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Feminist Transformation Home

The Feminist Diversifying, Unifying, Globalizing Process

created by: Jasica Chiang & Sophie Wang

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"Feminism in one country is not sustainable -- we need feminism on a global scale."
- Women in Development Europe, 1995



Below are some of the more widely known Transnational Feminist Networks, and links to their respective webpages.

Transnational Feminist Network Description/Objectives Website
Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)

Gender and economic justice; transformation of economic policy and decision-making by IFIs (International Financial Institutions); reproductive rights and health for women, especially poor women in Third World; redistrubution of global wealth (e.g., Tobin Tax). 

Main research themes are: Political Economy of Globalization, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Political Restructuring and Social Transformation, and Sustainable Livelihoods

www.dawnnet.org
Women in Development Europe (WIDE)

European feminist network of women´s organizations, development NGOs, gender specialists and women´s rights activists. Monitors and influences international economic and development policy and practice from a feminist perspective.

Enhanced European development assistance to ACP (Africa, Caribbean & Pacific) countries; feminist alternatives to economic theory and European and U.S. trade and foreign aid policies; transformation of economic policy and decision-making by IFIs and the WTO. 

Promotes gender equality and social justic through the dissemination of research and analysis. 

www.wide-network.org
Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) Make women more visible as equal participants, experts, and leaders in policy-making from the community to the international level, and in formulating alternative, healthy, and peaceful solutions to world problems; implementation of Beijing Platform for Action; democratization of the WTO.  WEDO seeks to empower women as decision makers to achieve economic, social and gender justice, a healthy, peaceful planet and human rights for all.
www.wedo.org
Women Living under Muslim Laws (WLUML)

Extends to more than 70 countries ranging from South Africa to Uzbekistan, Senegal to Indonesia and Brazil to France. Seeks to promote the human rights of women in Muslim countries and elsewhere; expose fundamentalist and state collusion; and extend support and solidarity to women suffering violations.

Includes:

  • women living in countries or states where Islam is the state religion, secular states with Muslim majorities as well as those from Muslim communities governed by minority religious laws;
  • women in secular states where political groups are demanding religious laws;
  • women in migrant Muslim communities in Europe, the Americas, and around the world;
  • non-Muslim women who may have Muslim laws applied to them directly or through their children;
  • women born into Muslim communities/families who are automatically categorized as Muslim but may not define themselves as such, either because they are not believers or because they choose not to identify themselves in religious terms, preferring to prioritise other aspects of their identity such as political ideology, profession, sexual orientation or others.
  • www.wluml.org/english/index.shtml
    Sisterhood Is Global Institute (SIGI)

    SIGI is spun off from the book Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology, compiled and edited by Robin Morgan [Doubleday/Anchor; reissued in a 1996 edition by The Feminist Press at CUNY (New York), and in Spanish as Mulheres del Mundo (Vindication feminista /Editorial Hacer, Madrid, 1993)]. SIGI supports and promotes women's human rights at the local, national, regional, and global levels in all countries. In the 1990s the focus was mainly on the rights of women in Middle Eastern countries.

    www.sigi.org
    Association of Women of the Mediterranean Region (AWMR) Objectives include: enhancing the status of women, children, and environment in eighteen countries of the Mediterranean region; the realization of women's equality, social justice, full employment, demilitarization, and peace.    www.awmr.fanspace.com
    ADVOCACY FOR WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS
    Research Action and Information Network for the Bodily Integrity of Women (RAINBO) An African led international non-governmental organization working on issues of women's empowerment, gender, reproductive health, sexual autonomy and freedom from violence as central components of the African development agenda. www.rainbo.org
    Arab Women's Solidarity Association (AWSA) Established in 1982 by a group of 120 women who agreed that the struggle for the liberation of Arab people and freedom from economic, cultural and media domination cannot be separated from the liberation of Arab women. www.awsa.net
    PEACE, ANTI-MILITARISM, CONFLICT-RESOLUTION
    Women for Women International Primarily focused on supporting women in war-torn regions with financial and emotional aid, job-skills training, rights education and small business assistance so they can rebuild their lives. www.womenforwomen.org
    Women in Black An international peace network; not an organization, but a means of mobilization and a formula for action. For example, they will stand in silent vigil to protest war, rape as a tool of war, ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses all over the world. www.balkansnet.org/wib
    Women's Learning Partnership (WLP) Dedicated to women's leadership and empowerment. WLP is a builder of networks and strives to empower women to transform their families, communities, and societies. Their primary objectives are to increase the number of women taking on leadership and decision-making roles at family, community, and national levels, and to improve the effectiveness of feminist movements in Muslim-majority societies and globally by strengthening the capacity of our partner organizations. www.learningpartnership.org
    REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND RIGHTS
    Family Care International (FCI)

