Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes the success of interest free nano-finance programs, emphasizing the unique and innovative methods women use to make successful business ventures, what can be learnt from the challenges women have faced in micro-credit, and how they have overcome their constraints.

Paper long abstract:

This paper focuses on the role of nano-financing in the lives of the poorest of the poor women in Odisha, India. Ranu Mahanty, a diasporic Odia, resident of E.Lansing, Michigan, USA, started the nano-finance project. As she explains (http://www.aamarabiswas.org) this practice is quite common and, as a result, these women never managed to come out of the vicious circle of abject poverty.

Using the life experiences of a dozen such women the paper sheds light on the local indigenous efforts to reach out to women who do not qualify for micro-credit and to create a sense of empowerment among women who, thereby, improve their personal situation and build up stronger social networks among themselves. The paper counters the feminist narrative that depicts poor, working class women as victims with an account of their empowerment as a tough lesson for us to model in our living, teaching and being engaged in women's issues. The analysis highlights how women who are looked upon as social outcasts and do not even qualify for micro-credit loans, take advantage of an alternative to the conventional micro-credit program, and not only manage to change their self image, but also find a new meaning in their lives by their business ventures. With the help of an interest-free loan, this collective of women has found new opportunities in their life, exploring their capabilities and developing their social networks challenging the social stigmas and taboos associated with their marginalized status.

Paper short abstract:

The Panchayati Raj Act (1992) provided for one-third reservation to women in panchayats that enabled 3.4 million representatives including 800,000 women to be elected for the first time in rural local governing institutions throughout India.

Paper long abstract:

The Panchayats have been traditional village managing and dispute settling mechanism in India. They are constituted by the members called 'panches', the five elderly, learned and wise men. Women's presence and participation in the panchayats remained negligible. The statutory panchayats were introduced and made more systematic and representative after the independence of India (1947) when the Panchayati Raj system was introduced (1959) to involve rural people to participate in the programmes of their development. The Panchayati Raj Act (1992), introduced as the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution of India further strengthened the panchayati raj system by making, among other things, reservations for women (33 percent) and other weaker sections of society at all the levels of panchayat mandatory. As a result elections were held and around 3.4 million representatives were elected throughout India in the local governing bodies including for the first time 800,000 women. In most of the states elections have been held 3-4 times since then which has resulted in increase in women's representation and performance over the years, despite the problems they encountered and backlash they faced. This paper explores the process of empowerment of women in panchayats or decision-making institutions in rural areas of India. For this, various studies conducted on the empowerment of women in panchayats of India, including my own study in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India, would be analyzed.

Paper short abstract:

The paper tries to explore the question of whether women's representation and subsequent participation in the local governance makes a difference in politics.

Paper long abstract:

