The occupation of Vancouver transition house, 1985-86 : reflections on women and community
Date
1993
Authors
Kenny, Leslie Anne
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Abstract
Feminist political thought stands in ambiguous relation to the concept of community as it has been traditionally conceived. In the spirit of the shared experiences through which generations of women develop profound bonds of love and duty toward one another, the ideal of community is often embraced as both a description and a goal of feminist politics. At the same time, recent scholarship has identified the limiting implications for women of the social and institutional relationships typically invoked by the concept of community. In particular, feminist readings of the term in the discourses of social policy, political theory, and contemporary social movements, have revealed its ideological function in reinforcing patterns of female exclusion, subordination, and exploitation. For some feminists, the patriarchal biases that are perceived to inhere in conventional formulations of community have led to a skepticism toward, if not outright rejection of the communitarian ideal as a useful goal for women.
In this account, the tumultuous events surrounding the occupation of Vancouver Transition House in 1985-1986 serve as an opportunity for exploring feminist theories of community. Drawing on the results of 25 personal interviews, combined with extensive primary research into the history and politics of the battered
women's movement in Vancouver since the early I 970's, the account traces the multiple and conflicting conceptions of community that were articulated in relation to local women's efforts to preserve Transition House - at the time one of Canada's only publicly-operated and unionized feminist facilities for battered women - from the provincial government's policy of privatization. In contrast to the essentialist and/or
patriarchal definitions of community implicit in the actions of the various state, labour, charity, social service, immigrant and visible minority organizations involved in the episode, this thesis moves toward an alternative conceptualization of the term grounded in the feminist principles of movement, diversity, and the complexity of identity. In this context, the theme of transition - as it relates in the transition house movement to the opening-up of identity experienced by battered women as they move out from under the coercive influence of violent relationships - proves especially useful as a metaphor for reflection on women and community.
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UN SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities