How gender hierarchies matter in youth activism : young people's mobilizing around sexual health in Ecuador and Peru

• Despite a growing body of research on youth activism, few studies examine how this intersects with gender. Our study aimed to explore whether and how young activists themselves perceived gender hierarchies as needing to be addressed through their collective action on sexual health in Peru and Ecuador. Using Grounded Theory, qualitative data was collected and analyzed from young activists across four cases. Cases ranged in complexity from a single youth organization operating at the district level to numerous youth organizations articulating at the national level. We linked the GT analysis to a conceptual framework based on Tayor’s (1999) theorizing of gender and social movements. Accordingly, young activists perceived gender, and even class, “race” and age, as salient to their collective actions. These actions corresponded to the social movement concept of mobilizing structures that consist of pre-existing structures, tactics and organizations. Young activists understood gender and other social categories as imbued by power differentials and therefore as social hierarchies, within which their activism was embedded. The paper thereby demonstrates the need for an enhanced conceptual framework for the study of youth activism and its intersection with gender hierarchies.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

activism

gender

Latin America

social movement theory

social hierarchies

youth

Sociology

sociologi

Public health

folkhälsa

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)