Making Transnational Feminism: Rural Women, NGO Activists, and Northern Donors in Brazil

253 Pages·2010·1.804 MB·English

by  Millie Thayer

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pa Making Transnational Feminism
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t Making Transnational Feminism takes the “ant’s eye view” of global social move-
h
t ment relationships from the ground. Using ethnography, Th ayer takes us inside
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n transnational feminist alliances, viewing them from the local perspective of two
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g women’s movements in Northeast Brazil—one in the remote semi-arid interior
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pl and the other in Brazil’s fourth largest city, Recife. She fi nds rural women and
d NGO feminists appropriating and translating global gender discourses, negoti-
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l ating with each other over political resources, and strategizing to defend their
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w autonomy from distant donors.
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e In the process, she argues, the Brazilian organizations help to constitute a trans-
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a national feminist political space—a “counterpublic,” in which movements debate
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p strategies, articulate new identities, and work to develop alternative social prac-
M, tices. Feminist alliances in this space are characterized by a precarious balance
R between solidarity and self-interest, collaboration and contention. At the turn of
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the twentieth century, as markets extended their reach into new regions and social
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b sectors, they also threatened to reshape feminist relationships, undermining the
d very values on which they were founded, and pushing them toward competitive
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c and instrumental behavior. Th ayer shows us how feminist movements in North-
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ot east Brazil struggled to sustain their alliances and to defend their endangered
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p counterpublic against the long hand of the “social movement market.”
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e Millie Th ayer (2004 Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley) is Assistant Profes-
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u sor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts where she teaches classes in
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o fi eld research methods, social movements, gender and globalization, and Latin
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w American societies. Her research work is in cross-border feminist relationships,
e Latin American women’s movements, and the social movement/international
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v funding agency nexus. Her articles have appeared in the journals Ethnography
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T and Social Problems and in books published by University of California Press
e. and Cornell University Press.
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p Perspectives on Gender
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Edited by Myra Marx Ferree
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s. University of Wisconsin, Madison
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tt Black Feminist Th ought Integrative Feminisms
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t Patricia Hill Collins Angela Miles
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n Black Women and White Women in the Laboring On
gi Professions Wendy Simonds, Barbara Katz Rothman and
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l Natalie J. Sokoloff Bari Meltzer Norman
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d Community Activism and Feminist Politics Maid in the U.S.A.
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o Edited by Nancy Naples Mary Romero
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n Complex Inequality Mothering
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o Leslie McCall Edited by Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Grace Chang
d and Linda Rennie Forcey
e Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global
as Capitalism Rape Work
e Melissa W. Wright Patricia Yancey Martin
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M, Feminism and the Women’s Movement Regulating Sex
Barbara Ryan Edited by Elizabeth Bernstein and
R Laurie Schaff ner
D Fixing Families
y Jennifer A. Reich Rock-a-by Baby
b Verta Taylor
d For Richer, For Poorer
e Demie Kurz School-smart and Mother-wise
ct Wendy Luttrell
e Gender Consciousness and Politics
ot Stepping Out of Line
pr Sue Tolleson Rinehart Cheryl Hercus
ts Global Gender Research Th e Social Economy of Single Motherhood
n Christine E. Bose and Minjeong Kim
e Margaret Nelson
m Grassroots Warriors Understanding Sexual Violence
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c Nancy A. Naples Diana Scully
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d Home-Grown Hate When Sex Became Gender
w Edited by Abby L. Ferber Shira Tarrant
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a Making Transnational
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f Northern Donors in Brazil
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p Millie Th ayer
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t University of Massachusetts, Amherst
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: First published 2010
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t by Routledge
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h 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
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n Simultaneously published in the UK
gi by Routledge
