Historical Reflections on DAWN: An Interview with Gita Sen

In an interview, Gita Sen, a founding member of DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era), reflects on the network's two and a half decades of experience connecting scholars, policy advocates, and activists in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, and the Pacific. Focusing on DAWN's praxis over three phases of the network's life, Sen comments on DAWN's continuing relationship to a variety of states and the United Nations. She describes DAWN members' Marxist-feminist critique of the structural location of the state, their opposition to liberal feminism and neoliberal state policies, and also their effort to create public policies sensitive to feminist concerns. Sen emphasizes the necessity of being attentive to interlinkages and tensions among the host of issues that the network confronts, such as trade policy and sexual and reproductive health rights.