1st Edition

The Women’s Movement in Protest, Institutions and the Internet Australia in transnational perspective

Edited By Sarah Maddison, Marian Sawer Copyright 2013
    250 Pages 8 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    232 Pages 8 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The death of feminism is regularly proclaimed in the West. Yet at the same time feminism has never had such an extensive presence, whether in international norms and institutions, or online in blogs and social networking campaigns. This book argues that the women’s movement is not over; but rather social movement theory has led us to look in the wrong places.

    This book offers both methodological and theoretical innovations in the study of social movements, and analyses how the trajectories of protest activity and institution-building fit together. The rich empirical study, together with focused research on discursive activism, blogging, popular culture and advocacy networks, provides an extraordinary resource, showing how the women’s movements can survive the highs and lows and adapt in unexpected ways. Expert contributors explore the ways in which the movement is continuing to work its way through institutions, and persists within submerged networks, cultural production and in everyday living, sustaining itself in non-receptive political environments and maintaining a discursive feminist space for generations to come. Set in a transnational perspective, this book trace the legacies of the Australian women’s movement to the present day in protest, non-government organisations, government organisations, popular culture, the Internet and the Slut Walk.

    The Women’s Movement in Protest, Institutions and the Internet will be of interest to international students and scholars of gender politics, gender studies, social movement studies and comparative politics.

    Preface Sarah Maddison and Marian Sawer  1. Finding the women’s movement Marian Sawer  2. Disruption, continuity and waves in the feminist movement Drude Dahlerup  3. Discursive politics: Changing the talk and raising expectations Sarah Maddison  4. Taking to the streets Catherine Strong and Kirsty McLaren  5. Hiding in plain sight: Women’s advocacy organisations Marian Sawer and Merrindahl Andrew  6. The institutional harvest: Women’s services and women’s policy agencies Merrindahl Andrew  7. Role models and roller derby: Feminism and popular culture Catherine Strong and Sarah Maddison  8. Blogging and the women’s movement: New feminist networks Frances Shaw  9. Slut walking: Where is the next generation of feminists? Sarah Maddison  10. Global feminist organising: Identifying patterns of activism Myra Marx Ferree and Christina Ewig  Appendix: How, what and why Merrindahl Andrew, Kirsty McLaren, Frances Shaw and Catherine Strong

    Biography

    Sarah Maddison is Associate Professor and Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the University of New South Wales, Australia

    Marian Sawer is Emeritus Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.

    'This is the most authoritative text on the state of the women's movement written in well over a decade.  A must read for anyone who doubts the continued existence of feminism, these meticulously researched and magnificently written essays, reveal that it is alive, thriving, and changing.' - Verta Taylor, Professor and Chair of Sociology, University of California, USA.

    'No, feminism is not dead! This collection of vibrant scholarship, using a wealth of data, makes the case clearly and strongly that feminism continues to mobilize and build new institutions. It effectively contributes perspectives from Australia to the global debates.' - Sylvia Walby, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and UNESCO Chair in Gender Research, Lancaster University, UK, and author of The Future of Feminism Polity 2011.