Communicating Change: Learning from Women's Rights Activists' Campaigns for Legal and Policy Change

This resource report analyses activists' experiences in communicating change for women's equal rights. Seventy women’s rights campaigns that intended to achieve either legislative or policy change at the local, national, or international levels were studied. This Global Strategies for Change (GSC) project was inspired by the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) International Forum in 2005 and was conducted from May 2006 to May 2008 with the support of an AWID Forum seed grant.

The data for the study were derived from an online survey in English, Spanish, and French conducted in 2006-2007 and the 2004 AWID call for case studies. In 2008, the GSC project researchers conducted in-depth follow-up telephone interviews. The report is organised around three major topics:

1. communicating goals of legislative and policy reform in the public sphere, with particular attention to the way that activists have “framed” and communicated social, political, legal, and economic issues in order to improve women’s rights;
   
2. how framing differs in three major campaign themes: economic rights and autonomy, health and violence against women, and political participation and human rights frameworks; and
   
3. lessons learned from activists’ experiences and resources for further campaign development.

The document charts campaign frames and slogans used on various issues. It compares campaigns and finds the most prominent frames to be: human rights; empowerment; accountability; grassroots expertise; and women’s participation being necessary for the development of a nation.

Among the similarities and differences of framing strategies are the following:

• "Themes of marginalization and social protection were highlighted more frequently in campaigns dealing with economic rights and autonomy issues.
• Themes that highlighted human rights as women’s rights, equality, discrimination, access, illegality, identity, and participation appeared more frequently in health and violence against women campaigns.
• Themes of representation, family, equality, participation, and citizenship were addressed more often in political participation and human rights frameworks campaigns." [Footnotes removed by the editor.]

Among the strategies identified as successful through the study are the following, expressed as "framing" and "communication":

"Framing

• Developing an audience analysis. Ensuring that you know which specific groups you want to persuade or influence enables you to create a targeted and effective frame and set of campaign messages.
• Considering opportunities and constraints. When you decide to frame your campaign issue a particular way, you create a set of opportunities to change public perceptions and mobilize support, but you also limit other options available to you. It is useful to leverage political opportunities when available and strategize to open up new public spaces when you face constraints.
  
• Drawing on social history and powerful symbols. Stimulating the historical or symbolic memories of your audience(s) can lend weight to your campaign and increase your power to persuade or influence target audiences.
  
• Drawing from narratives or real cases to make reforms relevant. Using personal narratives or real cases often humanize legal reform efforts or campaign objectives that can be more persuasive in generating support than words and calls for action alone.
  
• Bridging multiple discourses. Making discourse relevant to your unique context by drawing from local events, powerful symbolism, social realities, or history is a useful way to communicate your message.
  

Communication

• Combining multiple strategies. Different audiences may respond to different communication strategies; by combining multiple strategies you increase your reach and may decrease audience fatigue.
  
• Remaining adaptable. Communication strategies may not have intended effects - don’t lock yourself into a single approach, but learn from audience response.
  
• Monitoring opponents. Ensure accountability of officials or other stakeholders by monitoring legislation or gender awareness policies.
  
• Using creative means to communicate your message. Sometimes creative means of expressing your organization’s goals, such as using historical imagery, quilts of solidarity, or theatrical tactics, are the most memorable and powerful.
  
• Leveraging media opportunities. Media channels can be extremely useful for setting the agenda or getting your voices heard in the public arena.
  
• Incorporating new media. New media, such as social networking tools, internet, and listservs are a valuable addition to the communications toolkit, but are not a magic bullet, and like all media, must be used strategically."