“I Am Not Just a Feminist Eight Hours a Day”

Abstract

This article focuses on youth feminist political action in Ecuador and Peru and its relationship to contemporary gender hierarchies. I examine how and why youth gender justice activists understand their political action differently from the professionalized adult feminists who mobilize them. Grounded theory was used to collect and analyze interviews with 21 young women and men activists on gender justice. Youth activists seek cultural changes using social advocacy to target the family, household, and intimate partnerships, what I describe as politicizing the sociocultural. They develop new ways of perceiving political action in response to challenges produced by emergent gender hierarchies, which they understand as blurred gender inequalities or processes that simultaneously enable and constrain gender equality.

“I Reject it, But That’s What Normally Happens”: Grey Zones of Gender-Based Violence and Gender Roles in Young People

“…The qualitative methodology (focus groups and semi-structured interviews with an innovative guide) used in this study provided information that can serve as a guide to how to direct GBV prevention efforts. Moreover, just as the voices of activists have been shown to be key in other studies (Coe, 2015;Goicolea et al, 2014), they have helped us to better understand how GBV intersects with social constructs around gender because of their previous reflexivity and experience on the subject. We found that the hegemonic construction of masculinity favors a context of social pressure that makes men feel insecure and distrustful when intervening in a situation of violence (Bolton et al, 2022), which is complemented by the social questioning and blame of women who are victims of violence (Taylor, 2020).…”

“…More research is needed to address in depth different discursive perspectives and situations on self-identified cisgender people. Furthermore, research carried out in other countries such as Ecuador and Peru (Coe, 2015; Goicolea et al, 2014) shows that discourses of young adults involved in feminist activism can be key in framing the problem and proposing alternatives to challenge hegemonic masculinities and GBV. Until now, their voices have not been particularly studied in Spain, so it is of interest to incorporate them as they may shed light on discourses that might be different from those of non-activists.…”

Social Processes Underlying Movement Influence: Young Adult Feminist Activists’ Interactions with Professionalized Feminist Organizations in Ecuador and Peru

“…In theoretical coding, I analyzed the connections between categories and found that while some depicted how the young adult feminist activists understood and practiced feminist mobilizing, other categories clarified why they did so in this way. I first published my findings that showed how the young adult feminist activists pursued a strategy of politicizing the sociocultural in response to blurred gender inequalities as an emergent social condition (Coe 2015). Here, I present the findings that show how they mobilized as an emergent feminist movement in response to a well-developed feminist movement.…”

Becoming AGENDA: The Making and Mattering of a Youth Activist Resource on Gender and Sexual Violence

“…The making of agenda emerged at a time of increasingly visible youth activisms around the globe calling out and calling time on the new twists and turns of enduring gender and sexual violence (see Damodar, 2012;Atluri, 2013;Coe, 2015;Mitchell and Ezcurra, 2017;Shefer, Hearn, Ratele and Boonzaier, 2018;Terriquez, Brenes and Lopez, 2018;Ridwan and Wu, 2018;Mendes, Ringrose and Keller, 2019). Enabled by a macro-political statement in the Welsh government practitioner guide which specifically invites young people to get involved in local and global activisms as part of a whole-school approach to healthy relationships, AGENDA as order-word could be up front about its proto-political intentions from the get-go.…”