Paper short abstract:

Transnational feminism, which lies at the intersection of activism and professionalism in development, is the case study of the present research and the case study that allows us to explore the porous boundary between activism and professionalism.

Paper long abstract:

Transnational feminism certainly lies at the intersection of activism and professionalism in development. In particular, we want to refer to one of its distinctive forms of activism: the transnational feminist networks (TFN) that emerged during the Conferences on Women, organised by the United Nations, between 1975 and 1995. On these occasions, feminists shape transnational activism that creates, at a time usually considered to be one of feminism's decline (as well as its professionalization), new languages, frameworks, practices and networks. Since the end of the conferences, activists, experts, and many NGOs have defined a feminist advocacy strategy that reaches the present day, most notably the Commission on the Status of Women, now the United Nations' main body for women's rights. One of these transnational feminist networks, the Women's Rights Caucus, is the case study of the present research that allows us to explore, through the complicated building of alliances between feminists from the global North and South, the porous boundary between activism and professionalism.

To fully understand what TFN are, the historical evolution of this form of activism will be illustrated, dwelling on the 1980s (with particular reference to the 1985 Nairobi Conference) to analyse the alleged "NGOization" of the women's and feminist movements. The case considered allows us to delineate the complexity underlying the concepts of activism and professionalism and the different conceptions that change depending on the historical period and mainly on the background of the activists located at the intersection of gender, race, class and religion.