Democratization and Women's Grassroots Movements

Description

Close up looks at women's struggles for democracy around the world.

The book illustrates how community-based actions, programs, and organizations that allow women to determine their lives and participate in decision making contribute to the creation of a civil society and thus enhance democracy. The case studies show how participation in grassroots movements promotes women's involvement in their organizations, communities, and in societal institutions, as it influences state policy and empowers women in personal relationships.

Acknowledgments
Introduction/ Jill M. Bystydzienski and Joti Sekhon
PART ONE: Asia
1. Grassroots Social Action and Empowerment in India: The Case of Action India Women's Program/ Joti Sekhon
2. Re-Inheriting Women in Decolonizing Hong Kong/ Irene Lik Kay Tong
3. Democracy at the Margins: NGOs and Women's "Unofficial" Political Participation in Singapore/ Meredith Weiss
PART TWO: Africa and The Middle East
4. Exchanging Participation for Promises: Mobilization of Women in Eritrea/ Susan Leisure
5. Democratization Through Adult Popular Education: A Reflection on the Resilience of Women from Kwa-Ndebele, South Africa/ Khanya Rajuili and Ione Burke
6. Muslim Women's Grassroots Organizations in Syria: Self-Identity as a Form of Democratization/ Nimat Hafez Barazangi
7. Women's Grassroots Movements and Democratization in Egypt/ Nawal Ammar and Leila S. Lababidy
PART THREE: Central America
8. Women and Grassroots Democracy in El Salvador: The Case of Comunidad Segundo Montes/ Elizabeth Cagan
9. Feminist Organizations and Grassroots Democracy in Honduras/ Charles McKelvey
PART FOUR: Eastern Europe
10. New Roads to Resistance and Participation: Polish Feminists in the Transition to Democracy/ Judy Root Aulette
11. From the Ground Up: Women's Organizations and Democratization in Russia/ Jane F. Berthusen Gottlick
PART FIVE: Western Europe, North America and Australia
12. Building Democratic Bridges Over Belgian Political Bastions: The Work of The VOK—Women's Consultation Committee/ Alison E. Woodward and Rita Mulier
13. Women's Participation in Grassroots Initiatives in Ireland/ Christopher Dale
14. Sexual Assault and the Canadian State: Participatory Democracy Struggles Within a Liberal Democracy/ Alicja Muszynski
15. Empowerment and Disempowerment of Women in Central Appalachia, U.S.A./ Nelda K. Pearson
16. Women in Agriculture: Action for More Democratic Australian Farm Politics/ Ruth Liepins
Conclusion
About the Editors and Contributors

Sujets

• Women's Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Asian Studies
• African Studies
• Political Science
• Social Science
• Women
• Sociology
• General officer
• Woman
• Social sciences
• Politics
• The Women
• World
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 22 juillet 1999
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253028143
• Langue: English

Extrait

Democratization and Women’s Grassroots Movements
 
 
 
