Oceania

Citation:

Du Bray, Margaret, Amber Wutich, Kelli L. Larson, Dave D. White, and Alexandra Brewis. 2019. "Anger and Sadness: Gendered Emotional Responses to Climate Threats in Four Island Nations." Cross-Cultural Research 53 (1): 58-86.

Authors: Margaret du Bray, Amber Wutich, Kelli L. Larson, Dave D. White, Alexandra Brewis

Abstract:

Climate change presents an important threat to community livelihoods and well-being around the world. Biophysical vulnerability to the effects of climate change, such as sea level rise, coastal erosion, changing flora and fauna, and changing precipitation patterns are predicted to affect island nations in particular. Emotional geographies offers a theoretical entry point to understand how changing landscapes, which are often imbued with emotion and personal significance, may result in heightened emotional states and result in different outcomes depending on the severity of these changes and the biophysical vulnerability that produces them. Historically, emotion and gender have been closely linked; we use biophysical vulnerability to climate change, along with emotion and gender, to argue for a differentiated perspective on how men and women in different places may experience different emotional responses to climate change. Using a cross-cultural analysis of qualitative data from four island countries (Fiji, Cyprus, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom; total N = 272), this article explores how different sensitivities to climate change may produce differentiated emotional responses among men versus women across these four sites. Our results indicate that gender does affect the emotional response of respondents in these sites, but that local sensitivity plays an important role in differentiating these emotional responses, and their causes, between the four sites.

Keywords: climate change, Gender, emotion, island nations

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Livelihoods Regions: Europe, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Oceania Countries: Cyprus, Fiji, New Zealand, United Kingdom

Year: 2019

Citation:

Thomas, Alyssa S., Sangeeta Mangubhai, Chloe Vandervord, Margaret Fox, and Yashika Nand. 2019. "Impact of Tropical Cyclone Winston on Women Mud Crab Fishers in Fiji." Climate and Development 11 (8): 699-709.

Authors: Alyssa S. Thomas, Sangeeta Mangubhai, Chloe Vandervord, Margaret Fox, Yashika Nand

Abstract:

Communities dependent on natural resources for food and livelihoods are extremely vulnerable to climate change and its impacts. Tropical cyclones are a frequent occurrence in the Pacific and can have devastating impacts on coastal communities, particularly in remote or isolated areas. However, most post-cyclone studies focus on damages and losses to infrastructure and services, and do not quantify the impact on fishers or community fisheries. We conducted a study to assess the social and economic effects of Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Winston on mud crab fishers in Bua Province, Fiji. The study methodology was one-on-one surveys with mud crab fishers, mostly women, in 16 villages who had previously participated in a 2015 value chain analysis survey. Post-cyclone, 52% of the fishers had stopped harvesting crabs because many were focussed on repairing their homes and had difficulties accessing collection sites and markets. Fishers that continued reported less frequent collection, and fewer and smaller crabs. To obtain income for house repairs, 65% of the fishers still harvesting sold the crabs to local traders, rather than consuming them. Understanding mud crab fishers’ vulnerability to natural disasters, the barriers to adaptation and how their livelihoods are affected is key to effective mitigation and adaptation.

Keywords: adaptive capacity, Pacific, mangroves, fisheries, Gender, natural disasters, climate change

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Livelihoods Regions: Oceania Countries: Fiji

Year: 2019

Citation:

Lee-Koo, Katrina. 2020. "Pro-Gender Foreign Policy by Stealth: Navigating Global and Domestic Politics in Australian Foreign Policy Making." Foreign Policy Analysis 16 (2): 236-49.

Author: Katrina Lee-Koo

Abstract:

As a middle-power nation, Australia promotes its global effectiveness, in part, through the adoption of international norms. Among those that it has more recently embraced has been pro-gender norms. The inclusion—for the first time—of gender equality considerations into overarching strategic doctrines, and the development of stand-alone gender strategies demonstrates this. While this is not without its shortcomings and contradictions, it is evidence that Australia is allowing feminist design to underpin areas of its foreign policy. However, unlike other states, this is not publicly emphasized. In fact, it is as if these policies were developed by stealth. This article examines the depth of Australia’s commitment to pro-gender norms in foreign policy. It argues that there is a genuine embrace of progender norms, but the masculinist cultures of Australia’s politics limit the capacity for it to be publicly debated and celebrated.

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Feminist Foreign Policy, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Masculinism Regions: Oceania Countries: Australia

Year: 2020

Citation:

Lee-Koo, Katrina. 2020. “Pro-Gender Foreign Policy by Stealth: Navigating Global and Domestic Politics in Australian Foreign Policy Making.” Foreign Policy Analysis 16 (2): 236–49

Author: Katrina Lee-Koo

Abstract:

As a middle-power nation, Australia promotes its global effectiveness, in part, through the adoption of international norms. Among those that it has more recently embraced has been pro-gender norms. The inclusion— for the first time—of gender equality considerations into overarching strategic doctrines, and the development of stand-alone gender strategies demonstrates this. While this is not without its shortcomings and contradictions, it is evidence that Australia is allowing feminist design to underpin areas of its foreign policy. However, unlike other states, this is not publicly emphasized. In fact, it is as if these policies were developed by stealth. This article examines the depth of Australia’s commitment to pro-gender norms in foreign policy. It argues that there is a genuine embrace of progender norms, but the masculinist cultures of Australia’s politics limit the capacity for it to be publicly debated and celebrated.

