Nonviolent Force in the

Struggle for Change

Women in Civil Resistance

by Anne-Marie Codur and

Mary Elizabeth King

“Universal” human rights often

established by civil resistance

• Human rights laws and international conventions have

been codified after mass social movements fought for

their establishment.

• Human rights, civil rights, women’s rights, and minority

rights institutionalized as result of civil resistance

movements.

• Civil resistance is not conflict resolution, although this

may be one outcome.

• Laws often enshrine injustices — many if not most

gender inequities are legal.

Women in civil resistance

Pam McAllister: “Most of what we commonly call ‘women’s history’ is actually

the history of women’s role in the development of nonviolent action.”

On both sides of the Atlantic, civil resisters fought against

human bondage.

Seal of the British Anti-Slavery Society, England, 1780s

Women leaders played critical roles in the

abolition of slavery

Women struggling for the rights of oppressed

people led them to fight for women’s rights “I expect to plead not for the slave only, but for suffering humanity everywhere.

Especially do I mean to labor for the elevation of my sex.”

- Lucy Stone (1818-1893), abolitionist and advocate of women’s rights

The U.S. suffragist movement for the vote grew out of the antislavery movement

National Woman’s

suffrage association,

Chicago, 1880

Advocates for women's suffrage

demonstrating, 1913

Transnational multi-decade

campaigns for women’s ballot

• 1893: New Zealand first nation to enfranchise women

to vote.

• As 20th century opened, women’s nonviolent suffrage

movements formed in China, Iran, Korea, the

Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Turkey,

Vietnam, and Japan.

• International relations expert Fred Halliday: The

sweep of women’s suffrage campaigns is one of the

most remarkable transnational movements of the

modern age.

Japanese women vote for the first time, 1946

Women and the Indian

independence struggles

• Gandhi’s hand-looming of homespun khadi (“constructive program”)

— millions of women

• Late 1920s, Indian women leading local struggles

• Gandhi criticized for insufficient attention to women’s rights, but his

incorporation of political work by women had by 1931 led to an Indian

National Congress Party resolution committing itself to the equal

rights of women

Newly independent post-colonial countries in

the 1960s did not exclude women from politics

because of:

● Women’s significant contributions to the

independence struggles

● Concept of women voting became assumed

for the modern nation-state

Women fought for workers’ rights and through that

struggle also advanced women’s rights

Key role by women unionists

Maud Malone, 1914, spokeswoman for the Library Employees'

Union, in New York, she fought against the inferior status of

women library workers and their low pay.

Women’s Trade Union league,

New York, 1910

Lucy Parsons,

U.S. labor organizer

(1853-1942)

Louise Michel (1830-1905), emblematic figure

in workers’ movements and women’s

emancipation in France

• Most women’s activism is

nonviolent direct action, which

has contributed to the

development of the technique

of civil resistance

Pam McAllister, "You Can’t Kill the Spirit: Women and Nonviolent Action,"

in Nonviolent Social Movements: A Geographical Perspective, ed. Stephen Zunes,

Lester R. Kurtz and Sarah Beth Asher (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999), 21.

Montgomery bus boycott

(1955–1956):

sparked by women

Rediscover history through the lens

of nonviolent action, bringing to

light the prominent role of women • Effectiveness of women’s nonviolent direct action often

ignored, unacknowledged

• Interchange of ideas between women’s involvement and

history of nonviolent struggle overlooked downplayed.

Rosa Parks with the Reverend

Martin Luther King, Jr.

(background)

Montgomery 1955

If not for Rosa Parks,

we might not have heard of Martin Luther King Jr.

Rosa Parks: “You may do that.”

• Parks’s action: nothing to do with “tired feet.”

• 42-year-old Parks had attended Highlander Folk Center

training institute for labor union organizers in Monteagle,

Tennessee.

• Learned basics of civil resistance, including civil

disobedience.

• Deliberate, politically wide-awake action. When the driver

threatened to have her arrested, she said, “You may do

that.” She stayed so as to break the law.

• She had 6 or more opportunities to leave the bus.

Unsung heroines of civil rights

•

•

•

•

•

Mass meeting, First Baptist Church,

Montgomery bus boycott (1955). The

citywide boycott was initiated by women

Sojourner Truth, Ida Wells, Ella Baker, Pauli

Murray, Septima Clark, Rosa Parks,

Jo Ann Robinson, and many others. . . .

In the words of women leaders…

Septima Clark:

“In stories about the civil rights movement you hear

mostly about the black ministers. But if you talk to the

women who were there, you’ll hear another story. I think

the civil rights movement would never have taken off if

some women hadn’t started to speak up.”

Ella Baker:

“The movement of the 1950s and 1960s was carried

largely by women, since it came out of church groups.

Their number in the movement was much larger than

that of men.” Mary E. King, “Women and Civil Rights—A Personal Reflection,” 12th Annual Fannie Lou Hamer

Lecture Series (Jackson, Mississippi: Department of Political Science, Jackson State University,

October 5 1995).

Unreported role of women in the Polish

struggle against communism (1980-81)

Women’s hunger march in protest against food

shortages, August 1981

1980, sit-down strike, Gdansk Shipyard

September 17, 1981: workers' representatives, including Lech

Wałęsa, formed a nationwide labor union, Solidarity

Solidarnosc: 10 million members by late

autumn 1980, half of them women

The women who defeated

communism in Poland

“When on December 13, 1981, martial

law was imposed, most of Solidarnosc

leaders were rounded up and arrested.

Many women were arrested as well, but

their numbers had been underestimated

by the police. They hid the few

remaining male leaders, founded

underground Solidarity structures, and

published the main Solidarity newspaper,

providing the continuity to a movement

that was in danger of extinction.

This is the untold history of the Solidarity

movement in Poland.”

- Shana Penn

Women pave the way to

social change in Iran

“A victory for women paves the way for democracy in Iran.”

-Shirin Ebadi, 2009

Founder, Defenders of Human Rights Center,

2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate

The One Million Signatures Campaign was

formally launched on August 27, 2006, to

collect one million signatures in support of

a petition to the Iranian Parliament asking

for revision and reform of existing laws that

discriminated against women.

Iran: when women’s rights movements are

a catalyst for broader political change

The Iranian women’s movement,

One Million Signatures Campaign, and specific

approaches led the way for the 2009 Green Wave

• Dilemma actions (bursting into a stadium)

• Unifying the people (men & women, secular & religious,

& rural)

• International capacity-building (networking)

• Tactical innovation: noncooperation, symbols, songs

• Communications: use

of digital media (blogs,

cell phones)

Iran’s women’s rights movement sparked

the mobilization of civil society for the 2009

“green wave”

One outcome in Iran:

fertility transition Iran has experienced the fastest fertility transition in

history, from 7 children per woman (on average) in 1985,

to 1.8 children per woman in 2009. Fertility in Iran

declined an astonishing 70 percent over a 30-year period,

“one of the most rapid and pronounced fertility declines

ever recorded in human history.” By 2000, Iran’s fertility

rate had fallen to two births per woman, below the level

necessary to replace current population. - Study by Nicholas Eberstadt and Apoorva Shah

Effecting family gender dynamics?

●These data suggest that Iranian women have asserted

control over their reproductive autonomy, and that the

power dynamics inside marriage are becoming more

equal between husband and wife.

●Illustration: a couple’s relationship

in Iranian cinema: “A Separation.”

Oscar: best foreign film 2012

Is patriarchy losing power at the family level?

And is it a matter of time before it loses

power at the socio-political level?

Women’s creativity within

patriarchal systems

Women’s strategies of resistance facing

systems of extreme patriarchy

Hyper-patriarchal systems both subjugate and idealize women:

Subjugation: a woman is considered a minor, too weak or ignorant to make her own decisions, needing to be protected and cared for by a man: her father, brother, or husband

Idealization: the “good wife” and “good mother,” the nurturer, protector, and educator of the children

Gendered stereotypes are exaggerated; men encouraged to become “hyper-males”; strength and military values celebrated

Traditional family values, cultural pillar of support for the system.

Women can sometimes exploit political

space as mothers and nurturers

Strategic advantage: if women challenge authorities in the name

of “superior” family values — good wives and devoted mothers —

they can create powerful, irresistible dilemma actions, in which

any response can help them.

Historically, women have been able to

take advantage of gender-defined

freedoms or stereotypes

Berlin 1943: wifely revolt!

Married to Jewish men who

had been rounded up to be

sent to death camps,

“devoted, perfect Aryan

wives” protested for one week

before the Gestapo . . .

posing an embarrassing dilemma

for the Nazi authorities, who

released 1,700 intermarried

Jewish prisoners.

