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what became of ‘frontline feminism’? a retro-perspective on post-conflict Belfast
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Cockburn, Cynthia (2013) what became of ‘frontline feminism’? a retro-perspective on post-conflict Belfast. Feminist Review, Volume 105 (Number 1). pp. 103-121. doi:10.1057/fr.2013.20 ISSN 0141-7789.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/fr.2013.20
Abstract
A feminist stock-taking on ‘post-conflict’, this paper revisits a study made by the author in 1996–1997, when the women’s community sector was a lively actor in the processes leading to the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998. Refusing to observe sectarian conflict lines, women’s centres were re-writing official ‘community development’ policy as community empowerment and political challenge. The author draws on new interviews conducted in 2012 with feminist community activists of that earlier period of ‘frontline feminism’, associated with the Belfast Women’s Support Network. The women reveal how continuing poverty, discrimination, violence and unhealed trauma still characterise working-class life in the post-conflict period, and impede the integration of Protestant and Catholic communities. Official provisions for gender equality have been interpreted in gender-neutral ways, and in some cases turned against women. The demilitarisation of masculinity has been painfully slow. The women’s community sector has experienced a loss of political drive as women’s centres have become service providers, dependent on state funding. Feminism is renewing itself, but in fresh forms with different priorities. Will it recover a voice that ‘speaks truth to power’?
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology > Centre for the Study of Women and Gender |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Feminism -- Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland -- History -- 1994-, Women in community development -- Northern Ireland -- Belfast, Belfast (Northern Ireland) -- History | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Feminist Review | ||||
Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. | ||||
ISSN: | 0141-7789 | ||||
Official Date: | 2013 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Volume 105 | ||||
Number: | Number 1 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 103-121 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1057/fr.2013.20 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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