African women activists and international women’s organizations during the Cold War (1947-1961): strategic pragmatism
Barthélémy, Pascale
African women activists and international women’s organizations during the Cold War (1947-1961): strategic pragmatism - 2023.
96
Transnational history of the Cold War (1947-1963) tends to concentrate on protagonists from the Eastern and Western blocs. This article analyzes African women activists’ links to three key international women’s organizations during the Cold War: the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), the International Council of Women (ICW) and the International Alliance of Women (IAW). By focusing on the years prior to the UN Women’s Conferences (1975-1995), the article proposes a new chronology for the history of women’s international activism since the Second World War. It also argues that African women activists were full participants in Cold War history, subject to political and gender constraints certainly, but determined to make their struggles known across national borders. By so doing, it seeks to contribute both to a transnational history of African women and to rethinking the histories of decolonization usually written in terms of male actors. The key issue is that by making connections with international women’s organizations, African women were challenging the “logic of blocs” and their respective “spheres of influence” during the Cold War. Firstly, African women activists did not always follow the diplomatic choices of their own countries, whether those were close to the West, the East, or non-aligned. Secondly, they often contacted several different international organizations, in order to identify the interlocutors most likely to support their causes. By making these choices, we argue that they were exercising what we have called “strategic pragmatism”.
African women activists and international women’s organizations during the Cold War (1947-1961): strategic pragmatism - 2023.
96
Transnational history of the Cold War (1947-1963) tends to concentrate on protagonists from the Eastern and Western blocs. This article analyzes African women activists’ links to three key international women’s organizations during the Cold War: the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF), the International Council of Women (ICW) and the International Alliance of Women (IAW). By focusing on the years prior to the UN Women’s Conferences (1975-1995), the article proposes a new chronology for the history of women’s international activism since the Second World War. It also argues that African women activists were full participants in Cold War history, subject to political and gender constraints certainly, but determined to make their struggles known across national borders. By so doing, it seeks to contribute both to a transnational history of African women and to rethinking the histories of decolonization usually written in terms of male actors. The key issue is that by making connections with international women’s organizations, African women were challenging the “logic of blocs” and their respective “spheres of influence” during the Cold War. Firstly, African women activists did not always follow the diplomatic choices of their own countries, whether those were close to the West, the East, or non-aligned. Secondly, they often contacted several different international organizations, in order to identify the interlocutors most likely to support their causes. By making these choices, we argue that they were exercising what we have called “strategic pragmatism”.
Réseaux sociaux