Private Sector & Corporate Power

Recovery with rights: Towards an economy that cares

The global financial crisis led to greater job loss and poverty among women than men while rising food prices and responsibility for social reproduction take excessive tolls on the livelihoods of women. Financial crises and austerity measures to combat crises undermine the human rights to work, education, health and nourishment and the capacity to provide […]

Read More

‘Investing’ in Women’s Rights: Challenges and new trends

Angelika Arutyunova. Women’s rights activists and advocates are not the only ones talking about the importance of inclusion of women and girls in the development processes. From the World Bank to corporations, investing in women and girls trend has picked up over the past years. At the same time, AWID’s Where is the Money for […]

Read More

Why is the Internet a Feminist Issue?

Posted in Private Sector & Corporate Power on February 8th, 2013 by

The women’s programme of world’s oldest progressive internet network outlines its priority issues for the 12th AWID International Forum on Women’s Rights in Development that will gather over 2000 women’s rights activists from around the world from April 19 to 22, 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey. Self, body and autonomy The internet is a key channel […]

Read More

Corporate Campaigning 101

Posted in Labour & Work, Private Sector & Corporate Power on February 4th, 2013 by

Presenters discussed how campaign organizations working to advance worker rights in global supply chains balance campaigning and engagement with corporations to pressure for change. They also shared practical lessons based on real cases in the garment industry over the last decade. Some notes on basic dos and don’ts in corporate campaigning shared in the economic […]

Read More

Women and Seeds for Resistance[1]

FRIDAY FILE: The onslaught of transgenic food production, the advance of agro-business driven single-crop farming and the exploitative economic development model, are putting food sovereignty at risk. Those supporting and reinforcing these practices, including transnational corporations, are more focused on profit than caring for food and natural resources. AWID spoke to Chilean peasant activist Francisca […]

Read More

Internet governance: If we are not at the table, we will be on the menu

Posted in Global Governance, Private Sector & Corporate Power on November 16th, 2012 by

Jan Moolman. In 2001 while working at Agenda, a South African feminist academic journal, we produced an edition titled ‘Globalisation: challenging dominant discourses’. The journal problematised the realpolitik of a global neo-liberal economic system that was marked by developing countries’ indebtedness, the rise of the market and the devastating consequences of structural adjustment policies for […]

Read More

What does transforming economic power mean?

Srilatha Batliwala. Today’s targeting of women in processes of realigning economic controls is perhaps quite unique. In order to unpack and understand economic power, we must revisit the different realms in which power operates, and the various forms that it takes – visible, hidden and invisible, says Srilatha Batliwala On the eve of the 12th AWID […]

Read More

Commodification of Knowledge

Posted in Private Sector & Corporate Power on November 1st, 2012 by

What does it mean for women’s rights that most online platforms and services are owned by a few transnational corporations? How do international copyright agreements, data protection and privacy affect our advocacy? Who governs the Internet, content and data we produce and exchange, and how can feminists engage with and participate in this process? An […]

Read More

Digital Security Becomes Key Concern for Women Rights Activists

Posted in Private Sector & Corporate Power on November 1st, 2012 by

“Online Safety – Ask Me”. This is what the badges say, that an increasing number of women are wearing this week in Istanbul for a high-level International Women’s Forum. Recognised as one of the world’s most important gatherings of women rights activists, the 12th AWID (Association for Women’s Rights in Development) International Forum is starting […]

Read More

Where we must stand: African women in an age of war

Amina Mama. Whether one considers the direct effects of military rule and conflict on women, or the global economic implications of the US war-on-terror, militarism threatens to strip away all the 20th century gains in women’s rights, dispossessing us once more. African women must take a stand, says Amina Mama (Read this article in Italian) […]

Read More

A brutal manifestation of patriarchy

SUNILA ABEYSEKERA. The involvement of women in anti-war actions and in support of peace activism worldwide is a critical part of modern history, yet  the vulnerability of women in conflict situations to violence of all forms is perhaps the most brutal manifestation of patriarchy in modern times. We must probe the areas of ambivalence in women’s […]

Read More