A case study: VSWAG court monitoring program
Date
1997
Authors
Albion, Susan Emily
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Abstract
This feminist Participatory Action Research chronicles the development of a grassroots feminist initiative (a Court Monitoring Program [CMP]), assesses its effectiveness through the eyes of women who participated in the program, and locates the CMP's action and the research participants' theories within competing contemporary mainstream feminist perspectives on sexual assault and the law, specifically Carol Smart and Catharine MacKinnon.
The research includes archival data and 36 research participants (12 interviews, 24 questionnaires). The data were collected in Victoria, BC in 1994 - 95. The findings indicate that the grassroots feminists' theories and actions support MacKinnon and Smart's calls for action, but not necessarily their theories on power. It brings forward issues of communication between differing discourses and experiences of grassroots and academic feminists. The research supports further feminist attention to court monitoring as a method for supporting individual women while also effecting positive social change for women as a group.