politically is critical. The new frameworks of the African new social movements):' Forschungsjournal Neue Soziale Bewegungen 11:
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its agencies for women and for development, as Adams, Pietila, McBride Women's Movement: A Global Perspective:' In D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule, and
H. Kriesi, eds., The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. Malden, Mass.:
and Mazur, and Ferree and Pudrovska suggest. When and how women
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Gluck, Sherna Berger. 1998. "Whose Feminism, Whose History:' In N. A. Naples,
as at regional, national, and local levels is thus the question for feminist ed., Community Activism and Feminist Politics: Organizing across Race, Class,
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Globalization can work to women's advantage-as especially seen in Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
the UN-but also unleash forces of inequality that will further disadvan Press.
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NOTES

1. See, for example, studies using such a mixed and static definition as
Margolis 1993; Chafetz and Dworkin 1986; and the critiques in Gluck 1998 and
Buechler 2000.
2. This approach also offers an alternative to Molyneux's model of women's
pragmatic and strategic gender interests, and does not presume that movements,
constituencies to which they strategically appeal, and the interests of these con-