Women Community Organizers often Engage Popular Struggles on More Than One Front - Research Paper Example

?Women Community Organizers often Engage Popular Struggles on More Than One Front Any successful or non-successful social movement takes it root froma community or a group of communities. These communities are very crucial in sustaining the movements because it provides the basic social necessities so that the participants can involve themselves actively in the movement (Stoecker, 1992). Communities to not form by themselves, but they are organized so that a strong relationship is built among the participants. This process of building a community and sustaining it throughout the period is called ‘community organizing’ and the process involves not only building a network of individuals, but also the identification of goals and action towards those specific goals. According to Snow, et al (1986), the process of community organization can mean the entire process of organizing individuals, sorting out the relationships, identification of goals and paths, mobilization of individuals and maintenance of a strong network. Until sometime back, community organizing was not a very popular subject with the scholars (Davis, 1981). Therefore, very little is known about the origin of the theories of community management and whether, the theories of social movements can be applied to the way in which community organization works (Stoecker, 1993). To this caveat of literature of social movements and community organization, there is also the lack of awareness of what roles that gender discourses play in these communities. Only in the past decades, gender has received a high consideration (Robnett l996), Gender, which can be considered to be a social product of any interaction is also redefined and reconstructed through any social movement or community organization. With any community organization or social movement, the differences and inequalities in terms of gender equations come out more strongly. According to Brandwein (1987), gender has an effect on the way in which problems are identified and choices are made. For example, in a community or social movement, the responsibilities that individuals have outside of the movement are not taken into account (Stoecker, 1992) and when it is taken into account, the way in which women are involved gets restricted. In the New York Tenants movement, the role of women was confined to the most basic of activities, where as men were involved in complex issues. (Lawson and Barton, 1980). Therefore, the community organization work contributed by women during social movement gets ignored. Robnett (1996) has challenged the narrations and accounts of movements that have ignores and neglected the role of women activists. Barnett (1993) has challenged the research related to social movement and community management that projects the spokesperson of the movement while ignore the workers who work at grass root, who are often women. Therefore, even though there is a very high involvement of women organizers in the field of community organization, the image and projection always comes out to be that of a male dominated effort. Even though these movements talk about democracy in participation, the actual way in which these movements are projected and carried out do not practice this democracy in terms of gender equations. According to Weil (1986), the strategies get influenced on ‘macho power’ and zero-sum competitiveness. As a result of this approach, the challenges that women face in participation in these movements is not confined to the direct engagement in these movements and they face challenges at multiple levels. Apart from contributing to these movements, there is lack of visibility, pressure to take up more grass root level or administrative challenges, making sure that other responsibilities such as child care and home management happens smoothly. This study takes a detailed look at the way in which women community organizers engage in popular struggles in more than one front. For any woman who participates in these community organizations, the purpose or the mission never remains one-dimensional. Therefore, through this study, the various dimensions that women encounter and battle in a community organization are explored in detail, which specific references to the Civil Rights movement and the Anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. The research would attempt to answer questions related to the role of women in these movements, the method of organization used among women community organizers, challenges faced when participating in predominantly male led movements and unique challenges that women face which hinder successful participations. Role of Women in Community Organization In any community organization, the image projected out is of a demonstration or a key male leader, where as many crucial aspects such as the hours of preparation behind it, the catering of basic needs and grass root level efforts go unnoticed. Community organization is a function of the social movement that can be considered to be the closest to the grassroots level and is often carried out by women (Lawson and Barton, 1980). It has been noticed that most of the analysis related to social movements do not deal in understanding or analysis of concepts that explore the efforts that go in at grassroots level (Taylor, 1989). The social construct as well as the projections tend to highlight a single person or a group of people who stand out as central contributors. Hence, it is necessary to understand