'Transforming or Fracturing a 145-Year-Old Entity(?)' The Enactment and Disruption of the Single-Sex Mandate of the YWCA

• In Event: Voice, Hegemony and Gendered Identities

Abstract

This manuscript analyzes public discourse surrounding the YWCA of the U.S.A.'s reversal of its single-sex membership mandate. Drawing on poststructural feminist theory, we highlight how the YWCA women have struggled with the socio-historical and material nature of local (dis)empowerment while honoring their commitment to the World YWCA. Our analysis points to the historically contingent nature of power relations and explores the viability of separatism as a feminist strategy of organizing in the 21st century.

Authors

• Lynn Harter, Ohio University

• Erika Kirby, Creighton University

• Anne Kerber, Ohio University