Taming or unleashing the monster of coalition work: Professionalization and the consolidation of popular feminism in Brazil

Feminist Studies

Volumn 39, Issue 3, 2013, Pages 759-789

  Lebon, Nathalie ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 84894657996     PISSN: 00463663     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (71)

1. Sonia E. Alvarez, "Latin American Feminisms 'Go Global': Trends of the 1990s and Challenges for the New Millennium," in Cultures of Politics/Politics of Cultures: Re-visioning Latin American Social Movements, eds. Sonia E. Alvarez, Evelina Dagnino, and Arturo Escobar (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998).
2. See Donna Murdock, When Women Have Wings: Feminism and Development in Medellín, Colombia (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008);
3. Millie Thayer, Making Transnational Feminism: Rural Women, NGO Activists, and Donors in Northern Brazil (New York: Routledge, 2010).
4. I wish their names to remain anonymous.
5. Gloria Anzaldúa, "Bridge, Drawbridge, Sandbar or Island; Lesbians-of- Color Haciendo Alianzas," in Bridges of Power: Women's Multicultural Alliances, ed. Lisa Albrecht and Rose M. Brewer (Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1990);
6. María Lugones, Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition against Multiple Oppressions (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003).
7. I have discussed race issues elsewhere. See Nathalie Lebon, "Beyond Confronting the Myth of Racial Democracy: The Role of Afro-Brazilian Women Scholars and Activists," Latin American Perspectives 34, no. 6 (November 2007): 52-76.
8. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean, 2010 (New York: United Nations Publications, 2010), 65.
9. Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), Censo Demográfico 2010, Table 1.3.1, População residente, por cor o raça, Segundo o sexo e os grupos de idade - Brasil 2010, http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/censo2010/caracteristicas-da- populacao/tabelas-pdf/tab3.pdf.
10. Kia Lilly Caldwell, Negras in Brazil: Re-envisioning Black women, Citizenship, and the Politics of Identity (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007).
11. Personal communication Lurdinha Rodrigues, President of the Brazilian Lesbian League, July 19, 2007, São Paulo. For the Feminist Health Network's study on lesbian health issues.
12. see Regina Facchini and Regina Maria Barbosa, Sáude das Mulheres Lesbicas: Promoção da Eqüidade e da Integralidade (Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Rede Nacional Feminista de Saúde, 2006), http://www. academia.edu/2391225/Dossie-Saude-das-Mulheres-Lesbicas-Promocao-da-equidade-e- da-integralidade.
13. Jill M. Bystydzienski and Steven P. Schacht, eds., Forging Radical Alliances across Difference: Coalition Politics for the New Millenium (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001), 2.
14. These dynamics are illustrated in the works of sociologists Suzanne Staggenborg, "Coalition Work in the Pro-choice Movement," Social Problems 33, no. 5 (1986): 374-90;
15. Brian Obach, Labor and the Environmental Movement: The Quest for Common Ground (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004).
16. See Bystydzienski and Schacht, Forging Radical Alliances;
17. Joe Bandy and Jackie Smith, eds., Coalitions across Borders: Transnational Protest and the Neoliberal Order (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005).
18. See Nathalie Lebon, "The Labor of Love and Bread: Professionalized and Volunteer Activism in the São Paulo Women's Health Movement" (Ph.D. diss., University of Florida, 1998).
19. Lugones, Pilgrimages/Peregrinajes, 26.
20. Myra Marx Ferree, introduction to Global Feminism: Transnational Women's Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights, eds. Myra Marx Ferree and Aili Mari Tripp (New York: New York University Press, 2006), 15.
21. See Nancy Fraser, Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the Postsocialist Condition (New York: Routledge, 1997).
22. Dana Collins, Sylvanna Falcón, Sharmila Lodhia, and Mollie Talcot, "Introduction," International Feminist Journal of Politics 12, nos. 3 -4 (December 2010): 298-318.
23. Sonia E. Alvarez, "Advocating Feminism: The Latin American Feminist NGO 'Boom,'" in Feminist Politics, Activism and Vision: Local and Global Challenges, eds. Luciana Ricciutelli, Angela Miles, and Margaret H. McFadden (Toronto: Inanna Publications and Education, 2004), 128.
24. IBGE,Um Panorama da Saúde no Brasil: Acesso e utilizaç ão dos serviços, condições de saúde e fatores de risco e proteção à saúde (Pesquisa Suplementar Saúde da PNAD 2008) (Rio de Janeiro: IBGE, 2010), 38.
25. See Lenaura de Vasconcelos Costa Lobato, "Dilemas da Institucionalização de Políticas Sociais em Vinte Anos da Constituição de 1988," Ciência e Saúde Coletiva 14, no. 3 (May/June 2009).
26. As noted by Sonia E. Alvarez in her Engendering Democracy in Brazil: Women's Movements in Transition Politics (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990), 231-232.
27. Associação de Organizações Não- Governamentais Brasileiras (ABONG), ONGs: Um perfil: Cadastro das associadas à ABONG (São Paulo: ABONG, 1998).
28. Wendy Harcourt, "The Global Women's Rights Movement: Power Politics around the United Nations and the World Social Forum," (published United Nations Research Institute for Social Development paper 25, Geneva, August 2006), 8.
