What makes a feminist space? How it looks? How it feels? Maria Butler, WILPF Director of Global Programmes, asks this question in her blog from the recent consultation and global board meeting of the MenEngage Alliance.
By Maria Butler
What makes a feminist space? What does a feminist space feel like to you? For me it invokes a mixture of feelings – inclusivity, rebellion, respect, liberation, participation. There is that feminist curiosity and that spark of feminist electricity.
I was in one such feminist space in June when I participated in meetings of MenEngage Alliance on behalf of WILPF in Vårdinge (a school in rural Sweden focusing on arts and organic farming).
29 participants from 23 organisations, 19 countries were gathered for the 4-day long meeting which included a Stakeholder Consultation on the State of the Field [70+ CSO representatives, activists, academics and policy makers], a Global Board meeting and a Strategic Planning meeting.
WILPF, as a member of Global Board, joined other members and partners of the Alliance to discuss how best to work together to transform negative masculinities, to challenge power, privilege and patriarchy, and to work collaboratively for gender equality. The spark of feminist electricity was present and active!
Participants explicitly addressed critiques from women’s organisations and unpacked the risks of engaging men as individuals while missing systemic discriminations. There was recognition that women and women’s groups lead the way in the struggle for gender equality and the alliances of men join that women-led movement.
“We (MenEngage Alliance) build on the precious heritage of feminist women’s rights organisations: we owe our understandings of power, privilege and patriarchy, and our efforts to promote equality and justice, to the pioneering courage and vision of these activists and their organisations,” said Joni van de Sand, Global Coordinator of the Alliance.
At the consultation (day one), I co-hosted (with a colleague Anthony Keedi from WILPF partner Abaad) conversations, on ‘Peacebuilding and engaging boys and men in non-violent conflict resolution.’ Participants from Russia to India, from South Africa to Nicaragua shared their perspectives on peace and security. We debated and discussed nonviolence as an active and political principle and the critical need for awareness on community models of non-violence, prevention and peace-building. The regional network in Africa (MenEngage Africa) which consists of 17 country networks across the continent has many lessons to share of research work (many referred to The International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) as one of the most comprehensive household studies ever carried out on men’s attitudes and practices – along with women’s opinions and reports of men’s practices – on a wide variety of topics related to gender equality.)
Participants continuously asked: “how does the MenEngage Alliance meaningfully establish intersectionality in the work including LGTBQI representations, indigenous peoples, youth, faith communities, class?” African Men for Sexual Health and Rights (AMSHeR), another member of the Board, shared their work and underlined the importance of future inclusive cross-movement work.
WILPF joined the Global Board of MenEngage Alliance in 2015.
MenEngage Alliance is an international network made up of dozens of country networks spread across many regions of the world, hundreds of non-governmental organizations, as well as UN partners. MenEngage has 700 members who work collectively and individually toward advancing gender justice, human rights and social justice to achieve a world in which all can enjoy healthy, fulfilling and equitable relationships and their full potential.
Through country-level and regional networks, the MenEngage Alliance seeks to provide a collective voice on the need to engage men and boys in women’s rights and gender equality, to build and improve the field of practice around engaging men in achieving gender justice, and advocating before policymakers at the local, national, regional and international levels.
As the WILPF Manifesto includes, “One aspect of WILPF’s pursuit of peace, therefore, will be working to transform gender from a power relation to one of partnership. This can only come about if men wish for it as women do, and co-operate with us to achieve it.”
At WILPF’s Women’s Power to Stop War Conference in The Hague one year ago, which MenEngage Alliance was part of (with a panel on Engaging Men and Boys for Gender Equality, Peace and Social Justice: Rationale, Strategies, Accountabilities and other activities), WILPF unpacked gendered power in our world and highlighted its systemic links to causes of inequalities, injustices and conflict. It is never about adding women and stirring! To have transformative change, it is not about changing the players (adding women or indeed adding feminist men), it must be about changing the systems of power and the game itself.
The violent realities of the world today – from forced militarisation of societies to backlash on rights and democracy, from climate chaos to increasing attacks on rights defenders – make our activism, our values, our collective work essential! This means moving away from any normal modes of operation. It demands urgent action, innovation, reorganisation and not at least, it demands that we mobilise across movements.
Cross-movement mobilisation is essential if we want to change fundamental structures and fight the root causes of violence, armed conflict and inequality among people. WILPF will continue this conversation at the upcoming AWID Forum with many partners at our special Cross Movement Session ‘Feminist Playbook for Peace.’
