Third World Women Visions and Solidarities at International Women's Conferences in the 1980s

While some authors claim the expiration of Third-Worldism in the 1980s, this was not true for many women living in neocolonial states of the Third World. For them, the 1980s were a time when they were able to successfully contribute their voices in the international arena, for example at the NGO Forums of the UN World Conference on Women in Copenhagen in 1980 and Nairobi in 1985. Independent of State leaders, women from different socio-economic backgrounds – middle class, working class, peasant women – claimed the term Third World Women for themselves and created common visions and transnational solidarities both with other Third World Women as well as with European and US-American actors in solidarity around their struggles over class, national liberation, and patriarchy. This article traces the making of Third World Women’s visions and solidarities at international women’s conferences in the 1980s, drawing on the case study of the national democratic Philippine women’s movements. As the concept of the Third World is inherently tied to the dream of a new world, the future is an important analytical category that can generate historical insights into Third-Worldism. I therefore ask: What common visions and ideas of the future created Third World Women at international conferences? What did the term Third World mean to them? And how was the solidarity between Third World Women but also with actors in the First World lived? By following these questions, the article contributes to a historically informed understanding of the Third World from the perspective of female non-state actors and aims to examine the concrete and complex historical meanings, actors, and practices related to it. It shows how the making of common visions at international women conferences was crucial in building transnational alliances, solidarities, and common political practices