Fragmentation of women’s transnational social movement organizations and women’s political empowerment worldwide, 1990–2021

The fragmentation of the transnational women’s movement has been accompanied by massive questions regarding its impact on women’s political empowerment. This article investigates whether fragmentation of the movement facilitates or hampers empowerment while emphasizing a difference between the Global North and South. The results from a multisource database from 1990 to 2021 tested with mixed-effects linear regression show generally positive, enhancing effects of fragmentation on political empowerment; however, the effects on the North are weaker. This study challenges the homogeneity often imputed to the women’s movement and combines multiple theoretical frameworks to interrogate the nuanced mechanisms through which fragmentation exerts its influence politically on the women’s movement. Empirically, the article thus fills a critical gap in testing conflicting hypotheses about this fragmentation and its diverse impacts worldwide on women’s political empowerment.