* feminism theory * media * Latin America * cyberfeminism

1. Feminism, development and online activism
in the digital age - University of Leeds
DR. CAROLINA MATOS
SENIOR LECTURER IN MEDIA AND SOCIOLOGY
CITY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
E-MAIL: CAROLINA.MATOS.1@CITY.AC.UK

2. Key themes
* Feminism and democracy: why equality still matters
* Women and oppression in an age of globalization: the rise of feminisms in the global South
* Cyberfeminism, transnational activisms and the role of communications in social change
* New technologies: limits and possibilities for feminists movements around the world
* The case of Latin America and Brazil
* From the Brazlian “Arab” Spring in 2015, to the #elenao (#Not Him) campaign in 2018 in the
Bolsonaro/Trump era
* Conclusions and future challenges
* Selected bibliography

3. Feminism, equality and
democracy: theoretical
frameworks
* “Crisis” of liberal democracy and of the democratic consensus around the world
* Democracies in contemporary societies are being accused of suffering from a “democratic
deficit”, and of holding a thin promise of democracy, political equality and popular participation
(Scammell and Semetko, 2007).
* “Gender equality” and “women’s empowerment” have become popular, articulated either on
economic terms or around social justice principles
* Fraser (2013) has argued for the need for global gender justice, with the need to combine
redistribution (i.e. material conditions, economics) with recognition (cultural sphere,
representations)
* Growth of online and transnational activism by feminist movements around the world has a
clear transformative potential, a contrast to the restrictions of the offline world and barriers that
still exist for women in politics

4. Equality and democracy: why does
it matter?*
Relationship between democracy, equality and social inclusion:
* The quality of democratic decision-making depends on sustained conditions of
dialogue, deliberation and talk. The underrepresentation of women and ethnic
minorities threatens the democratic vitality of democratic decision-making.
* Thus democratic struggle is above all about expanding the space for the
inclusion of a wider citizen body, avoiding exclusions based on property,
gender, race or ethnicity (* Philips (1999) in Matos (2012, 2016), and Matos
2016)
* Internet and social media: the new coffee houses of the 21st
century and a
boost to a global public sphere?
https://thefword.org.uk/ //
http://thewomensroom.org.uk/blog
https://everydaysexism.com //

5. Women and oppression in an age of
globalization: the rise of feminisms from the
global South
* First, second and third wave feminism: what were these feminism movements and what did
they achieve? (i.e. Suffragette, 2015)
Second wave feminism of the 1970s and the debate on the reasons for the subordination of
women
Third wave feminism: diversity, fragmentation and new technologies
Fourth wave feminism and social media – the revival of feminism across the world since 2012
(i.e. feminism ceasing to be a “dirty word”), epitomised in campaigns such as the #MeToo
movement (i.e. young women between 18 and 29 are among the main users)
I.e. Twitter growing in places like Turkey, where women make up 72% of social media users
(#Fem Futures, Columbia University Barnard Centre for Research on Woman)
Rise of feminists in the global South – i.e. from the Arab spring in 2010 in the Middle East, to
India and Brazil, Argentina

6. Cyberfeminism and the use of new
technologies for gender equality*
* Role of communications for social change (CFS)
* Debates around the ways in which women use new technologies for social change, amid the
paradox of the “masculine” character of ICTs and the exploitation of the labour force which
works with it, have been grouped around a series of theoretical perspectives known as
cyberfeminism
* Field has developed into an important research area for feminist and scholars working in the
social sciences (i.e. Haraway, 1991; Plant, 1995; Wajcman, 1991; Harcourt, 2000).
* Debates are examining the capacity of online activism to have a impact on the political world
and make a difference (i.e. or is this only slacktivism, generating a “feel good” feeling)
* Debates are examining the capacity of online activism to have a impact on the political world
and make a difference (i.e. or is this only slacktivism, generating a “feel good” feeling)

7. Cyberfeminism and the use of new
technologies for gender equality*
* Research coming both from gender and cultural studies, as well as sociology and development
studies
* Women have increasingly began to use the internet more for political purposes
* Early discussions on the relationship between women and technologies – i.e. computers as
part of a male dominated environment which traditionally excluded the feminine (i.e. STEM)
* Association of the “masculine” and notions of “neutrality” and “objectivity”, as opposed to the
subjectivity seen as inherent to the female (i.e. Haraway)
* I.e. Work of Plant and Harcourt have underlined the possibilities of new technologies for
women
* Sassen (2002, 382) stressed how cyberspace could be seen as being a “far more concrete space
for social struggles than that of the national political system”, further stating how it could
“facilitate the emergence of new types of political subjects” outside of the formal political system

8. New technologies and the “female” virtual
space
* Studies have also attempted to map out the characteristics of these online activities in terms of
gendered (or genderless) spaces (e.g. Westfall, 2000).
* If Haraway sees the activities in cyberspace as ‘networking’, Plant sees the web as intrinsically
feminine, talking about the process of ‘weaving’, an activity traditionally associated with
femininity.
* Seen as a leading figure in popularizing cyberfeminism, Wajcman (2000 [1991]) has argued
that Plant’s excessive optimism about women in cyberspace is a reaction to previous depictions
of technology as inherently masculine (cited in Daniels, 2009).
* Limits of the Internet for democratic politics (in both developed and less developing
countries)