the gender dimensions as that will help in developing and understanding the role of women in community organization as well as its contribution to social movements. Culturally, the notions of division of public and private come into play, where ‘public’ is classified as the work done by men in a formal manner and ‘private’ is classified as the work done by women at home and community (Tilly and Scott, 1978). Even though these spheres influence each other, they are considered to have radically different reasoning and cultures, resulting in two different ways of community organization. The community organization models of Saul Alinsky (1971) forms the discourse between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ where as the women-centric model talks about relationship building and empowerment through relationships. Before elaborating on the specific roles of women in community organization, it is necessary to understand the different approaches that have been used to understand the discourse of community organization. According to the Alinsky model, there are separate public and private sphere, therefore community organization was not something that could be carried out effectively by ‘family types’. Therefore, the role that the private sphere played was to support the public sphere work of the organizers and not get involved in it directly. However, according to the women-centered model, any efforts in community organization have a deep root in private issues or private sphere as without the private sphere, the efforts at the public sphere would remain sketchy and inconsistent (Tiano, l984,). According to Alinsky, the role of a community organizer should stand out before any other matter or issue, be it family or friends. To make sure that this notion is drilled down, he would keep his team of trainees during the night and odd hours to plan strategy meetings and discussions (Reitzes and Reitzes, 1987). Even though Alinsky never discouraged women in engaging or participating in community organization, he was also never encouraging about women actively participating in them because he feared that they were very delicate (Finks, 1984). The women-centered community organization is successful in expanding any boundaries from the household to reach towards the neighborhood because these efforts have the potential to dissolve the gaps between the public sphere and private sphere (Haywoode, l991). With this type of organization, there is focus on respect, transformation, community building and caring (Barnett l995). This type of organization cannot be attributed to one single individual, but it can be regarded as a process that happened over a period of time with a span of several movements. The involvement of women in early settlement movement, the civil rights movement, anti-apartheid movement and so on helped women to pose a challenge to the public and private spheres in a radical manner that would have an impact on the relationship, parenting, responsibilities at home and work. However, the success in such cases has not been documented because the challenges to the private sphere are not regarded as of high value. Hence, there is an inherent clash in the two approaches of community management. While one of the most popular community organizers, Alinsky, fails to recognize the gender discourse, the women-centered school of thought struggles to bring out the inherent as well as integral role that individuals (mostly women) play in the movements. This discussion can be taken a step further by looking at Paolo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970). Freire was a keen proponent of the democratization of pedagogy or teaching. According to him, traditional method of teaching is the ‘banking model’ where the students are considered piggy banks where the teacher makes deposits. He was not at all in favor of this model because he feels that pedagogy should treat the students or learners as co-creators of knowledge. Hence, the teaching process should be inclusive of the students as equal contributors. This analogy can be used to analyze the way in which women community organizers are considered as ‘students’ or ‘oppressed’. The community organizers who come to the limelight as can be seen as the traditional teachers where as those who operate at the grassroots level are students. It is also noteworthy that community organizers are not oppressors because they oppress in a literal manner, but they are oppressors because of the power equation. This power comes through various means, such as knowledge, skill, time and availability and so on. Therefore, this power enables them to take a domineering position, without giving an equal position to those who are members of the community organizations and those who contribute at the basic level (Gibson, 2006). All these theories bring one common aspect to the forefront. The challenges that are faced by women who are involved in any community organization can never be confined to one single aspect of direct engagement. While working at the grassroots level does not bring in any kind of acknowledgement of involvement in the community organization, coming out strongly to lead any particular movement becomes even more complex. The complexity increases due to many different factors. For example, a physically disabled woman trying to lead any community organization also brings about the discourse of being physically challenged apart from the gender dimensions. The Civil Rights Movement in America The Civil Rights movement in America, also known as the African American