Free Riding, Alternative Organization and Cultural Feminism: The Case of Seneca Women's Peace Camp
In: Women & politics, Band 10, Heft 3, S. 1-37
ISSN: 0195-7732
The Seneca (NY) "Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace & Justice" is discussed as an example of women organizing to pursue feminist causes & employing feminist process (eg, voluntarism, shared leadership, consensus decision making) as a means of empowering organizational participants. The Encampment is described using documents, survey evidence, & participant observation. Analysis reveals that voluntarism (especially in combination with shared leadership & open, fluctuating participation) created a "free-rider" problem, meaning that the burden of organizational maintenance was unequally shared: free riders did less maintenance work but still enjoyed organizational benefits; "suckers" did more of this work, compensating for free riders & experiencing burnout & resentment. It is concluded that the cultural feminist tendencies of the radical Encampment organizers worsened the free-rider problem; they assumed that women would not free-ride because women are "naturally" cooperative. Indeed, glorification of women's caring encouraged women to play the sucker role. It is argued that an effective response to free-riders requires rejecting the view of caring as attending first to others' needs & redefining it in terms of empowerment -- requiring, & assisting, others to empower themselves. At the community level, an effective response requires making & enforcing judgments about which differences to suppress in support of a feminist, egalitarian community. 2 Tables, 55 References. Adapted from the source document.