Caught in the Crossfire: The United Nations between Feminist and Anti-Feminist NGOs

The United Nations are caught in the crossfire between feminist and anti-feminist NGOs. Both groups are trying to swing the UN normatively in their own desired direction. Feminists are bent on furthering the progressive notion of women’s rights and gender, while conservative NGOs seek to counter them with their pro-family and pro-life agenda. This dynamic between the two groups is most evident in their fierce struggle over every available bit of the UN’s institutional space and language. Based on a large-scale data set containing publicly available communication from feminist as well as conservative NGOs, this paper discusses how both sides address the UN. We argue that anti-feminist actors have an ambivalent relationship with the UN: on the one hand, they vilify and contest it while at the same time they participate in it in large numbers and more substantive ways. In comparison, the feminists call upon the UN to take a more proactive approach to anti-feminist groups and express their discontent about shrinking access to negotiating arenas such as the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). Putting the assumptions to test, the study uses automated content analysis methods to investigate the communication dynamics and the relationship between these actors.