Civil Rights Movement refers to a series of movements in the United States that spanned around 1955 to 1968 to eliminate any form of racial discrimination that happens against African Americans. This movement is considered as a landmark movement in the history of America. The forms of discrimination against the African Americans were varied – racial segregation, lack of voting rights, exploitation as well as violence. It required a massive movement that lasted for more than a decade across the country to bring forth a social revolution in terms of granting basic rights to the African American community (Myers, 1991). As with any mass movement, community organization at the grassroots level played a very important role in the civil rights movement. Even though many women came out strongly to participate as well as lead the Civil Rights movement, some stand out because of the influential and key role played in the movement (Evans, 1989). For example, Rosa Parks who is also popularly called the ‘mother of civil rights movement’ was a key figure in fighting racial injustice. Even though she stood out in the movement, her efforts would not have been so successful if not for the work that JoAnn Gibson Robinson and other women carried out in the Montgomery Women’s Political Council. Rosa Parks is widely recognized for her contribution that is made with the Montgomery Bus Boycott movement is remarkable (Gidding, 1984). Another name that figures prominently in the Civil rights movement is that of Ella Baker, who was a leader who functioned behind the scenes but played a crucial part in exposing the ordinary people to the seriousness of the civil rights movement. After graduation, the only option available for black women in the South was to teach and Baker did not want to become a teacher, hence she opted for different professions. When she reached New York, the Harlem Renaissance was happening and that exposed her to different philosophies. Very soon, she joined the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and aimed to remove the myth that this organization catered only to the upper class of educated blacks. Baker was a strong believer in starting at grassroots level. She had her own doubts about mass meetings and big protests. Instead, she was a strong propagator or organizing people in smaller groups so that the potential of each member of the group can be realized and utilized (Britton , l966). These small groups can provide the right atmosphere where the contribution of each of the participants can be affirmed (Stall, 1993) There is no doubt that women contributed immensely to the Civil Rights movement. However, this was not an easy path for the women who wanted to participate in the movement. The challenges that they faced were multidimensional. Not only did they have to fight against racial discrimination, they have to fight additional battles of being a colored woman who belongs to a so-called ‘low class’. Therefore, the complexity of getting involved in initiating a community organization proved to be a challenge at a much higher level when compared to the challenge that their male counterparts faced. Due to this fact, most women played only background roles because of the bias because, being a black woman in America meant that they had to face the challenges related not only due to racism but also due to sexism. Added to it was the fact that the civil rights movement had a focus primarily on the oppression and discrimination faced by the black men (Gates, 1991). Hence, the battle was not only against the society that discriminated against them, but was also within the movement itself. For example, many black women had to struggle within the civil rights groups, like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, where the agenda, purpose and goals were always very male-centric. Thus, within the civil rights movement itself, the African American women had to struggle to establish a place for themselves, apart from directly engaging in rights. According to Robnett (1996), the civil rights movement put forth the ‘gendered organization’ that defined the structure of African-American women in the movement, which gave rise to a substructure of leadership. Robnett further adds that the involvement of African-American women in the civil rights movement is a turning point because it helped in paving a platform to cross boundaries between the ‘personal lives and political lives of the civil rights movement organizations’ (Robnet, 1996 p. 1664). However, this does not undermine the contribution that women made to the movement. Women took the key role to help in developing a collective consciousness among the group at the grassroots level. This was probably the highest level of role that a majority of woman could contribute to the movement in their own way. It was extremely difficult for them to move beyond this role. The feminist movement in America also had a very high focus on the problems that were faced by the white women. For example, the fact that women earned the right to employment by going out to work did not have any significance for the black women because they were always working outside their house. In addition, the feminist movement did not bring forth any issues that would empower or help the black women (Hine, 1994). Therefore, the African American women were placed in a very tricky situation because neither the civil rights movement nor the feminist movement could accurately cater to their demands or needs. It was very easy to exclude the black women from the main discourses of these prominent movements. This discourse of exclusion paved the way for what came to be called as Black Feminism, which feels that black women face a very different type of oppression that is more intense. The Anti Apartheid Movement in South Africa South Africa saw probably the greatest racial discrimination that was seen in world history. Apartheid was the procedure of segregation based on race that was legally enforced by the government of South Africa for a very long period (1948-1994). By these laws, the rights of the non-white people were taken away and the rule was carried out by the white people (Gish, 2000). The Anti Apartheid movement was a global movement that had an agenda to stop this discrimination. The movement was carried out in stages by using strategies like ban from Commonwealth participation, Olympic participation, economic sanctions and numerous boycotts. Apartheid had a very high impact on the women because they suffered two types of discrimination – based on race as well as based on gender. Apart from facing the discrimination that men faced, they had to battle many additional steps of discrimination because they did not have any legal rights, no right to own any property and no access to learning or education (MacLean, 2004). Hence, most of the African women worked only as domestic workers or participated in agriculture with very low wages. The women of South Africa were very actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement. Along with the men, they strived hard to demand liberation and equal rights for the black community. However, as with the civil rights movement in the United States, the female activists were not the head of main community activities or organizations, but played critical roles lurking in the background (Berger, 1992). One such early organization was known as The Bantu Women's League founded in 1913 (Bernstein, 1985). After that, the women tried to make a strong presence in the trade union movements that took place around 1930s and 1940s. The key hallmark of women’s contribution came with the establishment of FedSAW or the Federation of South African Women in 1953, as it had a goal to fight against both racism as well as the oppression that women face in their day-to-day life. This goal was based on the premise that the African women need to be made aware of the fact that they had rights – not just human rights, but rights as a woman too. The female activists in Africa were actively involved in demonstrations as well as guerrilla activities and boycott activities. Over 20,000 women participated in such campaigns and many of them were either arrested or forced into exile (Bernstein,1985). Later the FedSAW was banned and it went underground. In addition to the battle of equality in the society, the women of South Africa also engaged in a strong battle against gender equality. Their demand was to get some very important and specific rights such as equality of the genders, right and access to education, family, children and healthcare. The ‘Women’s Charter’ of the Federation of South African Women had a very high focus on rights related to women and children (Parker, 1992). One of the main activists who lead from the front is Lilian Ngoyi who put in a considerable amount of effort to make sure that the local efforts is recognized globally so that there is a higher level of impact. According to Parker, other prominent women activists included Ida Ntwana and Helen Joseph. However, apart from very few women who came to the forefront, a huge majority continued to face struggles, working as domestic laborers with very low wages. It was extremely difficult for these women to involve in any community organization not just because of the fact that they were black women, but also due to poor health conditions and lack of education. Even if some of them had the desire to get involved, their efforts would be confined to the basic grassroots level of activity. It is also very important to know that the anti-apartheid movement was a global effort and not a local effort confined to South Africa. Therefore, the global support that came did not have much recognition about the issues of black women simple because there was not much awareness of how the discourses for the black men would differ from the experiences of the black women. Here, we can clearly see a parallel in the way in which women engaged in the civil rights movement in America and the way of engagement of the black women in South Africa. Even though the locations of the struggles were continents and miles apart – the central issue of multiple dimensions of struggle remained the same. Summary and Conclusion As it has been noted in most of the historical documents, the contribution that women make to any historical movement or any small-scale community organization largely goes unnoticed. The same was the case with both the civil rights movement in America as well as with the anti apartheid movement in South Africa. One major reason for this lack of visibility is the way in which women have to fight these battles at multiple levels in order to make any impact. In fact, given the conditions, the efforts by the women to get involved itself is highly commendable. The participation in any particular activity does not signify only the direct engagement of the women. Instead, it opens up many different discourses of battles that happen at various fronts. As seen through the civil rights movement as well as the anti-apartheid movement, the engagement carried out involved multi-dimensional struggles – that of race, gender as