Forester, Summer, Kaitlin Kelly-Thompson, Amber Lusvardi, and S. Laurel Weldon. 2022. "New Dimensions of Global Feminist Influence: Tracking Feminist Mobilization Worldwide, 1975 - 2015." International Studies Quarterly.
Abstract:
Feminist mobilization, crucial for advancing women’s human rights, has increased in all world regions since 1975. However, we do not know enough about the global impact of this mobilization because we lack adequate databases to explore the ways that feminist mobilization interacts with other factors that enhance and limit women’s rights, such as democracy, intergovernmental processes, and transnational, regional organizing. Our ability to explore these questions is obstructed by a lack of data on the global south and measures that focus on formal organizations. This project remedies these gaps, developing an improved measure of feminist mobilization that encompasses autonomous, domestic feminist mobilization in 126 countries, 1975–2015, enabling us to track global and regional trends. Using regional comparisons and statistical analysis, we use this new measure to reveal new patterns and complexities in feminist mobilization. We discern distinct regional patterns in such organizing that defy facile predictions of global convergence and suggest a central role for UN processes advancing women’s rights. Our analysis also points to the importance of transnational feminist networks and democratization as factors enabling and strengthening feminist mobilization. We conclude by suggesting some fruitful avenues for exploring relationships between feminist movements, international institutions, and democracy.
Forester, Summer and Cheryl O'Brien. "Anti-democratic and Exclusionary Practices: COVID-19 and the Continuum of Violence." Accepted at Politics & Gender (July 2020)
Abstract: The global coronavirus pandemic has reified divisions, inequity, and injustices rooted in systems of domination like racism, sexism, neoliberal capitalism, ableism, and more. Feminist scholars have theorized these interlocking systems of domination as ‘the continuum of violence.’ Building on this scholarship, we conceptualize the US response to and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic as reflective of the continuum of violence. We argue that crises like pandemics expose the anti-democratic and exclusionary practices inherent to this continuum, which is especially racialized and gendered. To support our argument, we provide empirical evidence of the continuum of violence in relation to COVID-19 vis-à-vis the interrelated issues of militarization and what feminists call “everyday security,” such as public health and gender-based violence. The continuum of violence contributes theoretically and practically to our understanding of how violence that the pandemic illuminates is embedded in broader systems of domination and exclusion.
Forester, Summer. "Protecting Women, Protecting the State: Militarism, Security Threats, & Government Action on Violence Against Women in Jordan." Accepted at Security Dialogue (August 2019).
Abstract: Contrary to our understanding of when states act on women’s rights, Jordan adopted a violence against women policy at the same time that it faced a number of external and internal security threats. In this paper, I query the relationship between militarism and the gender policymaking process in Jordan to make sense of this puzzle. I specifically consider the ways that a feminist conceptualization of militarism offers a more fruitful understanding of government action on VAW in Jordan than studying this policy development through the lens of patriarchy, state institutions, and/or feminist activism alone. Indeed, evaluating the development of the Family Protection Law through the lens of militarism and the related security practices reveals the depth and breadth of these phenomena: the martial values and priorities of the Jordanian regime extend beyond the realm of traditional, “high politics” security issues, and impact civil, social, and even interpersonal relations – relations that are always already gendered – that are seemingly far removed from military concerns. I argue that the Jordanian government adopted the violence against women policy because it enhanced the state’s image in the international arena and appeased domestic audiences by adhering to a gendered logic of protection that maintains the state as the ultimate protector of women. Overall, the paper deepens our understanding of how militarism and the security climate influence the gender policymaking process, particularly in semi-authoritarian regimes.
Aldrich, Daniel, Summer Forester, and Elisa Horhager. "Triggers for Policy Change: The 3.11 Fukushima Meltdowns and Nuclear Policy Continuity." Environmental Politics (2018), 1-22.
Abstract: The Fukushima meltdown in Tohoku, Japan served as catalyst for some nations, including Germany, Belgium, and Italy, to alter nuclear policies but had no impact on the approaches of a number of others such as Vietnam, China, and Russia. Our article investigates why, despite facing the same focusing event, private- and state-owned utilities in some countries altered their nuclear energy policies while others kept the status quo. We use a mixed-methods approach to understand this variation in energy policy outcomes, namely decreasing, maintaining the status quo, or increasing the use of nuclear energy. Our quantitative analysis of 90 countries based on a new, sui generis dataset shows that strong voice / accountability are negatively correlated with changes in nuclear power programs while media openness and political stability are positively connected with atomic energy decisions. Using in-depth case studies of Germany and Japan we further explore the role of domestic political institutions and country-specific norms to show more precisely how actors interacted with ideas to influence energy decisions. This article brings implications about the future of energy policies around the world at a time when, facing climate change, some hope to see a nuclear renaissance.
Decker, Alicia C., Summer Forester, and Eliot Blackburn. "Rethinking Everyday Militarism on Campus: Feminist Reflections on the Fatal Shooting at Purdue University." Feminist Studies 42, no. 1 (2016): 194-216. doi:10.15767/feministstudies.42.1.194
Abstract: This article uses militarism as a lens through which to examine a fatal shooting that occurred on the campus of Purdue University in January 2014. Although each author experienced the violence differently, as they discuss in their respective sections, they collectively describe a campus enveloped in militarism. And while this militarism did not directly cause the shooting, they suggest that violence is normalized (and even celebrated) on college campuses in disturbing ways. This, they argue, is the specter of everyday militarism.