Many meetings I participate in do not have the feeling of feminism that I experienced at the MenEngage meeting. I learned in Vårdinge that feminist spaces are not about who is there or how they look but about the feelings they invoke! Inclusivity, rebellion, respect, liberation, participation with that feminist curiosity and spark of feminist electricity! Let’s foster more of these spaces and these feelings.
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Berit Aasen is a sociologist by training and has worked at the OsloMet Metropolitan University on Oslo. She has 40 years of experience in research and consultancy in development studies, including women, peace, and security, and in later years in asylum and refugee studies. Berit Aasen joined WILPF Norway five years ago. She is an alternate member of the National Board of WILPF Norway, and representing WILPF Norway in the UN Association of Norway, the Norwegian 1325 network and the Norwegian Women’s Lobby. Berit Aasen has been active in the WILPF European Liaison group and is committed to strengthening WILPF sections and membership both in Europe and relations across continents.
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Prior to being elected Vice-President, Melissa Torres was the WILPF US International Board Member from 2015 to 2018. Melissa joined WILPF in 2011 when she was selected as a Delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women as part of the WILPF US’ Practicum in Advocacy Programme at the United Nations, which she later led. She holds a PhD in Social Work and is a professor and Global Health Scholar at Baylor College of Medicine and research lead at BCM Anti-Human Trafficking Program. Of Mexican descent and a native of the US/Mexico border, Melissa is mostly concerned with the protection of displaced Latinxs in the Americas. Her work includes training, research, and service provision with the American Red Cross, the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Centre, and refugee resettlement programs in the U.S. Some of her goals as Vice-President are to highlight intersectionality and increase diversity by fostering inclusive spaces for mentorship and leadership. She also contributes to WILPF’s emerging work on the topic of displacement and migration.
Jamila Afghani is the President of WILPF Afghanistan which she started in 2015. She is also an active member and founder of several organisations including the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organisation (NECDO). Elected in 2018 as South Asia Regional Representative to WILPF’s International Board, WILPF benefits from Jamila’s work experience in education, migration, gender, including gender-based violence and democratic governance in post-conflict and transitional countries.
Sylvie Jacqueline NDONGMO is a human rights and peace leader with over 27 years experience including ten within WILPF. She has a multi-disciplinary background with a track record of multiple socio-economic development projects implemented to improve policies, practices and peace-oriented actions. Sylvie is the founder of WILPF Cameroon and was the Section’s president until 2022. She co-coordinated the African Working Group before her election as Africa Representative to WILPF’s International Board in 2018. A teacher by profession and an African Union Trainer in peace support operations, Sylvie has extensive experience advocating for the political and social rights of women in Africa and worldwide.
In response to the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and its targeted attacks on civil society members, WILPF Afghanistan issued several statements calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with Afghan people and ensure that their rights be upheld, including access to aid. The Section also published 100 Untold Stories of War and Peace, a compilation of true stories that highlight the effects of war and militarisation on the region.
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WILPF uses feminist analysis to argue that militarisation is a counter-productive and ill-conceived response to establishing security in the world. The more society becomes militarised, the more violence and injustice are likely to grow locally and worldwide.
Sixteen states are believed to have supplied weapons to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 with the US supplying 74 % of weapons, followed by Russia. Much of this equipment was left behind by the US military and is being used to inflate Taliban’s arsenal. WILPF is calling for better oversight on arms movement, for compensating affected Afghan people and for an end to all militarised systems.
Mobilising men and boys around feminist peace has been one way of deconstructing and redefining masculinities. WILPF shares a feminist analysis on the links between militarism, masculinities, peace and security. We explore opportunities for strengthening activists’ action to build equal partnerships among women and men for gender equality.
WILPF has been working on challenging the prevailing notion of masculinity based on men’s physical and social superiority to, and dominance of, women in Afghanistan. It recognizes that these notions are not representative of all Afghan men, contrary to the publicly prevailing notion.
In WILPF’s view, any process towards establishing peace that has not been partly designed by women remains deficient. Beyond bringing perspectives that encapsulate the views of half of the society and unlike the men only designed processes, women’s true and meaningful participation allows the situation to improve.
In Afghanistan, WILPF has been demanding that women occupy the front seats at the negotiating tables. The experience of the past 20 has shown that women’s presence produces more sustainable solutions when they are empowered and enabled to play a role.
