Malia L Womack | Purdue University (original) (raw)

Papers by Malia L Womack

In the late 19 th century Anglo European liberalism was adapted into the United States, which ass... more In the late 19 th century Anglo European liberalism was adapted into the United States, which asserted formal equality of white men and legitimacy of slavery. Centuries later, this legacy transformed into neoliberalism and impacts socio-economic hierarchies in the US and globally because the nation is a global hegemonic empire. In order to increase competition and minimize transaction costs, neoliberalism’s key components are free trade, deregulation of markets, reduced social spending by governments, and privatization of economies. Supporters of the theory argue that without government intervention the market will naturally work itself out due to supply, demand, and people’s self-determination and their interest in personal economic gain. In response to the US superpower hegemonically supporting this model, movements in labor occurred from less developed countries to industrialized countries because of the concentration of wealth in those nations. Immigrants were drawn to capital gain out of the desire to have greater consumption powers and monetary resources for them and their families, yet after they migrate their labor is vulnerable to exploitation. To combat this a body of nonprofits formed. Yet, non-governmental organizations often become carriers of dominant neoliberal global agendas supported by the US state, which expects impoverished beings to take responsibility for their own economic empowerment. This paper interrogates the activist strategy of the NGO, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, to investigate how the organization is implicated in neoliberal principles that the US influences the globe to support in order to preserve its empire and global hegemon.

The United States (US) is an economic superpower that attracts immigrants from less developed nat... more The United States (US) is an economic superpower that attracts immigrants from less developed nations due to their desire to improve their living conditions. Immigrant laborers have been and are subject to a wide range of structural inequalities in the nation. Nevertheless, the United States implemented and hegemonically promotes neoliberal ideals centered on privatization, reduced social spending, and idealizing self-determination in the workforce. The economic theory is modeled on identity-blind assumptions that make the obstacles people face due to discrimination based on their gender, race, sexuality, economic class, immigration status, ethnicity, religion, and other identity traits invisible. In response to the subjugation minorities endure, over the years a significant increase occurred in the number of nonprofit organizations. However, (perhaps unconsciously) nonprofits often model their projects to align with neoliberal ideals despite their oppressive nature. Using discourse analysis, the publication below examines this trend in the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), which is a coalition of approximately sixty nonprofit organizations that strive to empower workers who are in-home caregivers, childcare workers, and domestic laborers. Likewise, this publication closely examines a decades long project which was spearheaded by one of the coalition's prominent members: Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA). The article proves that despite NDWA members' and MUA's goal of empowering subjugated populations, their projects often reinforce neoliberal ideals that oppress their clients.

In 1994, the United States ratified the United Nations’ core anti-racism treaty, ICERD. Although ... more In 1994, the United States ratified the United Nations’ core anti-racism treaty, ICERD. Although it has been more than two decades since the United States became a member to the multilateral agreement, a wide range of scholarship determines that the nation is not in compliance with the treaty. Little of this research focuses on gender. This paper intervenes with the research by conducting a gendered analysis, with a focus on African American women, of key areas where the US is not meeting its duties to the multilateral agreement. This manuscript proves that, first, the United States does not comply with the multilateral agreement’s mandates about social, economic, and cultural rights (specifically in housing, education, and health), and second, the nation’s prison industrial complex (its discriminatory sentencing practices, school-to-prison pipeline, war on drugs, and violence against women practices) does not comply with the treaty’s provisions. This paper is valuable because it reveals the ways African American women experience racism differently from how men do and lobbies for implementation strategies designed to include black women's gendered needs, which are often marginalized in anti-racism strategies. Methodologies used throughout the paper include examination of the state’s policies and practices, analysis of shadow reports about the US and ICERD, and analysis of the treaty’s monitoring body’s general recommendations and reports about the United States. Finally, this paper examines the 2015 United Nations Working Group on the Issue of Discrimination Against Women in Law publication that determines how the United States is not meeting global standards of gender equality. About the presenter: Malia Lee Womack earned a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Berkeley in women’s and gender studies with a minor in global poverty and a master’s from Columbia University in human rights studies with an emphasis in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. She is working on a joint master’s and doctoral degree at Ohio State University in Latin American studies (master’s) and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies (Ph.D.). Her research critically analyzes US humanitarian initiatives in developing countries to expose imperialist and hegemonic tendencies and to advocate for revised activist strategies that cultivate and nurture cultural diversity and grassroots organizing. She also investigates intersectionality; exposes historically formed global and transnational power structures and structural violence; and considers how colonialism, neocolonialism, and globalization impact the communities she researches. She remains rigorously active in feminist social justice initiatives. Her work history ranges from community outreach and education; being a college professor; striving to diminish sexual, relationship, and domestic violence; working with the United Nations Development Programme’s Gender Team; and spearheading initiatives locally and abroad to advance the positioning of disadvantaged communities.

