Winnie Maru from Soroptimist InternationaI Eldoret in
Nairobi recently attended the Fifth Feminist Leadership, Movement Building and
Rights Institute in Nairobi for a week-long course designed to strengthen feminist
leadership, strategies and collective power for social transformation in Africa
with general messages for all women’s rights activists around the world.

With participants from all over Africa, the session
challenged participants to critically assess how they have organised themselves
to achieve their social justice goals. Additionally, participants were tasked
to identify the different challenges that social movements encounter when
collaborating on issues of women’s human rights. The Institute covered topics
such as: Social Movements and Power, Movements, Organisations, and Leadership, Current
issues and challenges of the women’s movement in Africa, Women in Peace and
Conflict Resolution, and Women’s Political Participation.

 

The week began with a session which addressed the theme of power, its meaning, and how vital it is in leading any peace process where the
objective is social justice. Power it was conveyed, is at heart of patriarchy,
feminism, social justice movements and leadership. Power as patriarchy is
protected and perpetuated by ideologies constructed to justify such differences
for eg – caste, class, race, ability, normative sexualities, religion etc then
institutions and structures are set up within society which protect these hierarchies
through socialisation, norms, brainwashing, rewards for acceptance, compliance,
violence, and unequal access (for example to land/property). Here power is used to create a divide and discriminate. On the contrary power in Feminism is used by people who believe in equal rights and equal opportunities and are fighting for a just, fair and non-discriminatory world.

What we must do as individuals is question power, and question its foundations to determine for ourselves whether we think that kind of power is the kind we want to exist.

Feminist Goals:

The meaning of feminism was also addressed including its use in
the transformation of all social relations of power that oppress, exploit, or
marginalise any set of people on the basis of their gender, age, sexual
orientation, ability, race, religions. Feminism it was said, is not simply an
idealogy, but also an analytical framework created and expanded from the
concept of patriarchy.

Several big goals were set out at the session to participants on how we can
achieve gender equality

• Name and challenge the ideology of patriarchy
  and other oppressive ideology it intersects.
• Challenge and transform the institutions that
  reproduce and reinforce gender discrimination for e.g family, states, market, media
  etc
• Transform the social and cultural norms that
  sanction gender discrimination and equality.
• Ensure women’s equal voice, representation, and
  power in all private, public decision making.
• Eradicate all forms of gender-based violence
• Challenge and change gender based ownership and
  control over resources

All participants and their represented organisations were
encouraged to:

• Raise visibility and voice
• Expose the nature of gender discrimination
• Advance formal equality
• Create and engender international norm
  structures
• Create new mechanisms and institutions for women
• Organise and empower women at multiple levels
• Build feminist organisations, networks and
  movements
• Create new concepts, challenging old ones,
  building new knowledge & analysis of issues

Winnie was reminded at this session that movements like
Soroptimist International can bring down all the barriers that women and girls
have to cross to access their rights. Movements like Soroptimist International matter because they can pull
down multiple barriers, change mind-sets and social norms, transform formal and
information exclusionary structures, and sustain change. 2014
will see Soroptimists all over the world, standing up and raising their voices in order to achieve the above outlined goals.

Photograph above: Winnie Maru (Centre) with the group.