Kim Perren

Men's organisational affiliations in later life: the influence of social class and marital status on informal group membership

This paper considers a dimension of social life that has been largely neglected in the research literature on ageing, older mens involvement with informal associations. These affiliations represent an under-valued resource which may contribute to the quality of life of older men by facilitating social interaction and providing a context for continued social productivity. Using the British Household Panel Survey for 1999, we explore the engagement of men aged 65 or more years with civic groups (such as political parties or voluntary agencies), religious organisations, and sports and social clubs. Involvement in civic and religious groups and sports clubs is common among middle class older men, while social club membership is common among working class men. Only a small amount of these differences can be explained by variations in health, income and access to private transport. Compared with partnered older men, widowers are more likely to be involved with sports and social clubs, while men who are divorced or never married are less likely to be a member of any informal group.

Neighbouring in Later Life: The Influence of Socio-Economic Resources, Gender and Household Composition on Neighbourly Relationships

Positive neighbourly relationships offer sociability and the opportunity to give and receive practical support. This mode of social interaction may be particularly important in later life, when people spend more time around the home andare increasingly likely to live alone. Building on a political economy perspective, this article uses the General Household Survey 2000 to explore three formsof neighbourly contact in later life: frequent conversations, doing favours and receiving favours. We find that socio-economic assets, such as home- and carownership, increase the likelihood both of having done a favour for a neighbour and of having received one. In later life, men are more likely than women to have frequent conversations with their neighbours; however, there is an interaction between gender and household composition in the exchange of favours. Among women, living alone increases the likelihood of providing and receiving favours; whereas among men, living alone decreases engagement in these forms of neighbourly social interaction.This gender difference may contribute to the elevated risk of social isolation among lone older men.

Majority-Minority Relations in Contemporary Women’s Movements

Dedication Preface Acknowledgements Foreword Womens Movements, Gender Equality, Citizenship and Ethnic Diversity in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom Womens Movements in Norway, Spain and the UK Citizenship, Recognition and Justice Political Opportunities and Violence Against Women Researching Womens Movements Towards Strategic Sisterhood on Balanced Terms: Recognition, Participation, Inclusion and Solidarity Seeking Policy Impact Conclusion Bibliography Appendices Index

Researching Women’s Movements

This book explores the demands and practices which have emerged from ‘second wave’ women’s movements from the late 1960s and onwards by focusing on relations between majoritised and minoritised women’s movement organisations, and on relations between women’s movement organisations and the state. We have chosen Spain, Norway and the United Kingdom — countries with very different migration histories and gender regimes — as empirical contexts for our study of intersections between women’s movement activism, feminism and ethnic diversity. Our point of departure is the organisational and issue-based divisions that have developed among feminists and women’s movement activists along racial and ethnic lines, and the dynamic relationships between differently situated activists (Roth 2004). Inspired by scholars such as Roth (2004), Sudbury (1998), Frankenberg (1993) and others, we ask: To what extent have ethnic majority and minority women’s organisations engaged with each other? Have they been able to establish a common political platform? What links have been established between women’s movement activism and the state, or what has been the resonance between women’s movement claims and public policy? To answer these questions, we have collected original, empirical data in the form of qualitative interviews with ethnic majority and minority women’s movement organisations and policymakers in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom. We have also conducted a mapping of select policy documents.

Towards Strategic Sisterhood on Balanced Terms: Recognition, Participation, Inclusion and Solidarity

‘The women’s movement’ has never been a unified movement, be it at transnational, national, regional or local levels of mobilisation and activism, as women’s interests have diverged and women have mobilised within different groups and organisations emphasising a plethora of issues, strategies and claims. The diversity of women’s movements offers women of various backgrounds and locations a sense of belonging as well as political representation through the advocacy and claims-making forwarded by such movements. Diversity and disunity have always been present in women’s movements, and will continue to characterise women’s movements that are taking shape within increasingly complex, multicultural European constituencies. However, the specific features of women’s movements’ disunity, in relation to both its focus and significance, change over time. Despite ideological divisions and political tensions within women’s movements, there has also been considerable agreement on central political demands emerging from women’s movement activism. Many of the core issues that dominated in the 1970s and 1980s, such as equal pay, the availability of affordable, quality child care, maternity and paternity leave, abortion access, freedom from gender-based violence and freedom from racism and discrimination, continue to be put forward by contemporary women’s movement organisations.