Advances in gender research, Oct 27, 2017

Abstract Purpose: The United States became a member of the United Nations’ (UN’s) core anti-racis... more Abstract Purpose: The United States became a member of the United Nations’ (UN’s) core anti-racism treaty, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), but has not passed the UN’s core gender equality treaty, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This chapter explores why the United States passed only one of the conventions. It reviews the power, misinterpretation, and compliance theories that explain why only one of the treaties was ratified. In addition, it offers a fourth explanation of the nation’s behavior – that of relative cost. Findings: This chapter shows that CEDAW’s mandates, which are specific in nature, are costlier with respect to public services, educational resources, and programs to alleviate cultural prejudices, than are the more broadly framed ICERD mandates. This chapter finds this difference as a driving factor for the nation to enter into the race convention and not the women’s rights pact. Methodologies: Methodologies used in this publication include feminist and legal analyses and the examination of US policies as well as statements made by political figures. Originality: This chapter makes contributions to legal and feminist scholarship by providing insight into the nation’s adoption of ICERD, and its failure to ratify CEDAW despite its stance that it is a supporter of women’s rights. The implications of this study are that while the power, misinterpretation, and compliance theories are useful to understand the apparent discrepant response to the two treaties, relative cost as defined by the different ways in which the treaties are framed is also useful in explaining the United States’ failure to ratify the gender equality treaty. Though CEDAW is more specific in its identification of equality issues and is costlier than ICERD, the advancement of both gender and racial equality in the United States falls short of international standards.

La camera blu. Rivista di studi di genere, Jan 20, 2015

The United States ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial... more The United States ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) but has yet to sanction the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This article investigates what social costs drove the state to pass only one of the two anti-discrimination treaties. It finds that the state perceives the race conventionto be less socially costly than the gender statute's objective mandates in regards to content about social and cultural patterns, family planning resources, and in tensions about the proposed reservations, understandings, and declarations.

The United States became a member of the United Nations' core antiracism treaty, ICERD, but has n... more The United States became a member of the United Nations' core antiracism treaty, ICERD, but has not passed its core gender equality treaty, CEDAW. This publication explores why the US passed only one of the multilateral agreements. It interrogates power, misinterpretation, and compliance theories that developed to explain the nation's behavior. The publication also examines the economic costs associated with ratifying each treaty. CONCLUSIONS CEDAW's objective mandates, compared to how the US government perceives ICERD's articles, are more financially costly in regards to content about public services, educational resources and cultural prejudices, and paid leave including remunerated maternity leave. The publication proves this difference was a driving factor for the nation to enter into the race convention and not the women's pact. Although full compliance with both treaties would demand allocations of the nation's economic resources, the allocations are critical to meet international human rights standards. Thus, this publication reveals numerous strategies the US should adopt to further realize gender and racial equality.

Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 2022

The United States does not meet global human rights standards regarding economic, social, and cul... more The United States does not meet global human rights standards
regarding economic, social, and cultural rights. In 1994 the United States
ratified the United Nations core anti-racism treaty, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD).
However, the United States still does not fully comply with the multilateral
agreement. Malia Lee Womack explores the United States’ poor compliance
with the treaty’s protections concerning 1) Black women’s economic, social,
and cultural rights (regarding housing, education, and health) and 2) concerning the U.S. prison industrial complex (its “school to prison pipeline,”
discriminatory sentencing practices, as well as police and prison workers’
violence against women). The author applies intersectional theory developed by Black feminists to UN Working Group reports, ICERD’s shadow
reports, and ICERD’s monitoring body’s reports to reveal how Black women
experience racism differently than men and other racial groups. ICERD
implementation strategies must include Black women’s intersectional
needs which are often marginalized in anti-racism strategies. This article
documents how Black women experience compounded and interrelated
forms of oppression due to their intersectional identities. Homogenizing
people of color cannot effectively address each group’s specific needs concerning U.S. lack of compliance with ICERD (despite some similarities in
their experiences). Therefore, the author focuses on one collective identity
(Black women) yet also recognizes that other collective identities deserve
attention.

Wagadu: a Journal of Transnational Women's and Gender Studies, 2015

In San Francisco in 1998, after a year and a half battle, a coalition of three nonprofit organiza... more In San Francisco in 1998, after a year and a half battle, a coalition of three nonprofit organizations, WILD for Human Rights, the Western Division of Amnesty International, and the Women's Foundation of California, partnered with the county's Commission on the Status of Women (COSW) to successfully adopt an ordinance based on the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The federal government in the United States has yet to sanction the pact. This article provides a background about the circumstances that enabled San Francisco to adopt the ordinance. It also examines the successes and failures of the coalition's three core goals that motivated it to lobby the local government to adopt the ordinance. First, the coalition intended to draw attention to women's human rights and influence local governments in the nation to implement similar policies, second, it hoped to initiate a proactive approach to combatting sexism through ...

One hundred ninety-three countries are members to the United Nations. A core function of the inte... more One hundred ninety-three countries are members to the United Nations. A core function of the intergovernmental organization is to produce human rights treaties. The multilateral agreements define humanity and its needs through a universalizing approach that deduces subjectivity/individuality and homogenizes humans into shared identities. Some of the conventions are intended to protect all humans and others are designed to protect group rights. Each multilateral agreement produces a narrative about what it means to be human or a member of a particular human group. However, the universalized identity defined in each treaty is incomprehensive and fragmented. Universalization divides human needs along rigid lines. This approach creates an understanding of victimhood that assumes people experience human rights violations in the same way. Attention to intersectionality is majorly lacking in the homogenizing approach; a more complex understanding of identity is necessary. This manuscript argues for increased attention in human rights to intersectionality and its complexness, in order to address the intricate needs of diverse humans (especially those who are most subjugated). This paper also argues for a restructuring of the human rights system to allow oppressed groups agency to define their needs, design their rights, and oversee implementation of the provisions. Moving forward theories of rights practices must explore what types of legal frameworks and institutions are best equipped to meet the needs of all humans. Is it better to use a universal framework or a plurality of frameworks? Can universalism be redesigned to comprehensively address intersectionality and the complexities of identity, and if so, how should this design be constructed? What design will provide subjugated groups agency to define their needs and be core overseers of their rights? Human rights are not static and profound attention to intersectionality and complex personhoods can assure rights protect people who are otherwise marginalized.

Puerto Rico is the oldest existing colony in the world. e Island was colonised rst by Spain in 14... more Puerto Rico is the oldest existing colony in the world. e Island was colonised rst by Spain in 1493 and then by the United States (US) in 1898. is article explores systematic and institutional violences committed throughout the early to mid-twentieth century by the US against Puerto Rican women on the Island. US colonialists blamed Puerto Rican women for the Island's poverty and targeted them in colonial initiatives. In this article the term 'colonialists' refers to diverse actors in in uential positions such as in private industries, government agencies, and research positions who advocated for colonialism in Puerto Rico. e pages below examine how such colonialists utilised eugenics ideologies to (1) describe the Island's poverty as due to overpopulation; (2) insist that Puerto Rican women refrain from sex; and (3) 'justify' dangerous birth control trials on Puerto Rican women and coerced sterilisation of Puerto Rican women. e article concludes by examining how during the second-wave feminist movement that emerged Stateside in the 1960s, Puerto Rican women drew attention to women's victimisation on the Island to argue for an inclusive and intersectional de nition of reproductive rights.

