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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Internalized Boundaries: Aware’S Place In Singapore Emerging Civil Society, Lenore T. Lyons
Internalized Boundaries: Aware’S Place In Singapore Emerging Civil Society, Lenore T. Lyons
Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)
In the foundational narratives that members of the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) tell about the organisation’s formation, many topics remain (to echo the state’s vernacular) ‘out-of-bounds’. In this paper I examine the ways in which AWARE members construct their own ‘OB markers’ in telling the history of AWARE. The constructedness of this history in itself is not remarkable. In telling stories about themselves and others, we expect situated actors to re-construct and re-present the past. In this paper, however, I argue that during its first decade of activism the process of delineating the boundaries of AWARE’s …
Dignity Overdue: Women’S Rights Activism In Support Of Foreign Domestic Workers In Singapore, Lenore T. Lyons
Dignity Overdue: Women’S Rights Activism In Support Of Foreign Domestic Workers In Singapore, Lenore T. Lyons
Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)
The forces of globalisation increasingly compel feminist activists to engage internationally, either through their involvement in transnational networks and social movements, or by incorporating understandings of the ‘global’ into local and national activist practices. However, as differently situated actors with diverse agendas and priorities come together to address women’s rights within a transnational frame they face a range of challenges and contradictions. Rather than simply transcending the ‘national’, transnational feminist activists must pay particular attention to the roles played by nation-states and national governments in mediating the relationship between local and transnational groups. Amongst the issues they must consider are …
A Curious Space ‘In-Between’: The Public/Private Divide And Gender-Based Activism In Singapore, Lenore T. Lyons
A Curious Space ‘In-Between’: The Public/Private Divide And Gender-Based Activism In Singapore, Lenore T. Lyons
Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)
In Singapore, the state’s role in shaping the space of civil society has been well documented. Many scholars argue that civil society in Singapore is largely a state-sanctioned sphere of engagement that has emerged in response to middle-class pressure for greater political liberalization. In these accounts, the space of civil society is described as an arena that is shaped by the state, and in which the state constantly intervenes. What is less clear, however, is how the space of civil society is gendered. Through an analysis of women’s activism in Singapore, this article deconstructs the binaries ‘public/private’ and ‘state/civil society’ …
Organizing For Domestic Worker Rights In Singapore: The Limits Of Transnationalism, Lenore T. Lyons
Organizing For Domestic Worker Rights In Singapore: The Limits Of Transnationalism, Lenore T. Lyons
Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)
Extract: This article examines the limits of transnational feminist activism through a case study of domestic worker rights in Singapore. This work builds on my decade-long research on the feminist movement in Singapore and my activist involvement in the Singaporean women’s organisation, the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE). I argue that the Singaporean state inhibits attempts by local feminist organizations to engage transnationally (either through links with international NGOs, or by confronting the forces of globalization locally). Singaporean activists have creatively responded to these challenges, but their actions remain constrained by the imperatives of the nation-state.
Negotiating Difference: Singaporean Women Building An Ethics Of Respect, Lenore T. Lyons
Negotiating Difference: Singaporean Women Building An Ethics Of Respect, Lenore T. Lyons
Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)
Extract: The problem of difference emerged as a significant issue in western feminist theory making during the 1980s-1990s. In response to claims that western feminism ignored the lives and voices of third world women1, attention was increasingly been placed on the need to forge broad-based coalitions that embrace difference and commonality. But, in the call to build coalitions, little work focused on the meaning of difference in the everyday lives of feminist activists; how do feminists work with women who are different to themselves? In this paper I examine the lives of women who belong to the Singaporean feminist organisation …
Re-Telling ‘Us’: Researching The Lives Of Singaporean Women, Lenore T. Lyons
Re-Telling ‘Us’: Researching The Lives Of Singaporean Women, Lenore T. Lyons
Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)
Extract: Feminist scholars have long been interested in the politics of speech acts. Early calls for a ‘feminist methodology’ were premised on a claim that in order to overcome the bias of malestream science, women should write about their own lives and experiences. Feminists asserted that androcentrism had as much to do with who was conducting the research as what was under investigation. Growing criticism that feminists themselves had replicated such practices in their writings about ‘other’ women signalled a renewed interest in the politics of speech. This interest is based on an acknowledgment that women are “not politically equal, …
A State Of Ambivalence: Feminism And A Singaporean Women’S Organisation, Lenore T. Lyons
A State Of Ambivalence: Feminism And A Singaporean Women’S Organisation, Lenore T. Lyons
Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)
There has been some interest in recent years in identifying the features or characteristics of an ‘Asian’ or ‘Third-World’ feminism (Moraga and Anzaldua 1983; Jayawardena 1986; Grewal et al. 1988; Mohanty 1991; Basu 1995; Alexander and Mohanty 1997). Part of this concern has focused on a costs-benefits analysis of Asian women ‘coming out’ as feminists in overtly hostile political climates. For many women embracing the identity ‘feminist’ continues to be a difficult process. Caught within multiple and shifting discourses that serve to inscribe place, allegiance and behaviour, being a feminist is not only an expression of individual political belief, but …
Disrupting The Center: Interrogating An ‘Asian Feminist’ Identity, Lenore T. Lyons
Disrupting The Center: Interrogating An ‘Asian Feminist’ Identity, Lenore T. Lyons
Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)
The problem of ‘difference’ has emerged as a significant issue in western feminist theory making during the past two decades. In response to claims that mainstream feminism has ignored the lives and voices of third world women and women of colour, attention has increasingly been placed on the ways in which class and ‘race’ intersect in the everyday lived experiences of women. This work has sought to displace the hegemonic control of white, western women in the production of feminist knowledge. Despite a growing body of literature on women’s movements throughout the Asian region, however, common-sense perceptions of Asian ‘submissiveness’ …
The Limits Of Feminist Political Intervention In Singapore, Lenore T. Lyons
The Limits Of Feminist Political Intervention In Singapore, Lenore T. Lyons
Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)
In recent years increasing attention has focused on the Singapore government’s new attitude towards limited public participation in civil society. The women’s rights organisation the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) is one example of a nongovernment organisation (NGO) that is directly engaged in this newly emerging ‘civic’ society. AWARE’s activities are constrained, however, by a state demand that its objectives remain overtly ‘non-political’ and reformist in character. This has led some observers to comment that as a state-defined practice, feminism in Singapore is unable to address issues of structural inequality and difference.
Believing In Equality: The Meanings Attached To ‘Feminism’ In Singapore, Lenore T. Lyons
Believing In Equality: The Meanings Attached To ‘Feminism’ In Singapore, Lenore T. Lyons
Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)
There have been a number of attempts in recent years to define the nature and character of ‘Asian feminism’. This article examines the way that Singaporean women who belong to the women’s organisation AWARE (Association of Women for Action and Research) understand the label ‘feminist’, both as a descriptor of their own political practice as well as that of the association. This study shows that for these women, claiming a feminist identity is fraught. Women in AWARE are caught between a public perception of feminism based on a western model, as well as the Singapore state’s own political usage of …