Feminist democracy: The case for women's committees

Stokes, Wendy

doi:10.1080/13569779808449948

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Its documentation has largely reflected an ongoing tendency towards descriptive, reflective accounts — arguably mirroring earlier tendencies within the history of the WLM in the UK (Scott, ; Wright, ). Stokes (), Halford and Leonard () and Bashevkin () are notable exceptions. Stokes examined what remained formally of women's initiatives in 1995, but with a focus on the political committees and representative dimensions of these in contrast to my analysis focusing on the working and understandings of the non‐political actors.…”

Section: Local Government Gender Equality Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Professional feminists: Challenging local government inside out

Ross

2018

Gender Work & Organization

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Gender equality work in local government carried out during the 1980s presents a valuable site to explore the interaction between professional and feminist working. In the history of the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM) and feminist organizing more broadly in the UK, professional working has often been positioned as antithetical to feminist working, and relatively little scholarship has examined the interface between the two. This article argues that the individuals involved should be considered ‘professional feminists’ as opposed to ‘femocrats’, drawing from across feminist, social movement and organizational theory, and interviews carried out in 2011 and archival texts from three UK councils. It also suggests their work (undertaken between the beginning of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s) serves to blur the boundaries usually marked between social movement and state. This contributes to the existing literature by exploring the specific understandings and practices put to work by those working on gender equality professionally, but not in an elected capacity, within local government, and how their work can be positioned in relation to feminist organizing more broadly.

show abstract

Section: Local Government Gender Equality Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Professional feminists: Challenging local government inside out

Ross

2018

Gender Work & Organization

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This work on gender equality, or 'municipal feminism' as it was coined, represented a particular instantiation of feminist activity among others, although it has generally been underplayed in the literature examining this (MacKay 2008). At the time such work was contested as opposed to universally welcomed - both by other feminists (Coote andPattullo 1990, Halford 1990), and those within councils (Button 1984, Stokes 1998. Although this phenomena received some academic attention at the time (for example, Button 1984, Goss 1984, Edwards 1988, Harriss 1989, Brownill and Halford 1990, Halford 1990, Bruegel and Kean 1995, Edwards 1995, this was largely focused on documenting the establishment, topics and form of work taking place, and discussing its political dynamics and significance.…”

Section: Mapping the Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There has not been much work subsequently that has examined municipal feminism, nor in relation to more recent local government gender equality work. Notable exceptions are Stokes (1998), andBashevkin (2006) who examined the legacy of municipal feminism in London and Toronto. Thus, the relationship between municipal feminist initiatives and gender equality legislation has not been fully examined.…”

Section: Mapping the Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

From municipal feminism to the Equality Act – Legislation and gender equality work in UK local government 1980-2010

Ross¹

2018

Women's Studies International Forum

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

For decades local government has been an important site for the development of gender equality practice, and the implementation of legislation attempting to address inequality in the UK. The rise of 'municipal feminism' during the 1980s marked a particular instantiation of gender equality work. Yet at the time the relationship between this phenomena and legislation was not given significant attention. The Equality Acts of 2006 and 2010 have been key milestones for local government gender equality work subsequently, yet little work has considered the detail of their implementation at the ground level by council employees. This article contributes to addressing this gap by examining the influence of legislation on local government gender equality practice at this level, and how this has changed over three decades. It draws on findings from a comparative historical study of three sites within the UK.

show abstract

“…These included adopting a three-pronged approach to gender equality: supporting women's initiatives in the community; establishing equal opportunities practices within local authority employment; and ensuring that the broad range of local government policies addressed women's specific concerns and perspectives. Importantly, women's committees drew on outside expertise, and made themselves accountable to the community, through the mechanism of co-option: women from local women's organizations were co-opted on to the committees (Stokes, 1998).…”

Section: Gender Policy Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mainstreaming gender, democratizing the state?: institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women

2003

Choice Reviews Online

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

She is former Head of the Women and Gender Studies Department. She has been actively involved in the Uganda women's movement, particularly in the founding of an influential national association, Action for Development (ACFODE), of which she was Chair during the period 1993-97.She was also involved in reactivating the Uganda Association of University Women in the early 1980s. She participated actively in the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995) and was involved in many preparatory meetings within and outside Africa. Dr Kwesiga's research interests cover women's education, the women's movement, analysis of women's non-governmental organizations and the wider civil society, women and politics, gender and management, gender training and gender issues in higher education. She has published articles in these areas. She has also conducted training programmes and carried out evaluation of developmental projects within the East African region. Her book, Access of African Women to Higher Education, is due for publication by Fountain Publishers in Uganda.

show abstract

Feminist democracy: The case for women's committees

Cited by 6 publications

References 6 publications

Professional feminists: Challenging local government inside out

Professional feminists: Challenging local government inside out

From municipal feminism to the Equality Act – Legislation and gender equality work in UK local government 1980-2010

Mainstreaming gender, democratizing the state?: institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About