The Transitions to Democracy

The Transitions to Democracy category mirrors the title of the mapping by including pieces that provide a more general historic geopolitical overview of specific countries or situations in transition from a broad cross-cutting perspective, thus setting a contextual tone for more specific categories of resources.


Your mouth is fundamental against religious fundamentalisms

A short campaign video on religious fundamentalisms and women’s rights

  • Publication: 2013
  • Produced by: AWID, Articulación Feminista Marcosur (AFM) and Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir (Catholics for a Free Choice) in Mexico
  • Author(s): AWID, Articulación Feminista Marcosur (AFM) and Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir (Catholics for a Free Choice) in Mexico
  • Country/Region: Global
  • Theme: Responses to Fundamentalism, Transitions to Democracy
  • Keywords: advocacy, fundamentalism, gender, movement building
  • Languages: Arabic, English
  • Source: AWID, Articulación Feminista Marcosur (AFM) and Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir (Catholics for a Free Choice) in Mexico

Women’s Rights In Transitions To Democracy: Achieving Rights, Resisting Backlash

The Women’s Rights in Transitions to Democracy: Achieving Rights Resisting Backlash (Pre-Meeting and Strategy Sessions Report) is based on the pre AWID 2012 Forum consultation devoted to strategizing around women’s rights and transitions to democracy, attended by almost 100 women’s rights leaders from over 18 countries in the MENA region, as well as activists from Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.

At this pre-meeting, activists and scholars shared case studies of women’s rights status, progress, limitations, and key areas of strategizing during democratic transitions. The report integrates insights from both the pre-meeting consultation and the Strategy Sessions at the Forum in order to elucidate the context of the struggle for women’s rights in the MENA and articulate key strategies that have been effectively used, need to be developed, or could be leveraged during diverse transitions to democracy, as they continue to unfold and in the future.

The issue of fragmentation among women’s movements, separation from other potential allies in civil society, and underdeveloped communication and awareness-raising strategies were highlighted as some of the key obstacles. To address these concerns, three major areas of strategic action emerged, including: promoting deeper analytical and conceptual deliberations and discussions about political transitions, enhancing the participation of citizens, and highlighting the need for broadening the base of support for women’s and feminist movements’ narratives and demands.

  • Publication: 2013
  • Author(s): AWID
  • Country/Region: Global
  • Theme: Transitions to Democracy
  • Keywords: democracy, feminism, gender, movement building, political participation, Transitions to Demorcracy
  • Languages: Arabic, English
  • Source: AWID

Women’s Organizations and Democracy in South Africa: Contesting Authority

Shireen Hassim examines interactions between the transition to democracy and the women’s movement in South Africa and explores the gendered nature of liberation and regime change. Alternately asserting their political independence and giving precedence to the democratic movement as a whole, women activists proved flexible and remarkably successful in influencing policy. At the same time, their feminism was profoundly shaped by the context of democratic and nationalist ideologies.   Hassim boldly confronts sensitive issues such as the tensions between autonomy and political dependency in feminists’ engagement with the African National Congress (ANC) and other democratic movements, and black-white relations within women’s organizations.

  • Publication: 2005
  • Author(s): Hassim, Shireen
  • Country/Region: South Africa
  • Theme: Transitions to Democracy
  • Keywords: policy reform, political dependency, race relations, Transitions to Democracy
  • Languages: English
  • Source: Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005.

Women’s Political Organizations in the Transition to Democracy

Compares the political organizations of women in relation to democratization in Italy and Spain; two countries with previously authoritarian rule and majority Catholic populations. Role of women in democratization; Description of the timing, organization forms and political context of women’s political organizations; Overview of the democratization process in both countries. Three historical and organizational factors are in operation: the different stages of international feminism at the moment of transition, the greater radicalism of the Italian movement because of its extra-parliamentary strategy, and the debate in Spain around the “double militancy” question.

  • Publication: 2003
  • Author(s): Pereira, Ana Prata
  • Country/Region: Italy, Spain
  • Theme: Transitions to Democracy
  • Keywords: democracy, feminism, religion, Transitions to Democracy, women’s movement
  • Languages: English
  • Source: Journal of Women's History; Fall2003, Vol. 15 Issue 3, p143-147, 5p

 

Category
Case Studies
Region
Global
West Asia