Challenging patriarchal structures: Wangari maathai and the Green Belt Movement in Kenya - Janet Muthuki

Within the last two decades, the United Nations has organised world conferences for women in Nairobi and Beijing, in 1985 and 1995 respectively, to draw governments' attention to their obligations to women. These conferences have led to the Nairobi Forward-Looking Strategies (NFLS) and the Beijing platform for action (BPFA) recommendations. These global women's conferences and agreements place heavy responsibilities on the United Nations system to include gender in all aspects of their work as well as in the work of the member states. These processes have made connections between gender, development, environment and sustainable development. They have, however, not made connections between women's emancipation and the need to challenge existing gender relations. This focus - while reflecting on the gains and challenges of these processes - examines the lessons learnt from Nobel peace laureate Wangari Maathai and her Green Belt Movement, an environmental and social justice organisation in Kenya, which, among other missions, highlighted gendered relations and challenged patriarchy within national and global structures.
From: Agenda 69 (2006), pp. 83-91