Il mondo in gabbia? Promesse, delusioni e conflitti attorno alle conferenze Onu sulle donne

The world in a cage? Promises, disillusions and conflicts around the UN Conferences on women
While reviewing the history of the Un Conferences “on” and “of” women, I shall try to recall perceptions of new openings but also feelings of closures: images of “the world as space” which fed the hopes of those who travelled to Nairobi, Cairo, Beijing, New York; the longing for discovering other possible feminisms, but also the difficult negotiations with the bureaucratic language of global organizations. At a time when the idea of collective subjects was disrupted, women from all corners of the world were shaping and reshaping transnational networks displaying constructive and as well as destructive behaviors. Issues like the very meaning of “bonds”, “solidarity”, “aid” were discussed while the traps of linking through the borders of differences (often not acknowledged) were experienced. There were those who saw the Un conferences as “bureaucratic cages” which could empty and weaken women’s movements through coopting their issues. But different stories can be told.