ABSTRACT
How do women's and feminist action matter in world politics and within nation states? This chapter examines forms of women's advocacy, activism and resistance to show how local women's groups, feminist organisations, women-led non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and transnational feminist networks (TFNs) engage with, and often challenge, institutions of global governance, states and non-state actors. Across time and space, targets, framings, tactics, goals and outcomes may vary according to cultural context or political opportunity. Following a conceptual and literature survey, the chapter offers two cases of feminist action that have had both policy and political ramifications: transnational feminist critiques of misguided economic policies and advocacy for women's economic empowerment, and Tunisian feminist action to resist Islamisation and defend women's rights after the 2011 political revolution.
