"The Tyranny of Structurelessness" is an influential essay by American feminist Jo Freeman inspired by her experiences in the 1970s women's liberation movement concerning power relations within radical feminist collectives.
The essay reflected on the experiments of the feminist movement in resisting the idea of leaders and even discarding any structure or division of labor. However, as Hilary Wainwright wrote in Zmag, Freeman described how "this apparent lack of structure too often disguised an informal, unacknowledged and unaccountable leadership that was all the more pernicious because its very existence was denied."
The phrase has been used to describe one problem in organizing, the other being "rigidity of structure," according to ecofeminist Starhawk. In 2008 "Community Development Journal" reviewed the article as a "classic text" which editors felt had influenced the practice of community development. That year a John F. Kennedy School of Government course used the paper in a course on leadership.
Some anarchists have objected to Freeman's analysis because it also has been applied to some anarchist organizing. Howard J. Ehrlich discussed the negative impact of the article on anarchist organizing in Reinventing Anarchy, Again. Cathy Levine wrote a 1979 rejoinder "The Tyranny of Tyranny." In a review of the essay for Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed, Jason McQuinn noted its popularity among leftist and platformist anarchists.
The essay reflected on the experiments of the feminist movement in resisting the idea of leaders and even discarding any structure or division of labor. However, as Hilary Wainwright wrote in Zmag, Freeman described how "this apparent lack of structure too often disguised an informal, unacknowledged and unaccountable leadership that was all the more pernicious because its very existence was denied."
The phrase has been used to describe one problem in organizing, the other being "rigidity of structure," according to ecofeminist Starhawk. In 2008 "Community Development Journal" reviewed the article as a "classic text" which editors felt had influenced the practice of community development. That year a John F. Kennedy School of Government course used the paper in a course on leadership.
Some anarchists have objected to Freeman's analysis because it also has been applied to some anarchist organizing. Howard J. Ehrlich discussed the negative impact of the article on anarchist organizing in Reinventing Anarchy, Again. Cathy Levine wrote a 1979 rejoinder "The Tyranny of Tyranny." In a review of the essay for Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed, Jason McQuinn noted its popularity among leftist and platformist anarchists.
