2025
What does it mean to be 40? That’s the question we’ve been asking ourselves. DAWN turned 40, marking four decades of feminist research, activism, and solidarity across the global South. To celebrate, DAWN launched its first Fellowship for young feminists from the global South. The anniversary is also marked by new books and fresh projects that carry our work forward. This interactive timeline is part of that celebration—an invitation to reflect on the rise of a modern Southern feminist movement, as seen through the key moments, interventions, and struggles that have shaped DAWN’s journey since 1984.
DAWN looks to the future, carrying forward a spirit of resistance rooted in the local and connected to the global. DAWN’s analysis begins in lived realities and moves outward to confront systemic injustice. Global South feminists were told development was enough, but DAWN has always insisted on and demanded more. DAWN sees the cracks in the system and calls for transformation, not reform. The global South feminist movement has won victories, but backlash rises again and again, and the struggle continues. In the next period, that’s where we’re going—toward deeper resistance, sharper analysis, and collective action grounded in feminist visions for another world.
