Working within associations: recognition in the public space for women?

Today, working in paid employment is the norm for women in France, and many of them are working in associations, which the authors regard as a specific type of civil society organisations. In this chapter, the authors enquire whether working in associations can lead to women’s emancipation. Firstly, they show that associations play an important economic role for women and create a particularly distinctive relationship to work, but they also emphasise the poor quality of the jobs in which women are disproportionately represented. The authors then discuss the effects of women’s employment in associations in terms of emancipation: they suggest that associations tend to maintain gendered norms rather than challenging them even when the organisations are feminist oriented. The risk is then that women may not achieve real recognition for their contribution unless the associations engage in a clear policy in favour of equality between men and women.

Gender democracy and women’s self-empowerment: a case of Somali diaspora civil society

The Somali diaspora plays a vital role in bridging the gap between international non- governmental aid organisations and local Somali civil society. Women’s empowerment initiatives face many challenges in transitional societies such as Somalia. Yet, concerted efforts and multi-faceted investments in this endeavour have the potential to improve the status of women in post-war contexts. This chapter explores the role that Somali diaspora civil society organisations (SD-CSOs) engaged in gender democracy and women’s self-empowerment efforts play in the promotion of gender equality. Through an analysis of capacity development at the meso-level, the study outlines how SD-CSOs are best equipped to support women’s empowerment processes in Somalia through the application of strategies that are both culturally acceptable and internationally recognised.

Street harassment activism in the twenty-first century

The experience of gender-based violence, and the internalised shame and self-blame that so often accompanies it, hinders the full emancipation of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered (LGBT) members of society. This chapter examines CSOs currently working toward ending street harassment. Technological advances have created innovative options for today’s CSOs to unite in unprecedented ways. Modern activism will be highlighted through a case study of Hollaback!, an international network of unified activists who simultaneously work locally and globally to fight street harassment. Research and academic discussion about street harassment and the culture that sustains it have lagged far behind global anti-street harassment activism. Street harassment activists emphasize shifting cultural perspective to a perpetrator-focused, survivor-centred approach that supports survivors. The chapter concludes with an analysis of how the internet has provided organizations and activists the capacity to embrace intersectional and cross-cultural ideals.

Flexible working practices in charities: supporting or hindering women’s emancipation in the workplace

This chapter explores the debates and practices regarding flexible working in the context of the charity workplace, and examines the consequences of these practices for women in their dual role of adult/child-carer and employee. The arguments presented here are drawn from an original study involving 30 interviews in four medium-sized service-providing charities registered in England and Wales (East, 2013), and offer a snap-shot to help us determine whether flexible-working practices assist or impede women’s emancipation. The authors further explore why flexible-working arrangements are primarily utilised by women rather than men, asks whether women are coerced by organisational, personal or societal pressures to take the lead as primary carer, and if so, how this affects their roles in the charity workplace. The discussion touches upon the debates surrounding diversity, equity and the significance of nature versus nurture in shaping identity.

New gender-political impulses from Eastern Europe: the case of Pussy Riot

In this chapter the authors strive to answer existing research desiderata by exploring the role of Pussy Riot as a civil society actor in the emancipation of women in a national as well as international setting. In order to address this issue, the authors explore the political, societal and religious as well as the gender-political and economic context in which Pussy Riot is located and respectively acting, the reasons behind the formation of Pussy Riot and its recent history and the specific ways in which the group pronounces its political and religious, feminist and economy critical protest.

Se Non Ora Quando? (‘If not now, when?’) The birth, growth and challenges of a new voice within the feminist scenario in Italy

This chapter engages with the core issues highlighted throughout this anthology by critically analysing a feminist phenomenon that emerged in Italy in 2011, the ‘Se non ora, quando?’ (‘If not now, when?’) or SNOQ movement. The chapter explores the evolution of this movement from its inception up to the period immediately following the elections of February 2013. The main features of the movement are examined, including its history and identity, its influence on Italian culture, society and the political scene, as well as its goal of challenging the situation of women within Italy. The capacity of the movement to steer public debate and influence public life will be also addressed by reconstructing the course of its actions.

Breaking down dichotomies in the narratives of women’s activism in Morocco

This chapter looks at the historical and ideological split that is causing the division in women’s civil society in Morocco and the possibilities of moving beyond this division. The rights-based and faith-based organisations share many goals, such as women’s economic independence and political parity. Even the language to discuss these goals is often shared, mixing elements of human rights, Moroccan traditions and Islam. Many rights-based groups believe that despite these activities faith-based groups cannot be trusted. Hence women’s civil society in Morocco remains divided even on issues where all agree. Both faith-based and rights-based participants of this study have noted that the political parties they come from and are aligned with do not represent the women’s point of view. Joining forces on strategic issues would thus seem like a good step in mobilising greater forces for women’s political emancipation in Morocco.

Sustainability from the bottom up: women as change agents in the Niger Delta

This chapter examines the roles of women as architects and agents of social change in the environmentally degraded Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Oil revenues account for the majority of Nigeria’s GDP, yet the Niger Delta is among the least developed and improved regions of Nigeria. Efforts by women at all levels have led to a slow but growing awareness that real solutions to the environmental and social crisis must explicitly address how a violent, corrupt oil economy has impacted women’s roles as caregivers and providers in the household and in society, and the need for women to play a central role in public decision-making and reforms.

Introducing the anthology

This introductory chapter presents a brief review of major themes in civil society organisations research and also feminist orientated research into organisations, arguing that while CSO researchers have tended to neglect considerations of gender, and in particular, of the gendering of organisations, feminist researchers have rarely considered CSOs as a potentially distinctive form of organisation. In bringing these two areas of work into a more dialogical relationship the authors draw on Nancy Fraser’s conception of emancipation as a position from which domination, wherever it is experienced, can be identified and critiqued. The chapter concludes by describing how the authors’ use of Fraser has informed the structuring of the book, the themes they have chosen to explore and the additional insights the book explicates.

Examining and contextualising Kenya’s Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation (MYWO) through an African feminist lens

In this chapter, the authors apply African feminist lenses to evaluate the activities of the Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation to determine its role in the emancipation of Kenyan women. Maendeleo has gone through difficult periods based on social, cultural, and identity politics within the organisation as well as in response to the shifting national political landscape. However, despite these challenges and contradictions, Maendeleo has been a conduit for elite women to attain political leadership positions, has provided economic assistance to women in some regions, developed a programme for eradicating female genital cutting while sustaining the rite of passage in the eastern province, participated in international conferences and played social and political roles in changing the status of Kenyan women’s rights. Still, the extent to which Maendeleo has achieved emancipation for women is negligible.