‘Citizenship Is Not a Word I Use’: How Women’s Movement Activists Understand Citizenship

Abstract

Citizenship has become a core concept in feminist theory. Yet, the phrase ‘citizenship is not a word I use’ summarizes a central finding from our research with women’s movement activists in Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom (UK). Our interviewees tended not to regard ‘citizenship’ as a term that was relevant to their political activism — a finding that contrasts with citizenship’s status as a central notion in feminist scholarship. Citizenship is, however, also a highly contested term in feminist theory. The interviewees’ rejections may reflect concerns based on experiences of inequalities related to citizenship, which in the language of feminist theory appear as barriers to lived citizenship, and in this respect our findings support efforts to expand the notion of citizenship. This book’s concern with the role of women’s movements in remaking citizenship in multicultural Europe is addressed in this chapter through the following questions: How is the term citizenship understood by contemporary women’s movement activists? Is citizenship a concept used normatively by movement activists — does the term have political relevance for women’s movement claims? What reflections and experiences do activists report in relation to lived citizenship? And, finally, does ‘citizenship’ as a concept have a positive potential for future women’s movement activism?