Gender (non-)Mixity: Strategy and Collective Identities in Feminist Activism

Gender mixity and non-mixity may appear as two contradictory concepts inside the feminist movement. As a tool developed by radical feminism, non-mixity allows women to evolve in an environment free from male domination and where their demands and achievements can receive proper attention (Delphy, 1977). On the other hand, mixity reappears during the third feminist wave, along with the concepts of intersectionality and queer politics, where the focus has moved from gender to multiple identities (Lamoureux, 2006). This paper will demonstrate the role played by gender in shaping individual and collective identities and analyze the influence these identities have on mobilization, on strategies used by feminist social movements and, finally, on the adoption of collective action objectives. The methodology is based on participant observation and interviews among two Belgian feminist organizations: a women-only commission belonging to a student union and an association including men and women in charge of organizing a feminist DIY festival. Observing the activist’s careers helps to understand how gender identity, on one side, and collective identity, on the other size, is a resource for mobilization. (Non-)mixity strategies will indeed result in the mobilization of different activists’ profiles. Consequently, the way collective identity is defined also frames different dimensions and priorities of feminist politics and prompts activists to experience distinct identity transformative processes (Whittier, 1997). The conclusion of this paper will show that each strategy and each collective identity, far from being in contradiction, actually enriches identity theories in the feminist field. In this process, the concept of gender plays a role in facilitating mobilization, in supporting strategies and in forming itself the goal of collective action. Each of these steps might re-design the concept of gender, which becomes a dynamic notion and is reinjected in the process under its new form.