ABSTRACT
The World Social Forum (WSF) and the Social Forum process present a new space for feminist activism. Activists who fight gender inequalities and injustices locally, as well as those building transnational feminist movements, use the WSF to move their programs forward and attempt to imbue feminist analyses into the Forum. Many feminist organizations see the WSF as providing a space for the lateral exchange of political information, strategies, and networking. Unlike the United Nations and other hierarchical structures in which they have engaged, the WSF has assisted feminists and other social movement sectors in developing a grassroots global dialogue and practice of justice so that groups and networks within and between sectors can meet in democratically oriented
space. For many feminists and other marginalized groups, the WSF is distinctly more positive than other movement settings in recent history, although it remains wrought with challenges for women and feminists.