Abstract:
Feminist mobilization, crucial for advancing women’s human rights, has increased in all world regions since 1975. However, we do not know enough about the global impact of this mobilization because we lack adequate databases to explore the ways that feminist mobilization interacts with other factors that enhance and limit women’s rights, such as democracy, intergovernmental processes, and transnational, regional organizing. Our ability to explore these questions is obstructed by a lack of data on the global south and measures that focus on formal organizations. This project remedies these gaps, developing an improved measure of feminist mobilization that encompasses autonomous, domestic feminist mobilization in 126 countries, 1975–2015, enabling us to track global and regional trends. Using regional comparisons and statistical analysis, we use this new measure to reveal new patterns and complexities in feminist mobilization. We discern distinct regional patterns in such organizing that defy facile predictions of global convergence and suggest a central role for UN processes advancing women’s rights. Our analysis also points to the importance of transnational feminist networks and democratization as factors enabling and strengthening feminist mobilization. We conclude by suggesting some fruitful avenues for exploring relationships between feminist movements, international institutions, and democracy.
Forester, Summer and Cheryl O'Brien. "Anti-democratic and Exclusionary Practices: COVID-19 and the Continuum of Violence." Accepted at Politics & Gender (July 2020)
Abstract: The global coronavirus pandemic has reified divisions, inequity, and injustices rooted in systems of domination like racism, sexism, neoliberal capitalism, ableism, and more. Feminist scholars have theorized these interlocking systems of domination as ‘the continuum of violence.’ Building on this scholarship, we conceptualize the US response to and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic as reflective of the continuum of violence. We argue that crises like pandemics expose the anti-democratic and exclusionary practices inherent to this continuum, which is especially racialized and gendered. To support our argument, we provide empirical evidence of the continuum of violence in relation to COVID-19 vis-à-vis the interrelated issues of militarization and what feminists call “everyday security,” such as public health and gender-based violence. The continuum of violence contributes theoretically and practically to our understanding of how violence that the pandemic illuminates is embedded in broader systems of domination and exclusion.
Forester, Summer. "Protecting Women, Protecting the State: Militarism, Security Threats, & Government Action on Violence Against Women in Jordan." Accepted at Security Dialogue (August 2019).
Abstract: Contrary to our understanding of when states act on women’s rights, Jordan adopted a violence against women policy at the same time that it faced a number of external and internal security threats. In this paper, I query the relationship between militarism and the gender policymaking process in Jordan to make sense of this puzzle. I specifically consider the ways that a feminist conceptualization of militarism offers a more fruitful understanding of government action on VAW in Jordan than studying this policy development through the lens of patriarchy, state institutions, and/or feminist activism alone. Indeed, evaluating the development of the Family Protection Law through the lens of militarism and the related security practices reveals the depth and breadth of these phenomena: the martial values and priorities of the Jordanian regime extend beyond the realm of traditional, “high politics” security issues, and impact civil, social, and even interpersonal relations – relations that are always already gendered – that are seemingly far removed from military concerns. I argue that the Jordanian government adopted the violence against women policy because it enhanced the state’s image in the international arena and appeased domestic audiences by adhering to a gendered logic of protection that maintains the state as the ultimate protector of women. Overall, the paper deepens our understanding of how militarism and the security climate influence the gender policymaking process, particularly in semi-authoritarian regimes.
Aldrich, Daniel, Summer Forester, and Elisa Horhager. "Triggers for Policy Change: The 3.11 Fukushima Meltdowns and Nuclear Policy Continuity." Environmental Politics (2018), 1-22.
Abstract: The Fukushima meltdown in Tohoku, Japan served as catalyst for some nations, including Germany, Belgium, and Italy, to alter nuclear policies but had no impact on the approaches of a number of others such as Vietnam, China, and Russia. Our article investigates why, despite facing the same focusing event, private- and state-owned utilities in some countries altered their nuclear energy policies while others kept the status quo. We use a mixed-methods approach to understand this variation in energy policy outcomes, namely decreasing, maintaining the status quo, or increasing the use of nuclear energy. Our quantitative analysis of 90 countries based on a new, sui generis dataset shows that strong voice / accountability are negatively correlated with changes in nuclear power programs while media openness and political stability are positively connected with atomic energy decisions. Using in-depth case studies of Germany and Japan we further explore the role of domestic political institutions and country-specific norms to show more precisely how actors interacted with ideas to influence energy decisions. This article brings implications about the future of energy policies around the world at a time when, facing climate change, some hope to see a nuclear renaissance.
Decker, Alicia C., Summer Forester, and Eliot Blackburn. "Rethinking Everyday Militarism on Campus: Feminist Reflections on the Fatal Shooting at Purdue University." Feminist Studies 42, no. 1 (2016): 194-216. doi:10.15767/feministstudies.42.1.194
Abstract: This article uses militarism as a lens through which to examine a fatal shooting that occurred on the campus of Purdue University in January 2014. Although each author experienced the violence differently, as they discuss in their respective sections, they collectively describe a campus enveloped in militarism. And while this militarism did not directly cause the shooting, they suggest that violence is normalized (and even celebrated) on college campuses in disturbing ways. This, they argue, is the specter of everyday militarism.