29. See Nancy Naples, "The Challenges and Possibilities of Transnational Feminist Praxis," in Women's Activism and Globalization: Linking Local Struggles and Transnational Politics, eds. Nancy Naples and Manisha Desai (New York: Routledge, 2002), 271.
30. Fieldnotes, Mulheres Unidas activist during trip to Santos, 1995.
31. Alvarez, "Advocating Feminism," 127.
32. Patricia Richards, Pobladoras, Indígenas, and the State: Conflicts over Women's Rights in Chile (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004), 26. See also chap. 3.
33. Interview with Clarisse, Mulheres Unidas activist, May 31, 1995, São Paulo.
34. Interview with Nara, Saude para Todos coordinator, May 17, 1995, São Paulo.
35. Interview with Marina, Saúde para Todos professionalized activist of modest working-class origin with a social work degree, May 30, 1995, São Paulo.
36. Interview with Cecilia, Movimento Mulher e Saude, November 8, 1994, São Paulo.
37. Thayer, "Transnational Feminism;" Alvarez, "Advocating Feminism."
38. Lorena Carillo and Norma Stoltz Chinchilla, "De 'Femina Sapiens'a Kaqla: Treinta Años de Feminismo(s) en Guatemala," in De lo Privado a lo Público
39. Años de Lucha Ciudadana de las Mujeres en América Latina, eds. Nathalie Lebon and Elizabeth Maier (Mexico City: Siglo XXI, 2006);
40. Sonia E. Alvarez et al., "Encountering Latin American and Caribbean Feminisms," Signs 28, no. 2 (2003): 537-80;
41. Nathalie Lebon, "Professionalization of Women's Health Groups in São Paulo: The Troublesome Road towards Organizational Diversity," Organization 3, no. 4 (1996): 588-609;
42. Suzanne Staggenborg, "The Consequences of Professionalization and Formalization in the Pro-choice Movement," American Sociological Review 53 (August 1988): 585-606.
43. As demonstrated by the weekly work schedules I collected from NGO and volunteer group members in spring 1995, São Paulo.
44. Interview with Edimary, Sande coordinator, October 26, 1994, São Paulo.
45. Interview with Nara, Saude para Todos coordinator, May 17, 1995, São Paulo.
46. Interview with Marina, Saude para Todos activist, May 30, 1995, São Paulo.
47. Nathalie Lebon, "Commodifying the Women's Movement? Brazilian Feminist NGOs and International Agencies" (paper presented at the preconference of the 23rd International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, Washington DC, September 5, 2001).
48. Lisa Markowitz and Karen Tice, "Paradoxes of Professionalization: Parallel Dilemmas in Women's Organizations in the Americas," Gender and Society 16, no. 6 (December 2002): 941-58.
49. From the Feminist Health Network's website, http://www.redesaude.org. br/conhecaredeindex.htm (accessed on March 18, 2008; original link now deactivated).
50. The video could be viewed on a previous version of the Feminist Health Network's website, http://www.redesaude.org.br/conhecaredeindex.htm (accessed on March 18, 2008; original link now deactivated).
51. Fatima Oliveira, interview with the author, July 17, 2007, São Paulo.
52. Interview with a Feminist Health Network affiliate member, July 17, 2007, São Paulo.
53. Fieldnotes, May 30, 2009, São Paulo. Recent efforts to secure the participation of a key black popular feminist activist failed. On the positive side, five members from the interior of the state might start participating.
54. Interview with Rosa de Lourdes,Azevedo dos Santos, Feminist Health Network regional coordinator for Sao Paulo, June 2, 2009, São Paulo.
55. "RedeSaude: Ten Years of Networking," Women's Health Journal, July 1, 2002, http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-99289918.html.
56. Feminist Health Network website, http://www.redesaude.org.br/home (accessed August 20, 2008).
57. Interview with Isabella, long-time feminist activist and meeting organizer for the Feminist Health Network III annual meeting, April 2, 1995, Rio de Janeiro.
58. Fieldnotes, April 1, 1995, Feminist Health Network annual meeting, Rio de Janeiro.
59. Fieldnotes, Mariana, Casa da Mulher activist, January 30, 1995, São Paulo.
60. Vera Telles, "Cultura da Dávida, Avesso da Cidadania," Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais 25 (1994): 45-47.
61. Pierre Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1990).
62. Fieldnotes, June 16, 2000, conversations with Mulheres Unidas activists, Atibaia, São Paulo State.
63. Interview with Mariana, Casa da Mulher activist, June 26, 2007, São Paulo.
64. Pascale Dufour and Isabelle Giraud, "Globalization and Political Change in the Women's Movement: The Politics of Scale and Political Empowerment in the World March of Women," Social Science Quarterly 88, no. 5 (December 2007): 1152-73.
65. International World March of Women website pages for Brazil and Quebec, respectively at http://www.marchemondiale.org/structure/cn-groupes/ameriques/ bresil/en and(accessed August 26, 2008, and July 17, 2012).
66. Information about the extent of SOF's involvement with the World March for Women was obtained during a phone interview with Miriam Nobre, September 16, 2008.
67. Harcourt, "The Global Women's Rights Movement."
68. Interview with Nalu Faria, SOF coordinator, July 9, 2007, São Paulo.
69. Bernice Johnson Reagon, "Coalition Politics: Turning the Century," in Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, ed. Barbara Smith (New York: Kitchen Table/Women of Color Press, 1983).
70. Bandy and Smith, Coalitions across Borders; Bystydzienski and Schacht, Forging Radical Alliances.
71. Some recognition claims, such as the right to abortion, are deemed particularly threatening and have proven particularly intractable.