    Committed to improving maternal health. Works within the comprehensive, rights-based approach to sexual and reproductive health endorsed by the international community at recent UN conferences.

    Focuses on the following program areas:

  • Adolescent sexual and reproductive health—to equip young people with information, skills, and confidence to enjoy healthy and productive lives, free of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections
  • Safe motherhood—to ensure that women have access to the services and support they need to go through pregnancy and childbirth safely
  • HIV/AIDS—to prevent the spread of HIV and to advocate for greater integration of HIV/AIDS prevention, testing, and treatment services with other sexual and reproductive health programs.
  • www.familycareintl.org
    International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC) Promotes women's health and advance women's rights in different regions of the globe. Key issues include: Youth Health and Rights, Access to Safe Abortion, Sexual Rights and Gender Equality, HIV/AIDs and Women. www.iwhc.org
    Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR)

    An autonomous network of groups and individuals in every continent who aim to achieve and support reproductive rights for women.

    Reproductive rights are a series of rights that enable all women - without discrimination on the basis of nationality, class, ethnicity, race, age, religion, disability, sexuality or marital status - to decide whether or not to have children. This includes the right to have access to safe, legal abortion. Reproductive rights are human rights. The Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights strives for women's right to self-determination in keeping with their freedom, dignity and personally held values. Transforming social, political and economic conditions are part of the reproductive rights agenda so that all women are able to enjoy their reproductive rights fully.

    www.wgnrr.org
    CRITIQUE OF ECONOMIC POLICY
    Asia-Japan Women's Resource Center Formed in 1995 as a response to the challenge of creating an alternative society for the 21st century: a society that is based on gender justice, ecological sustainability, as well as local and global democracy. Works to raise Japanese women's consciousness and to enhance their collective action through sharing of information and experience among themselves, and with other women and marginalized sectors in Asia. AJWRC has an extensive resource collection, many of which are unpublished, on issues such as feminism, women's human rights, women in development, women and the environment, violence against women in war and situations of armed conflict, and women's international cooperation. Aside from its regular publication, other activities of AJWRC include researches, trainings and conferences. It is also active in various global and regional movements promoting international cooperation and solidarity. www.aworc.org/org/ajwrc/ajwrc.html
    Women's International Coalition for Economic Justice An international coalition representing organizations in all regions of the globe and works to link gender with macro-economic policy in international inter-governmental policy-making arenas, from a human rights perspective. They utilize an integrated feminist analysis which links the multiplicity of systems that oppress women, and recognizes the diversity of women’s experience by race, ethnicity, class, national origin, citizenship status and other factors. Through policy advocacy, educational activities, and popular resources, WICEJ seeks to bring a stronger economic analysis to women’s issues and a stronger gender analysis to social and economic issues in the international arena. www.wicej.addr.com
    International Women's Tribune Center (IWTC)

    An international non-governmental organization established in l976 following the United Nations International Women's Year World Conference in Mexico City. It is committed to empowering people and building communities while providing communication, information, education, and organizing support services to women's organizations and community groups working to improve the lives of women, particularly low-income women, in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

    IWTC's work is focused in four programme areas:

  • human rights
  • information access and communication capacity-building
  • networking and organizational support
  • Women, Ink, a knowledge-brokering service.
  • www.iwtc.org