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Gender, Power, and Left Politics: From Feminization to “Feministization”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2018

Jonathan Dean  and
Bice Maiguashca
Jonathan Dean
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
Bice Maiguashca
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Abstract

Responding to ongoing debates about the presence (or otherwise) of feminism within left-wing politics, this article has two central aims. First, it seeks to develop a set of analytical criteria to identify and assess the extent to which an instance of politics has become “feminist.” Second, it aims to illustrate the utility of this framework by applying it to a range of examples of contemporary left politics in Britain. Our argument is similarly twofold. Conceptually, learning from the literature on socialist feminism, gender and politics, and cultural studies and sociology, we identify five features of what we call “feministization,” arguing that in addition to feminist ideas, policies, and modes of organizing, we must also pay attention to the role of embodied performances and affect. Empirically, we suggest that, seen through this lens, the British left has in fact undergone a significant but uneven process of feministization in recent years.

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , September 2018 , pp. 376 - 406
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2018 

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Footnotes

The research used in this article was funded by two research grants. These were, first, a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grant, “Gendering Protest: A Gender Analysis of Contemporary Radical Activism in the UK” (SG121836) and, second, a Leverhulme Research Project Grant, “Exploring Left-Wing Populism in an Age of Anti-Politics” (RPG2015-252).

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