I. Introduction
Women in the third world, like women everywhere, became involved in nationalist movements beginning in the late 19th century. People in third world societies longed for political independence from colonialism, and wanted to control their own national destinies. Often the struggles these movements engaged in were quite protracted; women formed their own women's nationalist movements or worked with a male-led nationalist movement. In rare cases, women and men worked as equals (sort of!) within one movement. Women's actual involvement took a variety of forms, depending upon many different factors specific to their struggle. If they were engaged in an outright war of liberation (such as was the case in Algeria, for example, in the struggle against French colonialism in the 1950s) women often paid the ultimate price --- death -- and also engaged in violent acts themselves. Women felt that their contributions to the nationalist cause would pay off for them internally; after they and their people won independence, women would win political rights. Often this was not the case.
II. Assignment and Suggestions
Each group is to choose one national struggle (i.e., one country, preferably) in their region to present to the class. In most cases, this will be an anti-colonial struggle for national independence. For the Middle East group, I would suggest focusing on either Egypt, Palestine or Algeria. There are plenty of resources on women's involvement in these struggles. A useful article to start (with a bibliography at the end) is my own "The Other 'Awakening:' The Emergenc of Women's Movements in the Modern Middle East, 1900-1940," in A Social History of Women and Gender in the Modern Middle East, edited by Margaret Meriwether and Judith Tucker. For the Africa group: you might want to focus on either Nigeria or South Africa. If the former, look for articles by Cheryl Odim-Johnson (in many of the anthologies I've put on reserve). If you do the latter. Anne McClintock has written some interesting articles -- one is a chapter in her book, Imperial Leather. India group: there is lots of stuff out there, especially in some of the journals below.ALL: Use the Restoring Women to History series to look for other sources and help you get an overview. Some good journals to browse:
Note: Please be specific and clear in mention time, place, individuals, etc. in the presentations. In other presentations, there has been a tendency for people to generalize from sources such as articles which, in fact, deal with very specific societies and groups. Bring your sources with you to class.
III. What to cover: