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Abstract
Despite the crucial role feminist movements play in securing progressive development policies, legislation and socio-legal protections for women, labeling women’s rights issues as feminist has contradictory, mostly negative, effects on the women’s movement in Africa. This paper discusses research findings that show that older women (activists) are more likely to self-identify as feminists than younger women in Ghana. I argue that, while resistance to feminism may have roots in anti-imperialism, socio-cultural and economic privileges play a crucial role in such resistance at an individual level. Based on findings discussed in the paper I suggest the following. First, the perceived threat of feminism to African socio-cultural norms dialectically enhances opportunities for advancing women’s rights in development planning through a more transformative civil liberties route as opposed to a “special victims’ unit” approach. Second, further empirical research is needed to assess the impact of various intersecting variables (class, age, ethnicity, sexuality, religion and geographical location) on feminist politics in Africa.
RÉSUMÉ
Malgré le rôle crucial joué par les mouvements féministes pour l’obtention de politiques de développement, de lois et de protections socio-légales progressistes pour les femmes, le fait de caractériser de « féministes » les sujets touchant aux droits des femmes a un impact contradictoire et plutôt négatif sur le mouvement des femmes en Afrique. Cet article aborde les résultats de recherches qui montrent qu’au Ghana, plus les femmes sont jeunes, moins elles sont susceptibles de s’identifier en tant que féministes que les femmes plus âgées (activistes). Je soutiens que s’il est possible que la résistance au féminisme trouve ses racines dans l’antiimpérialisme, les privilèges socioculturels et économiques jouent un rôle crucial dans cette résistance, au plan individuel. Basé sur les résultats de recherche élaborés dans l’article, je suggère le suivant. Premièrement, la perception d’une menace du féminisme sur les normes socio-culturelles africaines élargit dialectiquement les possibilités d’une avancée des droits des femmes dans les politiques de développement, à travers une voie plus transformative des libertés civiles, à l’opposé d’une approche digne de la « Special Victims’ Unit ». Deuxièmement, il est nécessaire de faire des recherches empiriques plus poussées afin d’évaluer l’impact de diverses variables entrecroisées (classe, âge, ethnicité, sexualité, religion, et situation géographique) sur les politiques féministes en Afrique.
Acknowledgements
The author acknowledges the generous support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) for funding the field research for this project.
Notes
1. Here, I mean the expansion of its meaning to groups that disavow the term while agreeing with its over-arching principles of gender equity for women.
2. I am referring to the use of the term feminism to describe a range of activities for women’s rights. Africa is neither monolithic nor homogenous. While often talked about in singular terms, Africa is multiple and vast and its diversity needs to be acknowledged. However, in this paper I use Africa to refer to sub-Saharan Africa and, more specifically, to formerly colonised countries. Since most of the literature I refer to focuses on Anglophone Africa, it is also important to note that I am drawing on the context of formerly colonised Anglophone sub-Saharan African countries. My employment of it in the singular here in this case is to be taken in the context of a political discursive engagement.
3. See discussions on the difficulties of naming women’s rights movements as feminist by scholars and participants in this paper.
4. It is important to note that some of the participants who participated in individual interviews are well-known activists at the national level.
5. See www.ipas.org for more information on Ipas.
6. This followed an earlier unsuccessful coup attempt in 1979.
7. That is, mostly as a support base for a male-dominated regime.
8. This could also just be because traditional rulers were afraid of repercussions from the PNDC regime if they were found to be non-compliant with state directives.
9. See contents of speech delivered at http://www.un.org/esa/gopher-data/conf/fwcw/conf/gov/950905223402.txt.
10. In fact, Mrs Rawlings recently (in 2011) lost a bid to be a flag bearer of the party her husband founded. A keen observation of Mrs Rawlings’ political activism leads to my conclusion that she has contributed substantially in the shadows to her husband’s political success and could have run the country on her own if the socio-cultural and political climate permitted it.
11. Kalabule generally refers to unethical business practices of hoarding and creating artificial scarcity in order to increase profit (see Alidu Citation2014, 57–65 for more on human rights violations during military regimes in Ghana).
12. Here, I exclude economic groups, such as market women’s groups, who have also traditionally organised for women’s rights in the country since these groups are primarily concerned with economic activities and tend to be localised.
13. The manifesto addresses the following issues of concern to women: “Women’s Economic Empowerment, Women and Land, Women, Social Policy and Social Development, Women in Politics, Decision-making and Public Life, Women, Human Rights and the Law, Discriminatory Cultural Practices, Women and Media, Women, Conflict and Peace, Women with Special Needs, Institutions with a Mandate to promote Women’s Rights” (Women’s Manifesto for Ghana).
14. Controversies and name calling are discussed later on in the paper.
15. see Manuh and Dwamena-Aboagye Citation2014.
16. One or two participants in this group were in the 35–40 age bracket. The other 14 were all within the 50–75 age bracket.
17. See discussions in previous section.
18. That is, 11 years after Ghana gained independence from British colonial rule.
19. See news report on an anti-gay protest march at http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=183484.
20. Ibid., 654. Subtheme Four: Equality and Freedom from Discrimination: Issue Two: Recognition of Lesbian and Gay Rights.
21. From what I gathered while in the field, the section on marital rape was removed as a compromise for passing the rest of the Bill because of the controversies and tensions its inclusion caused. Feminists spoke about being realistic in terms of what was possible at this time. It is my understanding that the women’s movement is working at campaigning for this in the near future.