Women’s Movements, Gender Equality, Citizenship and Ethnic Diversity in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom

This book examines how relations between ethnic ‘majority’ and ‘minority’ women’s organisations1 in contemporary women’s movements, as well as relations between women’s movements and governments in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom, have developed and are being talked about by women’s movement activists. Our focus on these relations originates from an interest in the mobilisation of white, Black, migrant, indigenous, national and ethnic minority women in separate organisations in the United Kingdom and Norway starting from the 1960s and 1970s, and in Spain from the 1970s and 1980s. The claims forwarded by ethnic majority women’s organisations at that time focused on issues perceived to be most relevant to them, and although class was considered as part of an intersectional lens on women’s inequality, at least by those on the political left, racism and ethnic discrimination were generally absent from their agenda. Ethnic minority women’s organisations emerged from the experiences of Black, migrant, indigenous, national and ethnic minority women, and their political claims centred on gender, race and ethnicity, as well as on migration issues, whilst also acknowledging the importance of class issues. Since ethnic majority women’s organisations at that time did not engage explicitly with issues of race and ethnicity in their political claims-making, ethnic minority women’s organisations critiqued them for being blind to the importance of race and ethnicity, and even ethnocentric and racist.

Citizenship, Recognition and Justice

Modern democracies are based on the principle of self-determination, which implies that all citizens are entitled to have a voice, ‘to not only be subject but the author of its laws’ (Benhabib 2004: 20). The right to have a voice does not, however, necessarily imply equal rights in practice, nor does citizenship include all adults. Women’s rights are restricted in various ways, and so are the citizenship rights of refugees, asylum seekers, indigenous peoples and national minorities. In this book we are concerned with the articulation of interests that takes place within women’s movements, as one of the ways in which those who are affected by political decisions struggle to have an impact on ‘the meaning of equal rights’ and on what is considered ‘matters of collective concern’ (Benhabib 2004: 145). Before venturing into our empirical analysis of the mobilisation, organisation, claims-making and relations between majority and minority women’s movements, we develop our understanding of concepts such as gendered citizenship, multicultural citizenship and intersectionality. In particular, this chapter addresses current scholarly debates about gender and multicultural diversity in relation to citizenship, participation and recognition in the context of women’s movements.

Seeking Policy Impact

In this chapter we explore women’s movements’ efforts to change public policies in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom. Influencing government is not necessarily women’s organisations’ most urgent raison d’etre,1 and yet, to challenge public policy is sometimes central to their aims. This was the case after the fall of Franco in 1975, when the feminist movements in Spain mobilised to re-establish women’s autonomy and rights in private and public life. Political and legal changes were perceived as necessary to these aims. Women’s organisations successfully engaged in the process of writing the new democratic 1978 Constitution which established the principle of gender equality and repealed women’s obligation to abandon employment upon marriage.

Political Opportunities and Violence against Women

How have women’s movements in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom attempted to influence gender policy, and how have they succeeded? The citation above is one example of a ‘verdict’, a conditionally excited opinion. In order to grasp how women’s movement actors perceive and assess the policy influence of their activism, we have been inspired by approaches that emphasise political institutions, framing processes and discourses (McAdam et al. 1996; Bacchi 1999; Koopman 2004; Davis et al. 2005; Tilly and Tarrow 2007; Verloo 2007; McBride and Mazur 2010).

Women’s Movements in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom

Due to their origin in different historical and socio-political contexts, women’s movements in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom vary in terms of the timing of their emergence, the issues they have focused on, the timing of their claims-making, their capability to impact upon policymaking and their access to women’s and gender policy agencies. At the same time, women’s movements in these three countries share several characteristics, such as their attention to women’s political participation, access to abortion and freedom from gender-based violence. Many similar debates have taken place within women’s movements in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom, including the role of autonomous women’s organisations versus women’s sections and groups that are incorporated in political parties and trade unions; the relationship between women’s liberation and gender equality; and the importance of gender difference versus gender sameness. In relation to ethnic minority women, issues concerning different forms of gender violence are being discussed in all three countries, including female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced marriage. Women’s movements in all three countries have also mobilised for the protection of migrant women with insecure immigrant status who experience violence in their intimate relationships.