Argentina 1976-1983

Mothers of the Disappeared

Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo

Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

dared to march weekly Goal of Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo:

information and acknowledgment that their children and

loved ones had been “disappeared” by the military

generals’ “dirty war.”

Chile’s mothers resisting

Under General Augusto Pinochet’s 1980s dictatorship, mothers

stitched tales of resistance into traditional tapestries, arpilleras.

Ignored as insignificant women’s work, they were able to smuggle

them into and out of jails — sharing information with sons and

husbands. They sold their

quilts beyond their borders,

when a fearful news corps

could not. The tapestries

roused anti-Pinochet

sympathizers worldwide,

bringing financial and political

backing for the civil resistance.

Arpillera, courtesy of Royal Alberta Museum

Women pose stronger dilemmas for

security forces than do men Presence of women lowers level of violent response from security forces;

beating of women poses stronger moral predicaments

Women on the frontline, in direct contact with the police and security

apparatus, may protect other (male) demonstrators

Versailles, October 5, 1789

Serbia, 2000

Cairo, 2011

Women can change the dynamics of

confrontation with security forces

The “disarming” factor: nonviolent method of

fraternization — reaching out to the humanity

of soldiers, treating them as sons and brothers

Cairo 2011 Ukraine’s Orange revolution 2004

Scholars believe that dozens of

unreported sex strikes occurred

throughout history — especially

used to exert pressure to cease

fighting wars. . . .

The “Lysistratic non-action”

method has proven effective in

diverse cases:

Colombia, 1997 and 2006

Liberia, 2003

Kenya, 2009

Women counteracting patriarchal power

As a last resort: Sex Strike!

Women and civil resistance

movements in Africa

Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement in Kenya

(2004 Nobel Peace Laureate)

National Council of Women launched the Green Belt Movement to plant trees in 1977,

against desertification and for rural energy. The late Wangari Maathai was repeatedly

arrested and beaten. For 30 years, she mobilized 50,000 poor women to plant 40 million

trees, while fighting for environmental protection and anti-corruption policies in

Kenya. In this photo, at Liberty Corner, she meets with Mothers of Political Prisoners,

a group that she helped to start.

Doing the unimaginable:

the Women of Liberia

Leymah Gbowee and President Ellen

Johnson-Sirleaf, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize

laureates

Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) lightning actions

Women and civil resistance in the

Middle East

Palestinian women lead the way

Second from left: Matiel Moghannam, a Protestant Palestinian feminist leader, author, The Arab

Woman and the Palestine Problem, London, 1937

‒ Photo, courtesy of Walid Khalidi, Before Their Diaspora, 1984

Delegation of Muslim and

Christian women activists

met with the British high

commissioner to plead for

Britain to honor its

promises to the Arabs as it

had to the Jews.

Jerusalem 1929

Palestinian women: ahead of their time and their region

1921: Creation of Palestinian Women Union

1929: First Arab Women’s Congress of Palestine, organized by Arab Women’s Executive

Committee – petitions to Queen Mary, British Government, and League of Nations.

Silent demonstration of Christian and Muslim women, Old City of Jerusalem (1933)

Fighting for Palestine and women’s

rights simultaneously

“Personal and national liberation go hand in hand. When both

sexes are deprived of their freedom and national dignity by

the Israelis, it would be inappropriate for us to deal only

with sexual inequalities. On the other hand, we will fail

both women and our cause if we do not understand that

liberating women from discrimination will better equip

them for waging a successful national struggle”

‒ Zahira Kamal

Quoted in Mary King, A Quiet Revolution:

The First Palestinian Intifada and Nonviolent Resistance (2007)

Zahira Kamal, elected first female leader of a political

party in Palestine (2011)

Women pave the way for the first intifada (1987)

Palestinians demonstrating in Bethlehem, 1987 intifada

Poster, General Union of Palestinian women,

1970s

1970s-1980s: strong women organizations. In the absence of

their own government, women’s social welfare organizations

claim civil society as de facto informal governance

Essential role of women as community leaders

and organizers in first intifada: remarkably nonviolent

mobilization that succeeded in pressuring Israeli society

and government to concede the beginning of Palestinian

(limited) autonomy

The Palestinian Authority, return to patriarchy, and

marginalization of women

The first and second intifadas compared (adapted from Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, Why Civil resistance Works (2011)

Nonviolent campaigns Violent campaigns

Estimated participants hundreds of thousands tens of thousands

Primary participants middle class male youth

students and intellectuals PLO and Islamists

trade unions extremist groups

women’s groups Islamic groups

Marxists

poor, rural

businesses, etc…

Tactical diversity clear unclear

Effect, regime repression backfire suppression

Outcome partial success failure

Women in Palestine’s current phase of popular resistance

(2004‒2012)

Only with the re-emergence of nonviolent popular resistance in villages

struggling against the Wall did women rise again, to play a key role

In Budrus, a conservative rural

environment, women able to

mobilize in effective ways

Israeli women’s civil resistance

• 1988: Women in Black created by Jewish-Israeli women who oppose Israel's

occupation of the Palestinian Territories — use elementary nonviolent method:

denunciation.

