Typology of Women’s Collective Agency In Relation to Women’s Equality Outcomes: Case Studies from Egypt and Beyond

Abstract

There is a rich body of scholarship recognizing the important role of women’s collective agency and mobilization for gender equality, inclusive development, and politics. In this paper, we interrogate the relationship between women’s collective agency on the one hand, and its contribution towards women’s equality outcomes on the other, drawing on empirical work undertaken during over 20 years’ fieldwork on women’s collective action in Egypt and complemented with a literature review of women’s collective action globally. A typology is proposed for analyzing women’s collective agency in terms of women’s movements, women in movements, feminist, anti-feminist movements, and gender justice movements, which inform an interpretive framework that explores collective agency and women’s equality outcomes. First, while recognizing the need to avoid reductionist understandings of women’s collective agency exclusively in terms of their agenda on gender equality, this paper argues that collective agency and equality outcomes cannot be entirely disentangled. Second, it suggests that women’s membership and leadership in collective action can have highly varied implications on women’s equality outcomes, both positive and detrimental. The paper concludes with reflections on the implications of the analysis of the relationships between women’s and men’s collective agency for praxis.