In India, women's representation in political institutions at the local level has been ensured through affirmative action policies. The presence of women in the Panchayats has facilitated the increase in numerical representation and enabled them to change the myth that women's role and responsibilities are confined to kitchen, farms and household tasks. Notwithstanding the already documented fact that women have less interest, experience and engagement in politics, it can be substantiated that women's presence in democratic local governance has manifold constructive implications. Some of the implications of the presence of women in local level politics suggest that women's issues/interests would be more pronounced and documented with women members more likely to work on issues related to them. In the backdrop of this discussion, the paper tries to explore the question of whether women's representation and subsequent participation in the local governance makes a difference in politics. Do the women members considerably pronounce and document women's issues or interests in panchayats? Further, the paper outlines the overall political attitude and behavior towards women's entry and leadership in local politics. The paper narrates the empirical experiences of the attempts towards feminization of rural politics and the public sphere, and engages with the larger debate of the implication of such feminization for bringing about social transformation in women's personal lives as well as in gender relations. The empirical data were gathered from a field study of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in the Dhenkalal District of Orissa in India.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the actions of one woman who attempts to establish ideological links between different realities involved in the activism promoted by the Landless Movement (Movimento Sem Terra- MST) in Brazil. The trajectory of this individual will show how masculine and feminine roles are challenged in particular ways, as her trajectory allows us to think about changes in gender relationships within the construction of leadership and sociopolitical activism in a global context.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is related to my research regarding gender identity within the context of rural settlement organizations in Brazil, specifically where the Landless Rural Worker Movement (in Portuguese Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra - MST) is acting as an organizational reference for the struggle to acquire land. In the process of fighting for land, some agents become militant leaders establishing contacts within national and international political spaces, and then play an important role within and outside of the settlement projects, in dialogue with the MST and other organizations. In this process, traditional gender roles are challenged in a context of power relationships. I will pay special attention to one woman who became a fundamental leader in order to keep a political and economic settlement project organization and who is considered a role model by the MST. This woman plays a fundamental role in this project. Inside the settlements, her continuous action foments new ways of thinking about working the land; the division of daily tasks for men and women, and so on. Outside the settlement, this woman has represented the MST in Brazil and in seminars around the world, contributing to the insertion of the MST in global arenas of political activism, with her many years of experience in militancy and a strong religious perspective. This paper presents moments from her life that illustrate how certain aspects, her single status, and strong religious faith, among others, contribute to the development of leadership.

Paper short abstract:

This comparative research focuses on political participation as it is conceptualized and practiced among indigenous and Afro-descendant women in Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama.

Paper long abstract:

This research is focused on the participation in politics of indigenous and Afro-descendant women in Latin America with the following goals: a) to provide an update on the current regulations and institutional framework in place in each of the countries with indigenous and Afro-descendant populations (constitutions, municipal legislation, quota regulations); b) to identify the current electoral and political party systems; record the different expressions and conceptions of the political participation concept and analyze the changes occurred in women's leadership modes in the last few decades; and c) to account for the progress and regression in elections and decision-making processes within their own communities and organizations as well as at the national and local levels. In general terms, by interweaving the gender perspective with an ethnographic point of view, the research aims to promote women's rights, gender equality, participation and political leadership in the region. We systematized the inquiry and the analysis of the evidence it yielded on women's participation and leadership in six countries of the region: Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama. This study was undertaken within the framework of the project: "Strengthening Governance from a Gender Perspective and Women's Political Participation at the Local Level in Latin America - Phase 2, 2010- 2013 (UN Women-Santo Domingo).

Paper short abstract:

Drawing on historical and ethnographic cases from the U.S., Cuba, and Brazil, this paper examines sociopolitical activism and leadership among Afro-descendant women involved in struggles for citizenship and human rights.

Paper long abstract:

Using the Black-led antiracist struggle in the United States as a point of entry, this paper examines the roles that African-descended women have played in the capacity building and leadership of movements for civil rights and human rights in three specific settings in the African Diaspora. Drawing on the theoretical and evidence-based insights of social analysts and cultural critics from across the North/South divide, the paper elucidates the centrality of Afro-descendant women's concrete activism, visions, and knowledge in advancing struggles for i) land, resources, and substantive citizenship in Brazil (Keisha-Khan Perry, Kia Lilly Caldwell, Sueli Carneiro, Beatriz Nascimento); ii) a counter-public space for race- and gender-cognizant debate and cultural production in Cuba (Sujatha Fernandes, Sandra Álvarez, Inés María Martiatu, Yusimí Rodríguez); and iii) a clear shift beyond the boundaries of civil rights to human rights as a more comprehensive framework for grassroots and extra-local politics and transnational networking in the United States, particularly in the deep south with its parallels with the stark disparities and developmental unevenness associated with much of the global south (Loretta Ross, Stanlie James, Faye Harrison). The paper will illuminate the multiple modalities of leadership manifest in Afro-diasporic women's social action and political mobilization over time and space. However, attention will be directed especially to the more socio-centric forms driven by a counter-discourse critical of leadership models marked by individualist, hierarchical, and masculinist power.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines Black women’s complex relationships to feminism by analyzing specific examples of struggles for gender equity in Africa and the United States and by considering the ways in which Black feminisms intersect in global exchanges. By defining feminism as a conscious process with divergent and complex meanings for Black women in Africa and in the United States, this research also considers Black feminist epistemology as a productive mechanism for facilitating ongoing dialogue, leadership and action between women as scholars and activists.

Paper long abstract:

Although not always recognized as such, Black women's resistance, militancy and activism in the mid-20th century were indeed, globalized and internationalized political processes. In South Africa as well as in the southern United States, for example, Black women played major roles in the eventual dismantling of racially oppressive policies and practices. The profound line, "we are the ones we've been waiting for" from June Jordan's "Poem for South African Women" boldly asserts that Black women everywhere are not only powerful but also capable of creating change for themselves, their families, their communities and the world. Jordan's provocative words also suggested a nascent but certain sense of empowerment grounded in an explicitly feminist consciousness that examined the intersecting realities of women's lives and that transcended geographic and political borders. The late 20th century was an era of defining and clarifying Black feminist politics. Scholars and activists began to peel back the fabric of what Barbara Smith called the "multilayered texture" of Black women's lives. Scholarship privileging Black women's voices emerged in the U.S. and Africa. This paper asks: How is feminism defined by Black women in the 21st century? Is there a transnational Black feminist community? In what ways do feminist scholars and activists transcend divergent definitions of feminist thought and practice in order to build solidarity? How does feminist thought and practice influence struggles for economic and social justice in Africa and the diaspora?

Paper short abstract:

Young women leading organizations working toward sustainable futures in their home region of the Appalachian U.S. will discuss, in examples from filmed and recorded interviews, what they see as challenging and encouraging in their work, how they envision collective action in Appalachia in comparison with other efforts globally, and how gender matters in their work. The presenters, also from the region, will discuss these leaders' strategic mobilization of social capital, alternative community governance, and discourses of marginality and centrality in their work for change.

Paper long abstract:

There is a long tradition of collective political organization in the Appalachian region of the U.S., including labor unions, civil rights campaigns, and environmental activism. Currently, there are strong leaders emerging from local communities who are young women choosing to stay in Appalachia and work for sustainable futures in the region. This presentation will feature examples from filmed and recorded interviews with some of these young leaders about why they are organizing for change in their communities, what they see as challenging and encouraging about their work, how they envision collective action in Appalachia in comparison with other efforts globally, and how gender matters in their work. In a region characterized in many dominant discourses as "marginal" or, in the rhetoric of the federal Appalachian Regional Commission, "economically distressed," how do these young women conceptualize social capital, community, and governance? How do they draw strategically on various discourses about the region in mobilizing social and economic resources for their organizations? This presentation is given by a team of one anthropologist who has followed community organizing efforts in her home region of Appalachia over three decades and one young leader who combines sustainability and feminist media activism in Appalachia with graduate work in anthropology.

Paper short abstract:

This paper draws upon ethnographic fieldwork in the US to examine breast cancer-related advocacy by and for low income women, recent immigrants, and women of color. The paper focuses on strategies articulated for realizing social justice, as well as physical survival.

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws upon over twenty years of field research in the United States (and, more specifically, California) to develop a comparative analysis of breast cancer-related inequalities and strategic forms of advocacy. Based on recent ethnographic work (2001-2006), the paper examines issues of physical survival, biomedical gate-keeping, involvement in clinical decision-making, and advocacy that are articulated through the narratives of women of color and low-income women of various ethnicities, races, and nationalities. Particular attention is given to women's involvement in community-driven town hall meetings, support groups, and informal networks as interventions against multiple forms of discrimination. Such political and social efforts are compared with the formally organized, predominantly middle class, and Euro-American breast cancer movement of the U.S. The argument is made that, through social justice activities organized "at the margins," women of color and low-income women with breast cancer have forged new public space and redefined public health agendas.