Taking 'difference' seriously: Women's social movements and the politics of inclusion and exclusion (Malaysia, South Africa)

The purpose of this dissertation is to engage the question of why, in spite of decades of feminist-inspired discourse and action, the broad goal of women's movements to eliminate gender-based subordination has remained out of reach. While recognizing the embeddedness of masculinist attitudes and behaviors across cultures, I argue that in addition to looking "externally," it is crucial for women's activists to look "internally" and reflect on how their practices may have unintentionally undermined the overarching feminist objective of subverting masculinism.; Building on a comparative analysis of anti-gender violence activism in Malaysia and South Africa, I contend that a politics of "inclusion" and "exclusion" associated with women's movements has obstructed the development of a more coherent, strategically planned alternative to the existing gender hierarchy. While feminist scholars have offered a sustained critique of how the persistence of identity politics undermines the representativeness of women's movements, I identify additional lines of fracture associated with these movements that haven't been adequately problematized to date---including issue-based, resource-based, and gender-based divisions.; Taking gender seriously and engaging with men more directly and systematically is arguably the most consequential move activists can make if the ultimate goal of women's movements is to generate broad-based resistance to masculinism. Women acting alone are not enough to oppose the momentum of the prevailing social arrangement or to galvanize a critical mass of society willing to adopt new behaviors and interactions. Nonetheless, the major conclusion of the study is that in order for social forces to be more fully mobilized against masculinism, women's activists must not only mend the multiple lines of division that have undermined the cohesiveness of women's movements. Rather, in light of how masculinism overlaps and is embedded in other social structures that uphold relations of dominance and subordination, a shift in feminist action is necessary---away from identity-based action where the focus is exclusively on women to a more goal-directed feminist action that is grounded in a commitment to challenging the multiple bases of oppression or injustice.