Chapter Five - “Feminism: The Personal is Political”

Here judy explores her own roots in the women’s movement and discusses how the ideas of feminism are influencing the new movements for change. The personal is political has become a central idea for most of the new movements. In addition feminist ideas and practices whether creating alternatives in the here and now at the same time as protesting or creating horizontal structures and re-defining leadership have been taken up by the new movements.

“Some time ago I was worried that women’s issues were getting lost in the anti-globalization movement, so I asked famed No Logo author Naomi Klein if she shared these concerns. She answered, “There is a sophisticated and complex understanding of the role that gender and race play in corporate globalization, but women’s issues that fall outside that analysis get lost. “ At the time I didn’t appreciate what she was saying. But now I see just how profoundly the critique of patriarchy has influenced the movements that have developed in the twenty-first century. It is not only that they are challenging the Type A leadership so common in patriarchal structures, it is also that they are challenging the need for specific leaders at all. Flat structures, networks rather than hierarchy, and consensus all result from a profound critique of patriarchal patterns of domination in decision-making.”

Related Links:

Relevant Blog Entries:
http://transformingpower.ca/en/category/book-chapters/chapter-five

Black Power Movement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Power

Code Pink
http://www.codepink4peace.org/

Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)
http://www.dawnnet.org/

Gramsci, Antonio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Gramsci

Guay, Lorraine
http://www.50years.org/cms/ejn/story/163

Klein, Naomi
http://www.naomiklein.org/main

Lorde, Audre
http://authors.aalbc.com/audre.htm

National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC)
http://www.nac-cca.ca/index_e.htm

Obama, Barack
www.barackobama.com

Quebec Federation of Women
http://www.ffq.qc.ca/

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
http://www.rawa.org/

Seattle Anti-Globalization Protest
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2007206186362541122

Students for a Democratic Society
http://studentsforademocraticsociety.org/,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Students_for_a_Democratic_Society_(1960_organization)

United Nations Conference on Women
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/

Women's Global Charter for Humanity
http://www.uvss.uvic.ca/wmw/

World March for Peace
http://www.worldmarch.ca

World March of Women
http://www.worldmarchofwomen.org

World Social Forum (WSF)
http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/,
http://www.fsm2009amazonia.org.br/?set_language=en