• Wearing black to convey mourning,

they silently hold placards opposing their government’s policy: “Dai L’Kibbush,”

or “Down with the Occupation!”

“Four Mothers Movement in

Israel”

• Named for 4 mothers whose sons served in elite IDF units in

Lebanon, it used 2 methods: petitions and vigils to win tens of

thousands of supporters.

• Israeli scholar Tamar Hermann: movement’s strategy strictly

nonviolent to have maximal inclusivity and generate positive new

coverage. She calls it “the most successful grassroots

organization in Israeli’s history.”

- Tamar Hermann, “Winning the Mainstream: Arba Imahot, the Four Mothers Movement in Israel,”

in Civilian Jihad: Nonviolent Struggle Democratization, and Governance in the Middle East,

ed. Maria J. Stephan

Women’s participation in the

Arab Awakening

Women: full participants in

the Arab Awakening

Arab Awakening: Ending the

patriarchal father-son succession

Passing of power from father to son a characteristic of

patriarchal (and tribal) societies, in the Arab world and

elsewhere.

Anthropologist John Borneman: “The public

renunciation of the son’s claim to inherit the father’s

power definitively ends the specific Arab model of

succession that has been incorporated into state

dictatorships among tribal authorities.”

John Borneman, “Oedipal Roots of Revolt in the Middle East,” Anthropology News, May 2011.

Egypt’s revolution: challenging patriarchy

“Thanks to social networks, young unmarried women were able to rise to

leadership roles – they took over the cyberspace,

since conservative society didn’t allow them to take

over public spaces. ” Asmaa Mahfouz, Facebook

Tahrir Square: Men and women struggling

together, 20 percent of demonstrators were women.

This experience has modeled more equal, respectful

gender relationships

Yet in the transition phase, women have been marginalized, as elections have reinforced

conservative, patriarchal structures, for now. The struggle is still at its start. . . .

Women in Egypt were targeted by regime-sponsored thugs and security.

Soldiers assaulted women on Saturday December 17, 2011, including this

volunteer doctor at Tahrir Square field hospital.

Egyptian women of the

revolution

Web Site: www.egyptianwomen.info

© Photographs and article by Tatiana Philiptchenko

In Yemen’s traditional society, women suffer as

leaders if seen as “feminist” and fighting for the

rights of women to be “free”

“Women fought for human rights, not

for women rights. We, women,

struggled to give men their rights!” –

Tawakul Karman (speech, Harvard’s

Kennedy School, June 7, 2012)

Yemen’s revolution:

despite patriarchy

Tawakul Karman,

2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Tawakul was accepted as a leader

because she belongs to a conservative

party, she is a “good Muslim woman,” she

is married and a mother of 3 children.

Is there a women’s advantage in

struggles?

• Networking skills in organizing:

“More than any other groups, women’s

organizations use the terms ‘network’ and

‘networking’ to describe their interactions.”

- Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists beyond

Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (1998)

Family/community networks: women can mobilize elderly, children, youth – weaving ties of solidarity among generations

International community: Women’s suffragist movement: most successful transnational movement of 20th century

Building solidarity ties across lines of divides and conflicts:

Black and White women in anti-slavery movement (19th century) and civil rights movement (20th century)

Israel/Palestine Liberia: Christian/Muslim women’s massive sit-ins Women of Srebrenica

(memorializing losses in Bosnia-Herzegovina)

In Social Network era, harnessing those networking skills at a broader, international scale: Transnational electronic activism

(57% of Facebook users are women)

Conclusion: research questions?

In contemporary struggles, how are women activists

contributing to the development of strategy and tactics of

civil resistance?

What properties of networking, characteristic of women’s

organizing, may strengthen future civil-resistance

campaigns?

How has the philosophical and strategic connection

between the means and ends, which is historically part of

civil resistance, empower and potentiate women resisters?