Social Movements Through the Gender Lens

Abstract

Although it is widely acknowledged that many aspects of social life are gendered, only relatively recently have feminist researchers begun to address the ‘gender blindness’ of the social movement theory. Integrating findings from multiple studies, the article considers how gender affects social movement dynamics. It is argued that gender exerts pervasive influence on every aspect of social movement activities. The patterns of mobilisation, political and cultural opportunities, framing process and intra‐movement dynamics are all gendered. It is argued that although ample evidence demonstrates that protest is gendered, we do not yet know whether there is any general pattern of influence of gender on social movements, a pattern that enables a systematic explanation of the effects of gender on social movement dynamics. In conclusion, I will examine the reasons for this and suggest avenues for research.

SWS 2015 Feminist Lecture

“…Like the gendered divisions in the WSF, most scholarship on gender and social movements is primarily by female, feminist scholars and is based on studying women's movements (e.g., Bahati Kuumba 2001;Einwohner, hollander, and Olson 2000;Whittier 1998, 1999;Whittier 2007;Yulia 2010). For the most part, this scholarship is also by scholars located in the Global North and based on movements in the united States, in particular, and the Global North in general, reproducing unequal geographies.…”

Sport and Social Movements

“…A significant contribution put forward by scholars studying the impact of gender on opportunity structures has been in highlighting women's tendency to mobilize in grassroots settings either as a function of being more linked to the domestic sphere than men or by being more often marginalized from formal political settings dominated by men (Yulia 2010). The open or closed nature of political systems around the world, the presence or absence of allies for protest groups, or even the state's capacity or inclination for repression impact women's ability to challenge inequity (Antrobus 2004).…”

“…. where women's domestic networks offered them greater protection and moral leverage in challenging dictatorships in power than did men's' (Ferree and Mueller 2007, p. 579; see also Yulia 2010). Basu (1995, p. 2) adds that '.…”

Gendered Discontent: Participation in the Feminist Movement in Ottawa

“…(Yulia, 2010, p. 628) Collective identity theory can shine light on some of the questions around feminist identity and gender identity. Several social movement theorists have written about collective identity theory, including Francesca , James Jasper (2001), and Zemlinkaya Yulia (2010). The core components of collective identity theory as espoused by numerous social movement theorists, include, … imagined as well as concrete communities, involves an act of perception and construction as well as the discovery of preexisting bonds, interests, and boundaries.…”

“…The idea that for some a feminist identity is innate, and to others it is something that has to be learned. Zemlinkskaya Yulia (2010) poses this question to readers, "If the intersection between identity categories influences social actors' life experiences, it must also influence their political experiences" (p. 636). This is evidenced in the participants' interviews, as their ability to identify as a feminist often correlated with a position in society; those who are more marginalized, tended to claim the feminist identity as aligned with their subjectivity.…”