u 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
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d Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
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nl This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.
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o To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
d collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.
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a © 2010 Taylor & Francis
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p All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or
M, by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereaft er invented, including pho-
R tocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
D writing from the publishers.
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b Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
d are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe.
e
t
c Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
e
t Th ayer, Millie.
o
r Making transnational feminism: rural women, NGO activists, and northern donors in Brazil /
p
s Millie Th ayer.
t p. cm. — (Perspectives on gender)
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e 1. Rural women—Brazil, Northeast—Social conditions. 2. Feminism— Brazil, Northeast. I. Title.
m
II. Series.
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c HQ1542.T49 2009
o 305.420981’3—dc22
d
w 2009012896
e
i ISBN 0-203-86988-5 Master e-book ISBN
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o
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e. ISBN 10: 0-415-96212-9 (hbk)
r ISBN 10: 0-415-96213-7 (pbk)
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p ISBN 10: 0-203-86988-5 (ebk)
a
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n ISBN 13: 978-0-415-96212-4 (hbk)
Si ISBN 13: 978-0-415-96213-1 (pbk)
f ISBN 13: 978-0-203-86988-8 (ebk)
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:
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tt For my mother, Caroline Blanton Th ayer
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a CONTENTS
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:
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t Series Foreword ix
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i Preface
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p Acknowledgments
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a
o 1 Introduction: Re-Reading Globalization from Northeast
l
n Brazil 1
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d 2 Uneasy Allies: Th e Making of a Transnational Feminist
se Counterpublic 35
a
e
l 3 Translating Feminisms: From Embodied Women
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M, to Gendered Citizenship 53
R
D 4 Negotiating Class and Gender: Devalued Women
y in a Local Counterpublic 83
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d 5 Th e Leverage of the Local: “Authentic” Rural Women
e
ct in Global Counterpublics 110
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r 6 Feminists and Funding: Plays of Power in the Social
p
s Movement Market 128
t
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e 7 Movement or Market? Defending the Endangered
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u Counterpublic 164
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d Methodological Appendix: Transnational Feminism
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as Field 170
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i
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o Notes 179
T
e. Bibliography 205
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p Index 225
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a SERIES FOREWORD
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:
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h Th is Perspectives on Gender series began a little over 20 years ago, and
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a from the start was dedicated to the idea that it would present femi-
n
gi nist research on gender that spoke to issues of social change and was
u
l intersectional (though the term itself had not yet been coined). Some
p
d of the earliest books in the series, such as Natalie Sokoloff ’s Black and
a
o White Women in the Professions and Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist
l
n Th ought, specifi cally sought to bring the race-gender intersection to the
w
o forefront; others, such as Wendy Luttrell’s School-smart and Mother-wise
d
e and Mary Romero’s Maid in America, dealt with racial and ethnic issues
s
a quite directly as well, but were more attuned to how social class shaped
e
pl gender experience. Th e early and enduring commitment of this series
M, is to highlight the specifi city and dynamism that characterize the social
R relations of gender. Margaret Nelson’s study of white rural working class
D
women struggling to get by with a little help from their friends, Th e Social
y
b Economy of Single Motherhood, is just as important in doing so as the
d
e studies that make racial/ethnic women their subjects.
t
c No less importantly, books in this series took up issues of how women
e
t
o worked, as women, on and for social change. Th ese studies of social move-
r
p ments around women’s health (Verta Taylor’s Rock-a-by Baby), violence
s
nt against women (Patricia Yancey Martin’s Rape Work) and poverty (Nancy
e
m Naples’ Grassroots Warriors) also raised issues of class and race, of course.
u Other social movement studies selected for this series spoke most directly
c
o
d to the processes of developing a feminist identity and commitment (Sue
w Tolleson Rinehart’s Gender Consciousness and Politics, Angela Miles’
e
i Integrative Feminisms: Building Global Visions, Cheryl Hercus’s Stepping
v
o Out of Line), but did so with a strong focus on the intersections of gender
T
e. with national location and historical position, two types of diversity that
r are also crucially important for understanding the complexity of gender
o
p as a social relation.
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