{"id":111,"date":"2013-10-16T09:29:31","date_gmt":"2013-10-16T08:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/?p=111"},"modified":"2013-10-16T12:00:32","modified_gmt":"2013-10-16T11:00:32","slug":"feministactivism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/feministactivism\/","title":{"rendered":"Feminist Activism as a Location of Social Renewal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Professor Kathryn Hollingsworth<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Kathryn Hollingsworth is a member\u00a0of<\/span> Newcastle Law School <\/a>and\u00a0is\u00a0our<\/span> Social Justice and Injustice <\/a>Theme Champion. Kathryn writes this blog on the\u00a0increased visibility of feminist activity in the UK and why it’s a significant aid to social renewal with a contribution from<\/span> Dr Elizabeth Sharp<\/a>, Texas Tech University. Follow Kathryn on twitter @KathrynHollsNCL<\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

During periods of rapid social change we are presented with opportunities to alter the status quo: to move towards a more equal society, to address the oppressive conditions experienced by those lacking economic, social, political, and cultural power and to engender social renewal.\u00a0 However, times of change also generate new contexts for the power structures of the past to be perpetuated and further entrenched, creating more \u2013 not less \u2013 oppression.\u00a0 This we can see when we consider the position of women in the UK, in 2013.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Think about the economic crisis.\u00a0 In June 2013, a report entitled The Impact of Austerity Measures on Women: A Case Study of the North East <\/em><\/a>was published by the Women\u2019s Resource Centre and the NE Women\u2019s Network.\u00a0 The report, which was presented later in the summer to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), found that women are disproportionately affected by unemployment (especially in the North East), by welfare cuts, and by the closure or reduction of services that help prevent or respond to the problems (including sexual and domestic violence) that women experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

And what about developments in technology?\u00a0 The internet has changed our lives in unimaginable ways, one of which is to increase the range of voices heard in public debates; reinvigorating \u2013 in different, new ways \u2013 civic engagement.\u00a0 It has also opened up new relationships to us all; to make connections with people we would never have otherwise met.\u00a0 But at the same time, the internet has become another location for the sexual objectification and exploitation of girls and women and for the (attempted) silencing of women\u2019s voices (as we see in<\/span> the well-reported rape and other violent threats made against women on social media).<\/a><\/p>\n

