LEADERSHIP Raji Mangat
A Feminist Governance Framework Recipe
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egal academics such as Anne Orford have challenged feminists who operate at the intersections of law, equality, and social justice to imagine a rights framework that avoids reproducing the pervasive and often unspoken assumptions of imperialism and patriarchy.
To me, feminist governance frameworks challenge masculinist and Eurocentric approaches to labour, decision-making, and communication by calling on us to actively re-imagine our relationships to power, authority, and privilege. As we enter a new decade, we can see all around us the literal and figurative fires being fanned by the flames of transphobia, colonialism, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and capitalism. But fire is also symbolic of great strength, ceremony, and rebirth.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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In the midst of the violence around us, we are also inspired to celebrate, unite, and trail-blaze pushing forward. West Coast LEAF, as a feminist legal organization and an organization mostly made up of and supported by settlers, has an enhanced responsibility and obligation to imagine the possibilities. To do that well, we must consider how we govern ourselves, hold ourselves to account, and strive to not only do good work, but to do it in a good way.
To do that well, we must consider how we govern ourselves, hold ourselves to account, and strive to not only do good work, but to do it in a good way. We’ve spent time thinking and putting into action how we must work to support and sustain—and not subvert, even unwittingly—the path to a society in which people are not marginalized or stigmatized BC Notaries Association
on the basis of their gender and the many other bases upon which “value” is assigned in our society (such as Indigeneity, race, ability, citizenship, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status). Here are some of the ingredients I think are necessary to develop a truly feminist governance. 1. Having self-awareness and humility: Accepting our strengths, knowing what value we add to the conversation, but equally knowing our vulnerabilities and respecting where we are learners, not leaders. At West Coast LEAF, we continue to learn from WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre’s acknowledgment of the past harm its policies and practices have caused and their commitment to action on gender inclusion. 2. Uncovering and dismantling individual and structural bias: We have a responsibility to look at how our own personal biases and biases within our organizations contribute to perpetuating structural and systemic inequity. Volume 29 Number 1 Spring 2020
