This ambitious volume brings together original essays on the U.S. women's movement with analyses of women's movements in other countries around the world. A comparative perspective and a common theme--feminism in social movement action--unite these voices in a way that will excite students and inspire further research. From the grassroots to the global, the significance of the U.S women's movement in the international arena cannot be denied. At the same time, the way in which international feminism has developed--in Asia, in Latin America, in Europe--has altered and expanded the landscape of the U.S. women's movement forever. These distinguished authors show us how. Visit our website for sample chapters!

This pathbreaking book provides for the first time an overview of the genesis, growth, gains, and dilemmas of women's movements worldwide. Unlike most of the literature, which focuses on the industrialized Western world, this volume devotes greater attention to the postcolonial states of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The book challenges the assumptions that feminism can transcend national differences and, conversely, that women's movements are shaped and circumscribed by national levels of development. All the authors reject the notion, proposed by its detractors and champions alike, that feminism is of middle-class origins and Western inspiration. Instead they seek to locate women's movements within the terrain from which they emerge.Virtually all the authors are from the countries or communities about which they write the few exceptions are women who have spent lengthy periods studying and living in the region. Most are scholars, often in women's studies, and many are closely associated with the movements they describe. Thus, these writers share a commitment to the substantive concerns as well as the collective processes of women's movements. As a key book for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, this volume will be essential reading for anyone interested in the global scope and implications of feminism.

This book provides a path-breaking study of the genesis, growth, gains, and dilemmas of women's movements in countries throughout the world. Its focus is on the global South, where women's movements have engaged in complex negotiations with national and international forces. It challenges widely held assumptions about the Western origins and character of local feminisms. The authors locate women's movements within the terrain from which they emerged by exploring their relationships with the state, civil society, and other social movements. This fully revised second edition contains six new chapters by leading scholars of women and gender studies, on both individual countries and on several major regions of the world? Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the Maghreb. This balanced coverage enables readers to identify regional patterns and also learn from in-depth case studies. Women's Movements in the Global Era is essential reading for anyone interested in the global scope and implications of feminism.

The analysis of gender and political inequality, and the women's movements that have contested it, has concentrated on the West. In this wide-ranging reevaluation, incorporating development studies and political sociology, Maxine Molyneux redresses this balance by analysing Latin American women's movements within liberal, authoritarian and revolutionary states. These studies of Argentina, Nicaragua and Cuba, alongside comparative discussions of socialism, women's movements and citizenship, examine the complex, and persistent, interaction of states and women's movements, and the diversity of responses engendered.

The third edition of the Feminist Theory Reader anthologizes the important classical and contemporary works of feminist theory within a multiracial transnational framework. This edition includes 16 new essays; the editors have organized the readings into four sections, which challenge the prevailing representation of feminist movements as waves. Introductory essays at the beginning of each section lay out the framework that brings the readings together and provide historical and intellectual context. Instructors who have adopted the book can email [email protected] to receive test questions associated with the readings. Please include your school and location (state/province/county/country) in the email. Now available for the first time in eBook format 978-0-203-59831-3.

Women's Movements in the Global Erais a path-breaking study of the genesis, growth, gains, and dilemmas of women's movements in countries throughout the world. Its focus is on the Global South, where women's movements have engaged in complex negotiations with national and international forces. It challenges widely held assumptions about the Western origins and character of local feminisms. All the authors locate women's movements within the terrain from which they emerged by exploring their relationships with the state, civil society, and other social movements. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the global scope and implications of feminism. Contents 1. Introduction Africa 2. South African Feminisms: A Coming of Age? (Elaine Salo) 3. "The Future Will Be Better Next Time": Opportunities and Challenges of the Zimbabwean Women's Movement (Shereen Essof, Ramagwana Rakajeka) Asia 4. The Women's Movement in Pakistan: Challenges and Achievements (Farida Shaheed) 5. Feminist Deliberative Politics in India: Some Reflections (Kalpana Kannabiran) 6. The Chinese Women's Movement in the Context of Globalization: Opportunities and Challenges (Naihua Zhang) Europe 7. Polish Feminism between the Local and the Global: A Task of Translation (Elzbieta Matynia) 8. Russian Women's Activism: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back (Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom) Latin America 9. Contemporary Feminisms in Brazil: Achievements, Shortcomings, and Challenges (Cecilia M. B. Sardenberg, Ana Alice AlcÁntara Costa) 10. Seeking Rights from the Left: Gender and Sexuality in Latin America (Elisabeth Friedman) 11. Towards a Culturally Situated Women Rights Agenda: Reflections from Mexico (R. AÍda HernÁndez Castillo) The Middle East 12. The Demobilization of the Palestinian Women's Movement: From Empowered Active Militants to Powerless and Stateless "Citizens" (Islah Jad) 13. The Women's Movement and Feminism in Iran: A Glocal Perspective (Nayereh Tohidi) The United States 14. Intersecting Oppressions: Rethinking Women's Movements in the U.S. (Julie Ajinkya)

Varieties of Feminism investigates the development of German feminism by contrasting it with women's movements that arise in countries, like the United States, committed to liberalism. With both conservative Christian and social democratic principles framing the feminist discourses and movement goals, which in turn shape public policy gains, Germany provides a tantalizing case study of gender politics done differently. The German feminist trajectory reflects new political opportunities created first by national reunification and later, by European Union integration, as well as by historically established assumptions about social justice, family values, and state responsibility for the common good. Tracing the opportunities, constraints, and conflicts generated by using class struggle as the framework for gender mobilization—juxtaposing this with the liberal tradition where gender and race are more typically framed as similar—Ferree reveals how German feminists developed strategies and movement priorities quite different from those in the United States.