Abstract
Through several months volunteering at two organizations, one big and established and the other small and up and coming, I noticed common discrepancies of how these organizations run internally versus how they present themselves externally. In this presentation, I examine how these two organizations do not identify themselves as explicitly feminist but subscribe to feminist ideologies and tenets and hence deliver a form of implicit feminism by showing feminism through action and structure of programming but not talking about feminism directly such as through speech acts like lecturing. The Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club has four locations and is a large organization that opened its doors in 1921, whereas The Boundless Sport Program is a much smaller organization just developed and started serving “At-Promise” girls in November 2016. To add to the discussion of implicit feminism at these organizations and understand how and why implicit feminism is used, I interrogate how these programs and organizations reconceptualise feminist structures and do so implicitly or through discourses of fairness. I also explore how these organizations and programs deal with emotionality and affect. Feminism at these organizations is downplayed. The outcome of implicit feminism is due to issues of structure, funding and affect.
Presenters
Alexandra MarisLecturer, Global Public Health, State University of New York, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2026 Special Focus—Organization in Uncertain Worlds
KEYWORDS
Implicit Feminism, Community Organizing, Affect, Funding Strategies, Structure