But whilst the oppression of women continues within and because of economic and technological developments, in the last couple of years there has been a resurgence of organised feminist activism; or, more accurately, we have seen more visibility<\/em> being afforded to such feminist activity. \u00a0Women have never stopped helping other women \u2013 in Rape Crisis centres, in refuges, and in providing care \u2013 and feminists have never stopped responding to the social injustices that women face.\u00a0 However, recent campaigns such as<\/span> End Online Misogyny<\/a>,<\/span> No More Page Three<\/a>,<\/span> Let Toys be Toys<\/a>,<\/span> Get Women on Banknotes<\/a>,<\/span> Counting Dead Women<\/a>,<\/span> Everyday Sexism<\/a>,<\/span> and the creation of<\/span> The Women\u2019s Room<\/a> have used social and traditional media to highlight, and to respond to, the oppressive conditions which shape female lives in the UK: the online abuse; the invisibility of women in the media and the public sphere; sexual objectification; and gender stereotyping.\u00a0 These campaigns have had not only raised<\/span> awareness but resulted in positive outcomes too, including changing the decision-making of influential organisations such as the Bank of England and retailers such as Boots.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Crucially, especially when we think in terms of social renewal, the increasing visibility of feminist activity isn\u2019t just taking place in the virtual world; it is happening in the \u2018real world\u2019 too.\u00a0 This weekend (October 12-13th<\/sup> October) saw the second North East Feminist Gathering (NEFG13) take place at the West End Women and Girls Centre in Elswick.\u00a0 The NEFG13 brought together 150 feminists; most of whom work and live in the North East, but some of whom had travelled from Scotland, Sheffield, Nottingham and London to attend one of the most vibrant and active feminist movements in the UK.\u00a0 \u00a0All women were welcome: black women and non-black women; heterosexual, lesbian, bi, and transgendered women; disabled and non-disabled women; women of all ages (the experiences of older women were particularly inspirational to the younger feminists there); and women of all political backgrounds and parties.\u00a0 Activists, students, practitioners, musicians, artists, politicians, and academics came together to attend plenaries and workshops – some skills-based (such as public speaking), others issue-based (including women in political parties; sexually exploited girls and women; and what is feminism) – and to discuss further activism.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The NEFG provided a feminist woman-only space and, although not an uncontroversial stance amongst feminists, it was a crucial component of the Gathering.\u00a0\u00a0 Following last year\u2019s successful (first) NEFG,<\/span> Dr Elizabeth Sharp<\/a> of Texas Tech University (currently an honorary fellow at Durham University) and<\/span> Dr Ruth Lewis<\/a> of Northumbria University carried out a research project with a third of the women who attended NEFG12 to explore the experiences of being in a feminist women-only space, collecting data through focus groups (group interviews). They found that the NEFG space offered paradoxical conditions of feeling settled (relaxed) and unsettled (challenged) simultaneously.\u00a0 Feminist practices (e.g., reciprocity,<\/span> respectfulness, reflexivity) and focusing on feminism at the NEFG created conditions whereby participants had in-depth intellectual and personal exchanges, experienced a high-energizing atmosphere (\u2018euphoric joy\u2019) and resulted in a host of powerful outcomes, including feeling \u2018cleverer\u2019, happier, more confident, and more connected. The NEFG space allowed women to be safe from sexist comments, hostility towards feminism, and physical harm, which, in turn,<\/span> allowed women to be safe to speak, to discover themselves, confront stereotypes of other feminists, ask difficult questions, and to think. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The NEFG thus provides a fabulous example of social renewal; both within the space (a safe place for women to act as full, relational, civic beings) and outside of it (in the connections made and the further activism that it inspired).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Feminist activism is a bottom up, grass-roots movement but large civic institutions, including Universities, have a role to play too.\u00a0 Central to this is the content of our curriculum and the focus of our research.\u00a0 But so too is the physical visibility of women across the University.\u00a0 Women are largely invisible in civic spaces \u2013 in portraits, in statutes, in street names; we are writing women out of history and we are failing to provide examples to our girls and young women to show them who they <\/em>can be.\u00a0 For this reason, the current exhibition in the Hatton Gallery,<\/span> Inspirational Women of the North East<\/a>, is a real cause for celebration, and the University and the NISR<\/a> are to be congratulated for supporting<\/span> Professor Helen Berry<\/a>\u2019s<\/span> project.\u00a0 However, the exhibition is only a first step.\u00a0 It should be followed by further initiatives throughout academic departments and public spaces across the campus to supplement (or even replace) the many images of men with photographs and portraits of women, thus giving our female students other women to see, to look up to, and to strive to be like. We may not have female chancellors and vice chancellors to display, or as many alumni, or notable (dead)<\/span> judges (an example from my own School), but this is not an excuse for perpetuating in the present the exclusion and invisibility of women from public life that occurred in the past.\u00a0 Like the Inspirational Women of the North East project, we can display images of women past and <\/em>present, extraordinary ordinary women from all walks of life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, as well as thinking about feminism in the content of our work, we should think about it in the content of our space: let\u2019s use our campus to showcase women and contribute to the vibrant feminist activity taking place in the North East, demonstrating that as an institution, we too want to contribute to the social renewal of women\u2019s lives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor Kathryn Hollingsworth Professor Kathryn Hollingsworth is a member\u00a0of Newcastle Law School and\u00a0is\u00a0our Social Justice and Injustice Theme Champion. Kathryn writes this blog on the\u00a0increased visibility of feminist activity in the UK and why it’s a significant aid to social … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[17,18,19,11],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-justice-2","tag-feminism","tag-iwne","tag-north-east","tag-social-justice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions\/124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/nisr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}