Skip to main content

Feminist Mobilization: How Bait-and-Switch Male Dominance Undermines Feminism and How Feminists Fight Back

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Gender of Informal Politics

Part of the book series: Gender and Politics ((GAP))

  • 380 Accesses

Abstract

Johnson uses the book’s blueprint of the interplay between formal and informal politics to show how professionalized NGOs and deradicalized “gender talk” represent the bait and switch of feminist mobilization in the neoliberal era. Comparing feminist mobilization in Russia and Iceland, this chapter shows how activists at first took the bait, leading to similar limitations as on women in politics. However, feminists have become increasingly aware of how they too have been boxed in, with Russia’s Pussy Riot and similar activism in Iceland constituting a new stage of guerilla feminism which directly takes on the twenty-first-century form of male dominance.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Akulova, Vera. 2013. Pussy Riot: Gender and Class. In Post-Post-Soviet? Art, Politics and Society in Russia at the Turn of the Decade, ed. Marta Dziewanska, Ekaterina Degot, and Ilya Budraitskis, 279–287. Warsaw: Museum of Modern Art.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alvarez, Sonia E. 1999. The Latin American Feminist NGO ‘Boom’. International Feminist Journal of Politics 1 (2): 181–209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009. Beyond NGO-ization?: Reflections from Latin America. Development 52 (2): 175–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banaszak, Lee Ann, Karen Beckwith, and Dieter Rucht. 2003. Women’s Movements Facing the Reconfigured State. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Basu, Amrita. 1995. The Challenge of Local Feminisms: Women’s Movements in Global Perspective. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2010. Women’s Movements in the Global Era: The Power of Local Feminisms. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beckwith, Karen. 2000. Beyond Compare? Women’s Movements in Comparative Perspective. European Journal of Political Research 37 (4): 431–468.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dhamoon, Rita Kaur. 2013. Feminisms. In The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Politics, ed. Georgina Waylen, Karen Celis, Johanna Kantola, and S. Laurel Weldon, 88–110. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenstein, Hester. 2009. Feminism Seduced: How Global Elites Use Women’s Labor and Ideas to Exploit the World. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ewig, Christina, and Myra Marx Feree. 2013. Feminist Organizing: What’s Old, What’s New? In The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Politics, ed. Georgina Waylen, Karen Celis, Johanna Kantola, and S. Laurel Weldon, 437–461. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, Nancy. 2013. Fortunes of Feminism: From State-Managed Capitalism to Neoliberal Crisis. London: Verso Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Funk, Nanette. 2013. Contra Fraser on Feminism and Neoliberalism. Hypatia 28 (1): 179–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gessen, Masha. 2014. Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot. New York: Riverhead Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghodsee, Kristen. 2004. Feminism-by-Design: Emerging Capitalisms, Cultural Feminism, and Women’s Nongovernmental Organizations in Postsocialist Eastern Europe. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 29 (3): 728–753.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldin-Perschbacher, Shana. 2014. Icelandic Nationalism, Difference Feminism, and Björk’s Maternal Aesthetic. Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture 18 (1): 48–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grewal, Inderpal, and Victoria Bernal. 2014. Theorizing NGOs: States, Feminisms, and Neoliberalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hemment, Julie. 2004. Global Civil Society and the Local Costs of Belonging: Defining “Violence against Women” in Russia. Signs 29 (3): 815–840.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2007. Empowering Women in Russia: Activism, Aid, and NGOs. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henderson, Sarah L. 2003. Building Democracy in Contemporary Russia: Western Support for Grassroots Organizations. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hrycak, Alexandra. 2006. Foundation Feminism and the Articulation of Hybrid Feminisms in Post-Socialist Ukraine. East European Politics and Societies 20 (1): 69–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Htun, Mala, and S. Laurel Weldon. 2010. When do Governments Promote Women’s Rights? A Framework for the Comparative Analysis of Sex Equality Policy. Perspectives on Politics 8 (1): 207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Human Rights Watch. 2017. Russia: Government vs. Rights Groups. January 17. https://www.hrw.org/russia-government-against-rights-groups-battle-chronicle. Accessed 25 Jan 2017.

  • Johnson, Janet Elise. 2009. Gender Violence in Russia: The Politics of Feminist Intervention. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2011. The Most Feminist Place in the World. Nation 292 (8): 18–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, Janet Elise, and Aino Saarinen. 2013. Twenty-First-Century Feminisms under Repression: Gender Regime Change and the Women’s Crisis Center Movement in Russia. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society 38 (3): 543–567.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, Janet, and Gulnara Zaynullina. 2010. Global Feminism, Foreign Funding, and Russian Writing about Domestic Violence. In Domestic Violence in Postcommunist States: Local Activism, National Policies, and Global Forces, ed. Katalin Fábián. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, Janet Elise, Meri Kulmala, and Maija Jäppinen. 2016. Street-Level Practice of Russia’s Social Policymaking in Saint Petersburg: Federalism, Informal Politics, and Domestic Violence. Journal of Social Policy 45 (02): 287–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Josephson, Jyl, Þorgerður Einarsdóttir, and Svandís Anna Sigurðardóttir. 2016. Queering the Trans: Gender and Sexuality Binaries in Icelandic Trans, Queer, and Feminist Communities. European Journal of Women’s Studies 24 (1): 70–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kantola, Johanna, and Judith Squires. 2012. From State Feminism to Market Feminism? International Political Science Review 33 (4): 382–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kay, Rebecca. 2000. Russian Women and their Organizations. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Khotkina, Zoia A. 2002. Ten Years of Gender Studies in Russia. Russian Social Science Review 43 (4): 4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kochkina, Elena. 2007. Sistematizirovannye Nabroski ‘Gendernye Issledovaniia v Rossii: Ot Fragmentov k Ktriticheskomu Pereosmysleniiu Politicheskikh Strategii’ [Systematic Outline “Gender Studies in Russia: From Fragments to Critical Reassessment of Policy Strategies”]. Genderenye Issledovaniia [Gender Studies] 15: 92–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Konnikova, Maria. 2016. The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It … Every Time. New York: Viking.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kristmundsdóttir, Sigríður Dúna. 1997. Doing and Becoming: Women’s Movement and Women’s Personhood in Iceland 1870–1990. Félagsvísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krook, Mona Lena, and Sarah Childs, eds. 2010. Women, Gender, and Politics: A Reader. Oxford. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loftsdóttir, Kristín. 2012. Whiteness is from Another World: Gender, Icelandic International Development and Multiculturalism. European Journal of Women’s Studies 19 (1): 41–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mendoza-Denton, Norma. 1999. Style. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 9 (1/2): 238–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Obermaier, Frederik, and Bastian Obermayer. 2016. Panama Papers. Süddeutsche zeitung. http://panamapapers.sueddeutsche.de/articles/56fec0cda1bb8d3c3495adfc. Accessed 5 May 2016.

  • Pétursdóttir, Gyða Margrét. 2015. Fire-Raising Feminists: Embodied Experience and Activism in Academia. European Journal of Women’s Studies 24 (1): 85–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prügl, Elisabeth. 2015. Neoliberalising feminism. New Political Economy 20 (4): 614–631.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pussy Riot. 2013. Pussy Riot!: A Punk Prayer for Freedom. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, Adrienne. 2012. Financial Crisis, Financial firms… and Financial Feminism? The Rise of ‘Transnational Business Feminism’ and the Necessity of Marxist-Reminist IPE. Socialist Studies/Études Socialistes 8 (2): 85–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robins-Early, Nick. 2016. Pussy Riot’s New Video Sheds Light on a Major Russian Scandal, Huffington Post, February 3. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pussy-riot-chaika-navalny_us_56b21c1fe4b01d80b244a4ae?utm_hp_ref=pussy-riot. Accessed 15 Mar 2016.

  • Russian Federation Ministry of Justice. 2017. O Deiatel’nosti Nekommercheskikh Organizatsii [On the Activities of Non-Commercial Organizations]. January 17. http://unro.minjust.ru/NKOForeignAgent.aspx. Accessed 25 Jan 2017.

  • Sandoval, Chela. 2000. Methodology of the oppressed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soiuz Zhenskikh Sil [Union of Women’s Forces]. 2014. Polozhenie o Moskovskom Gorodskom Koordinatsionnom Zhensovete [Position of the Moscow City Coordinating Women’s Council]. http://www.mosgensovet.ru/. Accessed 26 June 2014.

  • Sperling, Valerie. 1999. Organizing Women in Contemporary Russia: Engendering Transition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2015. Sex, Politics, and Putin: Political Legitimacy in Russia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Styrkársdóttir, Auður. 2013. Iceland: Breaking Male Dominance by Extraordinary Means. In Breaking Male Dominance in Old Democracies, ed. Drude Dahlerup and Monique Leyenaar, 124–145. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Suchland, Jennifer. 2015. Economies of Violence: Transnational Feminism, Postsocialism, and the Politics of Sex Trafficking. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sundstrom, Lisa McIntosh. 2010. Russian Women’s Activism: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back. In Women’s Movements in the Global Era: The Power of Local Feminisms, ed. Amrita Basu, 229–254. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walby, Sylvia. 2011. The Future of Feminism. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weldon, S. Laurel. 2011. When Protest Makes Policy: How Social Movements Represent Disadvantaged Groups. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Þorvaldsdóttir, Þorgerður. 2010. From Gender Equality to ‘Equality of All’. Viewpoints from Actors and Subjects of Equality Work. Dissertation, University of Iceland. http://skemman.is/stream/get/1946/6714/18376/3/39-48__orger_ur__orvaldsd%C3%B3ttir_STJ.pdf. Accessed 15 June 2016.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Johnson, J.E. (2018). Feminist Mobilization: How Bait-and-Switch Male Dominance Undermines Feminism and How Feminists Fight Back. In: The Gender of Informal Politics. Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60279-0_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics