Women and Community Action: Local and Global Perspectives

Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedicaton
Contents
List of boxes and figures
Acknowledgements
Preface: actioning our futures from our pasts
One: Introduction: community, an undervalued women’s space
	Introduction
	Communities as complex entities
	Conceptual framework
	(Re)conceptualising communities
	Mainstream models of community work
	Emerging forms of community work
	The book’s structure
Two: Creating and recreating communities as gendered entities
	Introduction
	Gendered social relations
	Feminist challenges to traditional community work
	Gendering key concepts in community work
	Conclusion
Three: Women and social action: social change at the individual level
	Introduction
	Feminist approaches to women’s emotional well-being
	Advocacy: a basis for individual and collective action
	Feminist community-based social action on health issues: women challenge health professionals
	Consciousness-raising groups
	Conclusion
Four: Women and social action: social change through group activities and networks
	Introduction
	Changing the world for women, men and children by beginning with women
	Challenging medical expertise
	Characteristics of feminist groups, networks and campaigns
	Collective organisation
	Identifying which problems feminists address
	Women organising across diverse boundaries
	Organising aids, techniques and tips
	Conclusion
Five: Social change through collective action: campaigns and mass mobilisations
	Introduction
	Feminist campaigns and social action
	Childcare campaigns
	#MeToo campaign against sexual harassment in the workplace
	Greenham Common: women’s contributions to feminist campaigns involving political action on peace
	The impact of the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Movement on traditional community action
	Making allies
	Conclusion
Six: Feminist action in the workplace
	Introduction
	Waged work and domestic labour are interlinked
	Women’s lot: unpaid domestic work and low-paid waged labour
	Women’s unequal engagement in the workplace
	Feminist workplace initiatives
	Childcare campaigns connect domestic work and waged labour
	Eldercare: work undertaken in the home
	Recognition of caring work: organising around old age is a workplace issue
	Older women’s organisations impact both the workplace and wider society
	Women workers and women service users: shared interests
	‘We’re all in it together’ – women against pit closures
	Feminist prefigurative forms
	Contemporary struggles for equal pay
	Conclusion
Seven: Increasing women’s positions in parliament, governance and decision-making structures
	Introduction
	Feminist political action nationally in the UK
	Feminists target the political realm
	Feminist social action in British public relational space
	Feminism and British municipal socialism
	Autonomous feminist political organisations: lessons from Iceland
	Feminist political action outside electoral politics
	Ecofeminism and redefining economic and environmental issues
	Conclusion
Eight: Sustainable community development
	Introduction
	Sustainability, modernity and globalisation
	Poverty eradication is crucial to sustainable development processes
	The focus on micro-level sustainability in community work
	The Community Development Projects
	Mainstream community work continues to monetarise sustainability
	Sustainable income-generation projects
	Microfinance schemes: micro-level sustainable income-generation projects
	Empowering social capital
	Facilitative factors in supporting social development
	Conclusion
Nine: International policy changes and mainstreaming women’s actions in communities
	Introduction
	International attempts to challenge gender inequalities
	UNWomen: a global initiative to improve conditions for all women
	Meeting women’s welfare concerns: the general and specifics
	The Millennium Development Goals
	The Sustainable Development Goals
	Country-based initiatives
	Conclusion
Ten: Conclusions
	Introduction
	Supporting women: changing and transforming policies and practices
	Organising women in the community
	Feminist community action and the future
	Feminist theory and practice: guiding principles
	Contributions by feminist community work and social action to mainstreaming gender equality
	Changing social work practice
	Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Back Cover