Much of the work that has been done on women’s organizing in the Third World
examines women’s activism within the context of other movements for social change (anti-
colonial, anti-dictatorial, socialist, and democratization struggles).
because much of the mobilization of women in the Third World has taken place within the
context of other human rights struggles; however, all too often, women’s gender interests have
been ignored or dismissed within such struggles. Articles on Brazil, China, Chile, the Occupied
Territories, Namibia, and South Africa all reveal a similar dynamic with regard to women’s
The research demonstrates that women’s movements and women’s
interests have historically been subsumed by and deemed secondary to national liberation,
democratization, and other movements for social change. It seems that whatever the driving
force of change was seen to be in these countries - modernization, development, economic
growth, democratization, national liberation, or the transition to socialism - the common idea
fostered was that “overall social change would also bring about equality for women.”
assumed that when the anti-colonial struggle was won, national liberation was achieved, or
socialism or democracy was in place, women would automatically be emancipated. Since this
has proven not to be the case, a preoccupation with the need for autonomy for women’s
organizations and women’s movements has emerged in the literature.
Numerous scholars cite the centrality of autonomy to African women’s movements. Ifi
Amadiume argues that African women traditionally had autonomous organizations for which
they sought the power “to defend and maintain their autonomy,” thus making autonomy “the
central characteristic of indigenous women’s movements in Africa.”
Aili Mari Tripp states that
“one of the most complex and critical issues facing Africa today is the need for political space to
mobilize autonomously from the state and from the party in power.”
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Convention