3.

Intersections between feminism, ethnic identity and religion (Responsible; Beatrice Halsaa, with Cecilie
Thun)
This project asks how feminism, ethnic identity and religion are brought together in the policies of women’s
movements and in the daily lives of women. The focus is the relationship between minority and majority
feminism and how this is affected by – and respond to - national and international political processes.
In terms of the policy level, the point of departure are claims from minority feminism of inertia and resistance
from governments and the majority women’s movements alike to recognize the complex and widespread web of
violence towards ethnic minority women, of a huge gap between ethnic minority women’s needs and the current
knowledge and understanding of service providers, and of a lack of anti-racist work within the context of both
gender equality and immigration policies (Crenshaw 1997, Madsen et.al. 2005). Rather than exploring the
broader debate on multiculturalism as collective rights, the project addresses the structural and personal
discrimination of minority women as it has been articulated in women’s movements; conflicts and dialogues
between majority and minority feminists on strategies and ideals of gender equality. Have ethnic minority
demands and critique generally been rejected, twisted and resisted by the majority movements, or have they been
embraced and accepted (Sudbury 1998)?
As empirical examples of the intersection of feminism and ethnic identity, this project explores the profile of
feminist organizations on racism and violence against women: In what ways have ethnic minority women’s
organizations influenced both the formulation of the state’s and the women’s movements’ anti-racist and anti-
violence policies?
In terms of the everyday level, the project will focus on religion and how women as actors live out their
citizenship (Siim 2003): How do they define their own roles as citizens, and how do they deal with issues of
gender equality and religion as these affect citizenship? Importantly, citizenship is not limited to legal and
political rights, but it is also connected to people’s identities as members of religious, political and cultural
groups and to their domestic relationships: How do women, identifying with either ethnic majority or minority
groups, use religion to negotiate their lives as citizens in a multicultural society? In what ways can religion
function as barriers to citizens’ participation, and how can it provide women with resources to exercise their
citizenship duties and rights? On what arenas are they active and on what arenas are they disengaged? Do they
have the right to inhabit formal positions within their own religious traditions? Furthermore, we will study the
extent to which progressive and traditional religious women embrace or resist an agenda for gender equality, and
in what ways they are influenced by feminist movements. Our focus will be on the intersection of feminism and
religion among women within the religious traditions of Christianity and Islam.
For these aims, the project combines a bottom-up and a top-down approach to link policies, practices and
identities. The framing of public debate on minority women in Norway will be addressed through analyses of
relevant policy documents, also building on data from Project 1 and 2.
a) Relevant documents are, in addition, the national periodic reports to the CEDAW and CERD committees,
including comments from NGO’s 1990-2008, and green and white papers on gender equality and discrimination
policy and violence against women, 1990 – 2008.
b) The strategies of minority women as well as their relations to the majority feminism are approached through
indepth interviews with activists. The impact on public policy and on the majority women’s movement will be
addressed through in depth interviews with individual activists from selected NGO’s and politicians, as well as
group interviews with informants recruited from three categories of women’s organizations: NGOs with an
ethnic minority profile, NGOs with a mixed ethnic profile, feminist NGOs with an ethnic Norwegian profile.
Indepth interview data with women with different religious identities will be collected with regards to the
meaning of ethnicity and religion in women’s everyday life. Cecilie Thuns PhD thesis on the construction of
conflicts and cooperation between minority and majority feminism is based on the mentioned interview data.