 
Edited by Jill M. Bystydzienski and Joti Sekhon
DEMOCRATIZATION AND WOMEN’S GRASSROOTS MOVEMENTS
Indiana University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Democratization and women’s grassroots movements / edited by Jill   M. Bystydzienski and Joti Sekhon.         p.      cm.     Includes bibliographical references.     ISBN 0-253-33445-4 (cloth : alk. paper). —     ISBN 0-253-21279-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)     1. Women in politics. 2. Women social reformers. 3. Social movements. 4. Democratization. I. Bystydzienski, Jill M., date   .   II. Sekhon, Joti. HQ1236.D45 1999 305.42—dc21 98–48402
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Jill M. Bystydzienski and Joti Sekhon
PART ONE: Asia
1. Grassroots Social Action and Empowerment in India The Case of Action India Women’s Program
Joti Sekhon
2. Re-Inheriting Women in Decolonizing Hong Kong
Irene Lik Kay Tong
3. Democracy at the Margins: NGOs and Women’s “Unofficial” Political Participation in Singapore
Meredith L. Weiss
PART TWO: Africa and the Middle East
4. Exchanging Participation for Promises: Mobilization of Women in Eritrea
Susan Leisure
5. Democratization through Adult Popular Education: A Reflection on the Resilience of Women from Kwa-Ndebele, South Africa
Khanya Rajuili and Ione Burke
6. Self-Identity as a Form of Democratization The Syrian Experience
Nimat Hafez Barazangi
7. Women’s Grassroots Movements and Democratization in Egypt
Nawal H. Atnmar and Leila S. Lababidy
PART THREE: Central America
8. Women and Grassroots Democracy in El Salvador The Case of Comunidad Segundo Montes
Elizabeth Cagan
9. Feminist Organizations and Grassroots Democracy in Honduras
Charles McKelvey
PART FOUR: Eastern Europe
10. New Roads to Resistance Polish Feminists in the Transition to Democracy
Judy Root Aulette
11. From the Ground Up: Women’s Organizations and Democratization in Russia
Jane F. Berthusen Gottlich
PART FIVE: Western Europe, North America, and Australia
12. Building Democratic Bridges over Belgian Political Bastions The Work of the VOK—Women’s Consultation Committee
Alison E. Woodward and Rita Mulier
13. Women’s Participation in Grassroots Initiatives in Ireland
Christopher Dale
14. Sexual Assault and the Canadian State: Participatory Democracy Struggles within a Liberal Democracy
Alicja Muszynski
15. Empowerment and Disempowerment of Women in Central Appalachia, U.S.A.
Nelda K. Pearson
16. Women in Agriculture: Action for More Democratic Australian Farm Politics
Ruth Liepins
Conclusion
Joti Sekhon and Jill M. Bystydzienski
About the Editors and Contributors
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The idea for this book evolved over several years of discussion and collaboration between the authors and many others. During both the 1994 and 1995 annual meetings of the Association for Humanist Sociology (AHS) Jill Bystydzienski organized a session on democratization and women’s grassroots movements in which Joti Sekhon and several others, including Charles McKelvey, participated. Subsequently, Elizabeth (Beth) Cagan, Judy Aulette, Nawal Ammar, and Christopher Dale joined our discussions and agreed to contribute to an anthology. We then sought the participation of scholars and activists outside AHS. We are both grateful to the AHS for providing an intellectual environment that encouraged and supported the development of ideas that went into making this project a reality. We also want to acknowledge the work of all the contributors in making this volume truly global in scope.
Joti Sekhon’s field work in India in 1992, 1995, and 1997 was invaluable not only in writing the chapter on Action India, but also in developing conceptual insights that inform this project. The women associated with Action India shared their lives and work, and taught her important lessons in grassroots activism. Her family in India, as well as her husband, Alan, and son, Imran, in the United States, supported her work throughout with love and understanding. And Greensboro College provided professional development funds to assist in the research. To all she is very grateful.
Democratization and Women’s Grassroots Movements
Introduction
Jill M. Bystydzienski and Joti Sekhon
Considerable attention has been directed in recent years to democratization worldwide, especially in the aftermath of the fall of communist regimes in East-Central Europe and dictatorships in Latin America. Most of the focus, however, has been on state-level activities, political elections, and the move toward capitalist markets. Moreover, while numerous persons have studied and written about social movements, including women’s movements, no systematic analysis of grassroots movement organizations and actions has been done in relation to democratic processes at the micro and macro levels.
This book attempts to fill a gap in the existing scholarship and literature by providing an examination of the connections between women’s local-level political and social actions and processes of democratization at the state, regional, and global levels. In presenting a collection of case studies from around the world, we illustrate how community-based actions, programs, and organizations that allow women to determine their lives and participate in decision making contribute to the creation of a civil society as well as directly influence, and are influenced by, key political, economic, and cultural institutions.
In this introduction, we problematize and define the concepts of democracy and democratization, discuss three major approaches to democracy (liberal, Marxist/socialist, and direct-participatory), theorize the link between democratization and women’s grassroots movements, and provide an overview of the book.
Democracy and Democratization
As we approach the end of the second millennium, more people than ever before in human history live in countries whose governments profess to be “democratic.” Democracy, we are told by the mass media, public figures, and academic scholars, is not only entrenched and safe in the West, but is currently sweeping the countries of East and Central Europe, Africa, Latin America, as well as Asia. However, the idea and practice of democracy, subject of debate and struggle for well over two hundred years, continues to be deeply problematic.
At a time when democracy is supposedly spreading around the world, great disparities between rich and poor people, and between wealthy and impoverished countries, challenge the notion of popular control of governance. Centralization of power in the hands of corporations and regional and world bodies outside existing states has reduced citizen input in decisions that profoundly affect people’s lives. And many women, the poor, as well as ethnic, religious, and other groups in numerous countries continue to be excluded from meaningful political participation.
A central problem facing those who wish to understand democratic ideals, practices, and processes is that of definition and interpretation. Historically, the notion of democracy has undergone much change in theory and practice. More than two thousand years ago, the philosopher Aristotle coined the term democracy , meaning “rule by the people,” when he distinguished three basic patterns of government, the two others being “rule by the few” ( oligarchy ) and “rule by one person” ( monarchy ) (Markoff, 1996: xiv). Aristotle, as well as Plato, did not see democracy as the preferred form of government, but rather as “an aberration from the standard of good government with which popular self-government was not identified” (Parry and Moran, 1994: 2–3). Plato rejected democracy’s leveling doctrine (Macpherson, 1966: 5), and the term was rarely applied to existing governments until the eighteenth century (Markoff, 1996: xiv).
There was renewed interest in democracy in Europe and North America especially as part of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment and the American and French revolutions. A gradual rise in opinion favoring democracy as a desirab