A strong-willed daughter of Zimbabwe with years of experience working in advocacy and human rights across the globe, we caught up with our Head of Advocacy and Campaigns,Tracy Doig to find out what brought her to advocacy work and global feminism, her work at The Circle and who inspires her everyday.
Tell us a bit about your background and what brought you to The Circle?
I have been working in human rights for many years now – and involved in human rights activism for many years before I started working in the sector. Growing up in Zimbabwe at a time when we were newly independent as a country following a decades long war of liberation and a frontline state against apartheid South Africa, and in a rural, drought-stricken part of the country, I was confronted with racial prejudice and poverty on a regular basis from a very young age. And although it was not overt in my household, I also witnessed stark gender imbalances. Although I did not conceptualise it as injustice at the time, the differences in experience that I observed all around me did not make sense to me and as such niggled at me.
Going to university in the newly independent South Africa during the euphoria of the ‘rainbow nation’, my political awareness expanded and solidified. I knew that I wanted to be involved in social justice and change. That led me to getting my master’s degree in Middle East politics, working at an international children’s charity, and then following a period of being involved in exile politics, returning to my home country of Zimbabwe to work with a women’s movement pushing for social justice in the country
After several intense years, I left Zimbabwe and took a role with Amnesty International working in their Southern Africa Team. A period with the global, feminist organisation Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) followed as their Women’s Human Rights Defender Manager, in which I helped to support women human rights defenders at risk around the world. Most recently, I was Head of Accountability at Freedom from Torture, pushing for accountability for torture survivors and to make sure that the British government abides by the absolute prohibition against torture, which unfortunately it does not always do.
My foremost passion is, and always has been, women’s rights and gender equity though. So I was delighted when the opportunity came up at The Circle for me to join the team and join forces with like-minded, committed women on the next stage of my journey towards a more just world.
How have you supported The Circle’s work (e.g. the forced labour report) and how do you hope / be interested in doing so in the coming year?
I am fairly new to The Circle, starting last summer. Since joining I have designed an overall advocacy strategy for the organisation which has started to be implemented. I am excited to be continuing with the brilliant work that is being done on the Living Wage campaign, which was instrumental in normalising the idea that a living wage is a human right.
We were the first to make that claim and present a legal argument (through the Lawyer’s Circle) to back it up. That was ground-breaking at the time. The concept is now widely accepted and talked about as fact. Our language on the issue has been incorporated into key EU legislation that is currently being debated in the EU and we will continue to engage with those processes as well as push for UK-specific legislation on due diligence in supply chains, including on living wages, to be introduced.
I am also excited to be initiating a new campaign to improve access to justice for survivors of sexual violence and look forward to working with various Circle supporters as that work moves forward. At The Circle, we are also deep in planning for International Women’s Day in early March and I look forward to working with colleagues and supporters on the successful delivery of that campaign. Details coming soon!
What do you feel are the important issues to be addressed in the coming year and what feminist change would you like to see in the world?
At this point in time, the situation for women’s rights, gender justice and social justice seems particularly bleak. Conflict – with its particular and disproportionate impact on women and girls – is raging in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, DRC, and the list goes on. Global retrogressions on women’s rights and gender issues (e.g., reproductive rights) are gathering pace, fuelled by a coordinated and well- funded offensive by anti-rights actors and growing nationalist movements, which promote ‘traditional, family values’ – in all continents. We have witnessed rights being rolled back in multiple countries in recent years with anti-feminist rhetoric and policies. But in 2024, the fight-back continues. A diverse, bold, and coordinated feminist movement is vital to address the deep-seated, structural, and intersectional inequalities that impact on women’s ability to live a safe and dignified life.
I, and we at The Circle, believe our global network of influential and diverse women contributing their skills, time, resources, networks, and creativity can unlock opportunities and solutions that contribute to long lasting change. Feminist movement-building is key. Not least when 2024 is the ‘year of democracy’ with elections taking place in over 60 countries around the world this year. Although politicians and elections offer only limited opportunities to dismantle patriarchy and inequality, every opportunity needs to be taken and feminists in all countries facing elections this year need to be pushing all candidates to prioritise gender justice issues.
What does being a Global Feminist mean to you?
To me, being a ‘Global Feminist’ is embracing of different experiences and view-points – of different ‘feminisms’ – whilst seeking to understand the experiences and intersecting realities that drive those viewpoints and seeking to be an active ally. Accepting differences whilst acknowledging the equality of the rights that underpin gender justice. It is about embracing personal and community responsibility and actively seeking to contribute to change through action, in our personal circles and beyond. It is about acknowledging the larger, structural nature of the systems that work against women and girls – and the burden that can bring – whilst choosing to defy the boundaries being imposed and actively seeking community and joy.
Who is an inspirational woman in your life?
An inspirational woman in my life is my grandmother. As an Irish Catholic, she taught me anti-colonial sentiment at a very young age. She also owned and ran her own business at a time when no other woman within my social circles did so, as well as lived with a much younger man (my grandfather having died many years previously) without being married to him. She very much lived life on her own terms which normalised the concept of a strong, independent woman in my consciousness long before I became socially or politically aware – and at a time when women, and grandmothers (!) did not behave in such a way. Although she was a deeply flawed and complicated woman whose inconsistencies I only became aware of later in life, she nonetheless played a foundational role in my political thinking and in my understanding that women do not need to be bound by society’s expectations of them.
How do you unwind and rest?
I admit that have not always been very good at self-care! It is something that I am working hard at though. I truly ascribe to the feminist mantra that self-care is a deeply political act. What I find most helpful now is prioritising human connection. Spending time with my son, my wider family and community of friends – and really being in the moment when I do so. Sharing with them rage, pain, joy, and frivolity. Exercise – walking and Pilates these days – are also key for me to release tension held in the body. As well as ruthlessly curating my TV and film watching to exclude violence.
Who is your favourite fictional protagonist?
I am not sure that she is my ‘favourite’ fictional protagonist as such, but one that has had a lasting impression on me is Tambu in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions. When I first read the novel nearly 30 years ago, I was struck by the character’s resilience and determination in the face of patriarchal and colonial subjugation. I was delighted by her eventual path to personal emancipation through her own resolve as well as by the fact that I had finally found a novel that was about Zimbabwean women! I recently found Nervous Conditions on a list of 11 classic feminist novels that changed African literature and I can see why. The differing experiences and choices made by the multiple female characters in the novel – and the impacts those experiences made on them – have resonated with me throughout the intervening years and it is a book that I keep returning to.
Back to News