9. New technologies for development in the
global South
* Importance of ICTs in developing countries where the media is highly concentrated, politics is
dominated by money and powerful interests, with many excluded
* Particularly in the case of developing countries, however constrained by problems of access,
online communications can offer real spaces and possibilities for oppressed groups to build new
democratic narratives.
* Transnational feminisms in the digital age - Opportunities provided for the articulation of
ideas and for networking with other feminists in order to mobilize around agendas that can
influence the public sphere around gender equality.
* Feminists in the North versus the South in the digital age

10. Limits and potential of the Internet for
participatory democratic politics
* Digital divide
* Debates on the potential of the internet have been cast in what many authors have claimed as
two opposite camps (i.e. Chadwick, 2006), the more utopian perspective, of those who have
tended to endorse a technological determinism, and the realistic or pragmatic one
* The first group has seen new technologies in them a potential to revolutionise our structures
and ways of life, while the other scholars claim that these are insufficient in their capacity to
correct structural inequalities, however opening up spaces for participation and democratization
(i.e. Iosifidis, 2011).
* Internet also seen as having facilitated the rise of partisanship, “echo chambers”, and online
chaos
* “Fake news” and manipulation – i.e. cases of Brexit, Trump and Bolsonaro in Brazil, in a
context of the crisis of liberal democracy in the West

11. Feminist movements in Latin America and
Brazil: case study
* Region traditionally has had a vibrant history of struggle for women’s rights, against a
predominantly male and misogynist culture which has continued to this day
* Protests throughout the region in the last years of various women’s groups are leading to a
revival of feminist movements, with the potential to advance democracy
I.e. Mobilizations during the voting of abortion laws in Uruguay and Argentina
I.e. Brazil: from the 2015 “Brazilian” Arab Spring, to the #elenao campaign of the 2018
presidential elections
* Limits and constraints – I.e. 56% of the Latin American population access the Internet
(approx. 384 million users in 2014). Around 50% of these are women. Brazil in 2017
registered 119 million internet users, of a population of 209 million people.

12. Equality, development and
democracy: the challenges for
Brazil
* “Fragile democracy”, or semi-authoritarian government? - Importance of feminism for the
debate on the reduction of inequalities, social inclusion and democracy (“feminization of
poverty”)
* According to the 2012 study conducted by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme
(Habitat) entitled “State of the Cities of Latin America and the Caribbean”, Brazil still appear as
the fourth most unequal country in Latin America, behind Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia.
* Brazil has a high rate of femicide, of 4.8 for every 100.000 women
* Brazil has one rape in every four minutes - *According to the Map of Violence 2015 –
Homicides of women in Brazil, which analysed the period from 2003 to 2013, Brazil appeared in
the fifth place in a list of 84 countries where more women are killed, more than in Syria.
* Brazilian woman also study more than men, but are paid less (IBGE – 2015/16 – 2.306 men
and 1.764 reais women). Only 10.5% of MPs in Congress are women.

13. Historical struggles and challenges
to rights
* Historical oppression: Brazilian women have traditionally been exploited, first by the
colonisers who used them as sexual slaves, whilst others were destined to a life of hard low paid
labour under horrible conditions, with only the more privileged encountering a form of “escape”
through marriage.
* Brazil gave women the right to vote in 1934, although most of Central and South America
gave woman suffrage rights only after World War II.
*After the 1960’s, a series of laws which were approved in the country started to improve the
situation of women, including alterations in the marriage law (Lei n. 4.121/62) and the
implementation of divorce (Lei n. 6.515/77). Main change came with the 1988 Constitution of
1988
* Current challenges – retreat of rights in Congress, such as the abortion law (2015 – the year of
“feminism” in the country)

14. The “Brazilian woman” myth
* Colonial modes of representation (i.e. Weedon, 1999)
* What are the roots of the social construction of Brazilian
femininity?
* The “Brazilian woman” (or Latin America, the Latina) is a
cultural stereotype in Brazil itself
* Since the colonial years, Portuguese and other Europeans arrived
in Brazil and were astonished and tempted by the nudity of the
natives (i.e. the exotic)
* Gilberto Freyre in Casa Grande e Senzala (1933) described how
the environment which started Brazilian life was highly sexually
charged, with the European setting foot in the country and coming
across naked indigenous women, or the “niggers” of the earth.

15. Gender representations and women in
the media in Brazil
* Research has shown that women in journalism are over-
represented in lower positions, and only 10% of those who work in
advertising work in creation
* A research carried out by the postgraduate political sociology
programme of the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) in
Brazil, in association with the National Federation of Journalists
(FENAJ), on the profile of the Brazilian journalist (Quem e o
jornalista brasleiro? “Who is the Brazilian journalist?”) revealed
that most Brazilian journalists are female, young, up to 30 years of
age, single and white.
* “Before we talk about chauvinistic advertising, we need to talk
about chauvinism in advertising”, stated creative director Thais
Fabris, who idealised the project 65/10.

