State feminism

State feminism is feminism created or approved by the government of a state or nation. It usually specifies a particular program. The government may at the same time prohibit non-governmental organizations from advocating for any other feminist program.[1]

About

State feminism is when the government or the state adopts policies that are beneficial to women's rights and the improvement of women's lives.[2] The term was coined by Helga Hernes in 1987.[2] Feminist theorists in the 1980s had begun to reconsider the role that governments could have on positive outcomes for women's lives.[3] A state, as a system, could support the interests of different classes, genders and "racial hierarchies."[3] It could also support a diverse number of programs that have different levels of support within government or society.[4]

Women who study state feminism look at the effectiveness of various government programs, and how they improve women's rights and their status in their localities.[5] Some researchers, such as Elisabeth Friedman, have suggested that it is essential that there is a strong women's movement that works independent of the state in order for state feminism to be successful.[5] In Australia and the Netherlands those involved with the promotion of state feminism can be called "femocrats."[2] It can also be useful to apply the concept of state feminism to examine the policies towards women in countries that have a strong central state, such as Japan.[6]

The idea of state feminism is often conflated with the creation of women's policy agencies in governments.[7] However, the creation of such policies does not mean that feminist outcomes are taking place Research Network on Gender Politics and the State (RNGS).[7] Basically, state feminism should not be confused with the action taken in regards to agencies in the government that support policies for women, according to Dorothy E. McBride and Amy G. Mazur in "Women's Policy Agencies and State Feminism."[7] McBride and Mazur identify two types of state feminism: "Movement State Feminism" and "Transformative State Feminism."[8] The former describes when the government reacts to the women's movement in a place by creating policies that promote "demands based on gender consciousness, women's solidarity, and the cause of women."[8] The transformative process is where the demands already started within the state become "explicitly feminist" and work towards full gender equality and the possibility of transforming relationships between genders.[8] State feminism can also drive a government to become more broadly democratic in nature.[9]

Turkey

In the 20th century, Turkey's government "preempted feminism".[10] The Turkish national government's program in the 1920s included mandatory de-hijabicization (unveiling of women), access for women to more education and work, and political rights for women, all as part of a national effort to emulate some Western cultural characteristics in a Muslim nation.[1]

In the 1980s, second-wave feminism appeared, among daughters of leading women of Turkey's Kemalist movement, the women being feminist within the government's definition and leadership.[11] The state feminism they followed, according to scholar Margot Badran, covered parts of patriarchy with an appearance of Western progressivity.[12]

Yemen

In South Yemen, also known as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (with the subsequent unification of two Yemen's into one, the former PDRY is now generally south Yemen), state feminism had little effect on patriarchy and did not have much influence beyond Aden, a port city in the PDRY.[13] "Women in the south ... seemed to believe their gains would never be rescinded. They behaved as feminists, if by that is meant shaping the lives of their choice by accessing the new options offered them. But they did not embrace a feminist ideology or identity, as this was preempted by the state. When the socialist regime collapsed, the fragile gains of state feminism went with it."[14] "Northern women had acquired an acute gender consciousness and developed practical feminist skills ... but they had no legitimate political space. Southern women had been able to exploit the educational and professional benefits conferred under state feminism, but they did not have the independent ideological space in which to develop a feminism of their own."[15]

Post-unification Yemen has been analyzed by one author.[16]

Sweden

Main article: Feminism in Sweden

Middle East

In the 1980s and 1990s, "feminist activists and scholars in the Middle East assailed the limits of 'state feminism' and exposed its patriarchal dimensions."[17]

Communist and socialist regimes

"Sharon Wesoky characterized the relationship of an emergent women's movement to the [Chinese] state as 'symbiotic,' containing elements of both autonomy and dependence, and operating largely within rather than in opposition to party-state institutions."[18]

"'State feminisms' have been discredited elsewhere as well [e.g., in China] following the collapse of communist and socialist regimes."[19]

Criticism

"Many feminists [...] consider the notion of a state feminism to be an oxymoron."[1] Independent women's movements may be prohibited by the government.[1] State feminism can also be a way that the government takes over the role of speaking for and on behalf of women, rather than letting women themselves speak and make demands.[20]

References

1. Badran (2009), p. 223
2. McBride & Mazur 2010, p. 4.
3. Franceschet 2003, p. 17.
4. Kobayashi 2004, p. 19.
5. Franceschet 2003, p. 18.
6. Kobayashi 2004, p. 21.
7. McBride & Mazur 2013, p. 657.
8. McBride & Mazur 2010, p. 5.
9. McBride & Mazur 2010, p. 10.
10. Badran (2009), p. 302
11. Badran (2009), p. 227
12. Badran (2009), p. 227
13. Badran (2009), p. 260
14. Badran (2009), p. 261
15. Badran (2009), p. 261
16. Badran (2009), p. 261, citing Carapico (1991), p. 15
17. Badran (2009), p. 255
18. Hershatter (2007), p. 102
19. Badran (2009), pp. 255, 261, citing Yang (1998)
20. Allsopp, Jennifer (19 September 2012). "State feminism: co-opting women's voices". OpenDemocracy. Retrieved 2020-03-24.

Bibliography

• Badran, Margot (2009). Feminism in Islam: Secular and Religious Convergences. Oxford, UK: Oneworld. ISBN 978-1-85168-556-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Carapico, Sheila (1991). "Women and public participation in Yemen". Middle East Report. 21 (173): 15. doi:10.2307/3012624. JSTOR 3012624.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Franceschet, Susan (2003). "'State Feminism' and Women's Movements: The Impact of Chile's Servicio Nacional de la Mujer on Women's Activism". Latin American Research Review. 38 (1): 9–40. doi:10.1353/lar.2003.0006. ISSN 0023-8791. JSTOR 1555433.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Hershatter, Gail (2007). Women and Revolution in China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Kobayashi, Yoshie (2004). A Path Toward Gender Equality: State Feminism in Japan. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-93634-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• McBride, Dorothy E.; Mazur, Amy G. (2010). The Politics of State Feminism: Innovation in Comparative Research. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-4399-0209-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• McBride, Dorothy E.; Mazur, Amy G. (2013). "Women's Policy Agencies and State Feminism". In Waylen, Georgina; Celis, Karen; Kantola, Johanna; Weldon, S. Laurel (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Politics. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199751457.013.0026 – via Oxford Handbooks Online.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Yang, Mayfair Mei-Hui (1998). "From gender erasure to gender difference: state feminism, consumer sexuality, and women's public sphere in China". In Mayfair Mei-Hui Yang (ed.). Spaces of their Own: Women's Public Sphere in Transnational China. Public Worlds. 4. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 35–67. ISBN 9780816631469.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links