Human rights vocabulary and institutional operations conceptualize people and society abstractly ... more Human rights vocabulary and institutional operations conceptualize people and society abstractly and in universal terms; this universal approach does not address the pluralities and intricacies of human experience or how colonized nations experience inequality within the UN system and within their colonial relationships. The Puerto Rican case troubles the universal human rights approach by demonstrating how collective identities are diverse in nature, rather than universally experienced, and how nations under colonial rule face heightened inequalities within the human rights system. The pages below engage with Arlene Dávila's Sponsored Identities and Hilda Lloréns' Imaging the Great Puerto Rican Family to explore the complexities of Puerto Ricanness as a collective identity. I analyze the diversities within Puerto Ricanness as a collective identity in order to critique universal human rights approaches.

Purpose: The United States became a member of the United Nations' (UN's) core anti-racism treaty,... more Purpose: The United States became a member of the United Nations' (UN's) core anti-racism treaty, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), but has not passed the UN's core gender equality treaty, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This chapter explores why the United States passed only one of the conventions. It reviews the power, misinterpretation, and compliance theories that explain why only one of the treaties was ratified. In addition, it offers a fourth explanation of the nation's behavior – that of relative cost. Findings: This chapter shows that CEDAW's mandates, which are specific in nature, are costlier with respect to public services, educational resources, and programs to alleviate cultural prejudices, than are the more broadly

Lyrical inspiration is meant to engulf the emotions of United States’ residents when they hear th... more Lyrical inspiration is meant to engulf the emotions of United States’ residents when they hear the Star Spangled Banner’s prideful hymn referring to the nation as the Land of the Free. Yet, how free are women in the nation if they are more likely than men to live in poverty, to be discriminated against, and to be socially coerced into unpaid reproductive labor? How free are women if the US fails to provide public services and protections such as child care and paid maternity leave to improve women’s ability to equally participate in capitalism? One is left to question, what is freedom? What role should the government play in advancing freedom if it so pridefully declares the people on its land free? These questions are a springboard into this publication, which interrogates why the United States has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This chapter explores the United States’ reluctance to ratify CEDAW due to the nation’s valuing of neoliberal principles and its desire to preserve its sovereignty. In light of this, the chapter investigates why the US sanctioned the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The publication finds that ICERD was ratified and CEDAW was not because anti-racism norms are more powerful in international relations than gender equality norms, and the gender treaty is more demanding on domestic resources than the racial convention. Therefore, the United States government prioritizes its national interests over women’s human rights. Theoretical frames of analysis utilized in this publication include constructivism, normative theory, realism, and liberal institutionalism.

Politeja, 2021

The United States does not comply with the International Convention on the Elimination of All For... more The United States does not comply with the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), which is the
United Nations’ core binding anti-racism human rights convention. One hundred
and seventy seven states, including the US, have ratified the anti-racism
multilateral agreement. The nation entered into the pact in 1994 yet still has not
implemented its obligations to the statute. This study focuses on the protections
ICERD provides Latino immigrants who are not United States citizens as this
group is often ignored in advocacy for implementation strategies. Areas where
the United States does not comply with ICERD include discriminatory immigration
policies and practices, violent and discriminatory policing, gendered violence,
and inequalities in the criminal justice system. It is critical to examine
ICERD’s protections for Latino non-citizens because it reveals how the group
experiences racism differently than other people because they endure intersectional
forms of systematic and institutional discrimination due to their race,
ethnicity, citizenship status, gender, and other identity traits. Methodologies
used in this study include analysis of ICERD’s monitoring body’s General
Recommendations, and the monitoring body’s reports about the United States’
lack of compliance with the statute. These are the most powerful regulatory
forces of the treaty due to the monitoring body’s positionality as experts about
the pact appointed through the United Nations system.

Advances in gender research, Oct 27, 2017

La camera blu. Rivista di studi di genere, Jan 20, 2015

Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 2022

Wagadu: a Journal of Transnational Women's and Gender Studies, 2015

Politeja, 2021