well as caste. Hence, to strive to achieve any basic goals involved overcoming multiple barriers. In addition, the goals that are set forth with any community organization are often very male-centric or majority focused, which causes exclusion to some extent. However, in the recent times, with the emergence of Black feminism and battle against marginalization, it has been seen that women have acknowledged the fact that their involvement is a struggle on more than one front. This acknowledgement can be seen through the work of Audre Lorde, who observed that the experiences that a black woman has are essentially different from that of a white woman. In the conventional feminist literature, the experiences of white woman are considered to be normative; therefore, any experience that the black woman describes is marginalized (Birkle, 1996). This discourse is taken one-step ahead when dimensions of health or sexuality are considered. For example, a black lesbian or a black physically challenged woman often is considered aberrations. Therefore, multiple factors go behind defining the various fronts that women community organizers engage in. When such discourses happen on multiple levels, it is highly probable that many a category of women’s issues get marginalized or excluded. References Alinsky, S. (1971). Rules for radicals. New York: Vintage Books. Barnett, B M. (l993). Invisible southern Black women leaders in the civil rights movement: The triple constraints of gender, race, and class. Gender & Society 7 p. 162-182. Barnett, B M.(1995). Black women's collectivist movement organizations: Their struggles duringthe "doldrums." In Feminist organizations: Harvest of the new women's movement, edited by Myra Marx Ferree and Patricia Yancey Martin. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Berger, I. (1992). Threads of Solidarity: Women in South African Industry, 1900-1980. Indiana University Press, Bloomington Bernstein, H (1985). For their Triumphs and for their Tears: Women in Apartheid South Africa. International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa. Parker, C (1992). Interviews with Liz Abrahams and Elizabeth Mafekeng in Paarl for Women in the Struggle:A Preview. Wecheselmann/Mayibuye Centre, University of the Western Cape. Birkle, C (1996). Women's Stories of the Looking Glass. Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1996 Brandwein, R. A. (1987). Women and community organization :The woman client,. New York: Tavistock Publications. Britton, J. (l968). Interview with Ella Baker: June 19, l968. Moorland-Springarn Collection, Howard University, 4.Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. Davis, A (l981). Women, race and class. New York: Random House. Evans, S M (1989). Born for liberty: a history of women in America. New York: The Free Press. Finks, P. D. (1984). The radical vision of Saul Alinsky. New York: Paulist Press. Freire, Paulo (2007). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum. Gates, H. L. Jr (1991). Bearing witness: selections from African-American autobiography in the twentieth century. New York: Pantheon Books, Giddings, P (1984). When and where I enter: the impact of black women on race and sex in America. New York: Bantam Books. Gish, Steven (2000). Alfred B. Xuma: African, American, South African. New York University Press Haywoode, T. L (l991). Working class feminism: Creating a politics of community, connection, and concern. Ph.D. dissertation, The City University of New York, New York. Hine, D C (1994). Hine sight: black women and the re-construction of of American history. Bloomington: Indiana University. Lawson, R and Stephen E. B. (l990). Women and social protest, New York: Oxford University Press. MacLean, B (2004). Strike a Woman, Strike a Rock: Fighting for Freedom in South Africa. Africa World Pres, Trenton, N.J. Myers, W D (1991). Now is your time! : the African-American struggle for freedom. New York: Harper Trophy. Reitzes, D. C. and Dietrich C. R. (1987). The Alinsky legacy: Alive and kicking. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Rich G (2006), The Frozen Dialectics of Paulo Freire, in NeoLiberalism and Education Reform, Hampton Press. Robnett, B. (l996). African-American women in the civil rights movement, l954-l965: gender, leadership, and micromobilization. American Journal of Sociology.101 (6) p. 1661-1693. Snow, D A., Burke R, Jr., Worden, S. K; and Benford, R. D ( l986). Frame alignment processes, micromobilization, and movement participation. American Sociological Review 51:464-481 Stall, S. (l993). Women in Organizing Project Evaluation. Women United for a Better City, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. Stoecker, R. (1992). Who Takes Out the Garbage? Social Reproduction and Social Movement Research. In Gale Miller and James A. Holstein (Eds.), Perspectives on Social Problems Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Stoecker, R. (1993). The Federated Front-Stage Structure and Localized Social Movements: A Case Study of the Cedar-Riverside Neighborhood Movement. Social Science Quarterly 74, 169-184. Taylor, V.( l989). Social movement continuity: The women's movement in abeyance. American Sociological Review 54 p761-775. Tiano, S. (l984). The public-private dichotomy: Theoretical perspectives on women in development. Social Science Journal 21(4): 11-28. Tilly, L. A., and Joan W. S. (1978). Women, Work, and Family. New York: Hold, Rinehart, and Winston. Weil, M. (l986). Women, community, and organizing. Silver Springs, Maryland: National Association of Social Workers. Read More