17. Representation of Brazilian women in
politics

18. Cyberfeminism and the use of new technologies for
mobilization and counter-discourses

19. Discourses in the blogosphere on
women’s issues
* Topics were selected according to three categories: (1); protest and mobilization; 2) what is
feminism and what it means to be a feminist (i.e. as well as the future of the movement) and 3)
issue-focused themes and concerns (i.e. topics such as health and reproductive rights).
* Sexual harassment, rape and violence towards women (i.e. the case of the Chega de Fui Fui
campaign)
* The Maria da Penha law, reproduction and abortion rights (the focus on “the body” and the
individual control over it)
* Discourses on feminism and women’s role in Brazilian society
* Political representation in Brazil and women in politics
* Gender representations in the media (i.e. criticisms of ads)
* Mobilization and protests against conservative politics and politicians

20. Slutwalk protests and posters

21. Think Olga and the sexual harassment
campaign
The year of 2015 and Brazil’s “Arab Spring”:
* The successful Chega de Fiu Fui campaign, launched in July 2013, was set up to tackle sexual
harassment in public spaces.
* The campaign was also supported by findings of a research conducted by journalist Karin
Hueck, which interviewed 8.000 people to discuss sexual harassment in public spaces. The
results showed that 98% of them suffered some form of sexual harassment, with 83% not
agreeing with it and another 90% deciding to change clothes before leaving the house to avoid
harassment.
* The campaign on Twitter started after a young 12 year old girl, who appeared on the television
programme Master Chef Junior, suffered later from sexual harassment comments on social
media.
* This lead to the launch of the campaign #PrimeiroAssedio: voce nao esta mais so (First Sexual
Harassment: you are not alone anymore). The hashtag had 82.000 mentions.

22. Quotes from interviews: Blogueiras
Feministas
* The struggle to debate gender politics in the public sphere:
“The representation of women is still very limited not only in the mainstream media, but in
other contexts. It is difficult for people to think beyond the box and the tendency is to reinforce
stereotypes, be it of the women mother.…. The debate on gender is happening but change has
been slow. It is also not just a question of electing more women, as the ones who are elected
are committed to conservative agendas. To see more expressions of diversity would require not
only changes in the companies, but also in the consumer…. I also believe that there is
resistance in showing the diversity of the Brazilian women.…To keep women in the same
social roles is always interesting…,” said Bia Cardoso, of Blogueiras Feministas.

23. The #elenao campaign and the
2018 presidential elections
* The #elenao/Not Him campaign was a highlight of the 2018 presidential elections
* The group “Mulheres Unidas contra Bolsonaro” (Women United Against Bolsonaro) managed
to gain in a few days 4 million female supporters on Facebook
* The movement reached 1.2 million mentions on Twitter against Bolsonaro
* Clashes between #NotHim hashtags and of his supporters (#Heisnotcorrupt and
#Heisnotathief)
* Conservative backlash followed, with some arguing that it lead to the rise in support of
Bolsonaro

24. The #elenao campaign and the 2018
presidential elections

25. Conclusions
* Despite setbacks, the advancements of the last decades seem to be here to stay. More and more
younger women are identifying with the cause and committed to change
* Democracy and the relationship to the “other” - challenges for development, social
inclusion and gender equality (i.e. government policies and “state feminism”)
* Campaigners and advocates must use various digital media to promote women’s rights, their
roles in society and wider female political representation
* Challenges to researchers: how can media and new communication technologies be better used
for democratization?
* Media newsrooms should introduce gender equality codes of conduct for reporting, defend
women’s rights in editorials, use more women as news sources and promote gender equality
values within their organisations
* I.e. UN Women’s Media Pact (35 media outlets across the world; media should defend rights
of women in editorials; women as news sources).

26. Selected bibliography
* Desai M (2009) Transnational feminists: Between global gender justice and global social
justice. Gender and the Politics of Possibilities: Rethinking Globalization. Lanham, MD:
Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 31–59.
* Ferreira CB de C (2015) Feminisms on the web: Lines and forms of action in contemporary
feminist debate. Cadernos Pagu 44 (Janeiro-Junho):199–228.
* Haraway, D. (1991, 2000) “A cyborg manifesto – science, technology and socialist feminism in
the late 20th
century” in Bell, D. and Kennedy, Barbara M. (eds.) The Cyberculture Reader:
* Harcourt W (2013) Transnational feminist engagement with 2010+ activisms. Development
and Change 44: 621–637.
* Khamis S (2015) Gendering the Arab Spring: Arab women journalists/activists, cyber-
feminism and the socio-political revolution. In: Carter C, Steiner L and McLaughlin L (eds) The
Routledge Companion to Media and Gender. London: Routledge, pp. 565–575.
*Matos, C. (2016) Globalization, gender politics and the media, Maryland: Lexington
Sassen, S. (2002) “Towards a sociology of information technology” in Current Sociology, vol. 50
(3), London: Sage, p. 365 – 385