Organizing for a feminist world—How can we make it happen?

Organizing for a feminist world—How can we make it happen?

Women are slightly more than half the population, yet feminist changes to historical patriarchal traditions, legal systems, and social, cultural, and economic structures have been agonizingly slow to come and frustratingly elusive. In addition to social and financial equality and control over our reproductive capacity, the eradication of male violence against women, in particular, has been stubbornly resistant to change, despite centuries of activism on the part of feminists.

In light of this, the following questions might be useful to discuss:

• What feminist changes would you most like to see in the world?
• What are ways that neither the left nor the right addresses issues related to women’s liberation and freedom?
• How can we find commonalities between women on the left and on the right on issues affecting all women, for example, all types of male violence?
• What kinds of organizing would work to bring women together to better advocate for feminist causes?
• Is local organizing better than larger-scale organizing?
• What has been done in the past that has worked (and not worked) to bring women together to improve the conditions of women’s lives?
• Is consciousness-raising a precursor to activism for women?
• What kinds of activism create change most effectively? What kinds are less effective?
• What behaviors or factors drive women apart when we try to work together? What factors facilitate women working together?

The prologue from the book Grassroots: A Field Guide to Feminist Activism by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards is a pertinent read to spark further thought on this topic. It can be found at https://books.google.com/books?id=WCCOfjeKXjsC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false [Note: Scroll down to read the Prologue, after the Introduction.]