Topics: Feminisms, Feminist Foreign Policy, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Masculinism, International Organizations, Peace and Security Regions: Oceania Countries: Australia

Year: 2020

Citation:

Wigglesworth, Ann, Sara Niner, Dharmalingam Arunachalam, Abel Dos Santos, and Mateus Tilman. 2015. "Attitudes and Perceptions of Young Men Towards Gender Equality and Violence in Timor-Leste." Journal of International Women's Studies 16 (2): 312-29.

Authors: Ann Wigglesworth, Sara Niner, Dharmalingam Arunachalam, Abel Dos Santos, Mateus Tilman

Abstract:

This article examines attitudes and perceptions of young men toward gender relations and gender-based violence in post-conflict Timor-Leste. A high level of domestic violence is reported, and a law against domestic violence has been passed in recent years. In 2013, a research team surveyed almost 500 young men using the Gender-Equitable Men Scale in both rural and urban contexts. It was found that young men become less gender equitable as they get older, and the environment they grow up in influences their gender attitudes. Existing contradictions and tensions between national government policy and local customary practices are well-known, and these are reflected in young men's acceptance of general principles of gender equality, which is unmatched by their willingness to accept more equitable gender relations in their own lives. Of concern was the level of young men's acceptance of sexual harassment and forced sex. Mechanisms are required to influence young men's attitudes to gender equality and intimate partner relations in school programs and other arenas as a priority.

Keywords: gender equality, masculinity, gender-based violence, Timor-Leste

Topics: Age, Youth, Domestic Violence, Education, Gender, Men, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Gender Equity, Post-Conflict, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators Regions: Oceania Countries: Timor-Leste

Year: 2015

Citation:

Maleta, Yulia. 2019. “Conclusion: Emphasized Femininity/Hegemonic Masculinity and Constructivism/Essentialism.” In Feminism, Republicanism, Egalitarianism, Environmentalism: Bill of Rights and Gendered Sustainable Initiatives. New York: Routledge.

Author: Yulia Maleta

Annotation:

Summary:
This book has addressed a gap on the interplay of emphasized femininity/hegemonic masculinity and constructivism/essentialism within the eNSM and its eSMOs. Utilising my interviews with Australian women members of renewables organisational governance (IeNGOs, grassroots organisations, academic institutions and the Greens party), I applied a constructivist approach to emphasized femininity, arguing that women-led sustainable-social change strategies, strengthened through participants’ agentic technical-scientific performative competencies (and multiple skills set: intellectual, social, empathetic and physical), challenges the patriarchal control of global politics and rigid structures of hierarchy and bureaucracy. More women in sustainable technological leadership, should contribute to global peace as well as desired gender justice outcomes.

Topics: Civil Society, Environment, Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Gender Hierarchies, NGOs Regions: Oceania Countries: Australia

Year: 2019

Citation:

Maleta, Yulia. 2018. "Australian Women's Anti-Nuclear Leadership: The Framing of Peace and Social Change." Journal of International Women's Studies 19 (6): 70-86.

Author: Yulia Maleta

Abstract:

Keywords: emphasized femininity, women, constructivism, Anti-nuclear, sustainable

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, NGOs Regions: Oceania Countries: Australia

Year: 2018

Citation:

George, Nicole. 2016. “Light, Heat and Shadows: Women’s Reflections on Peacebuilding in Post-Conflict Bougainville.” Peacebuilding 4 (2): 166–79.

Author: Nicole George

Abstract:

In this paper, I examine women’s reflections on their experiences as peacebuilders during Bougainville’s long years of conflict and the later period of conflict transition. I discuss the varying ways in which women, in this predominantly matrilineal society, recounted their contributions to conflict resolution as part of broader efforts to build peace. My interlocutors told stories of the distinctiveness of women’s peace leadership, interwoven with references to global policy frameworks such as United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325. This appears, at first glance, to evidence a positive story of global and local influences coming together to produce positive peacebuilding outcomes charged by ‘light and heat’, as theorised by Annika Björkdahl and Kristine Höglund. I show this story to also be one of shadows, however, arguing that deeper scrutiny of these perspectives on women’s peace leadership suggest they also mask difficult and more complex local realities.

Keywords: Gender, peacebuilding, hybridity, friction, Bougainville, UNSCR 1325

Topics: Conflict, Gender, Women, Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding, UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS, UNSCR 1325 Regions: Oceania Countries: Papua New Guinea

Year: 2016

Citation:

Johnston, Melissa Frances. 2017. “Beyond Hybridity: A Feminist Political Economy of Timor-Leste’s Problematic Post-Conflict Peacebuilding.” Paper presented at International Studies Association Annual Convention 2017, Baltimore, February 22-25.

Author: Melissa Frances Johnston

Abstract:

Hybrid theories of peacebuilding explain the problematic outcomes of intervention as a result of a hybrid between the aims and norms of ‘liberal’ internationals and ‘non-liberal’ locals. This paper critiques such theories via a case study of East Timor post-conflict peacebuilding. Using a feminist political economy approach, and drawing on extensive primary data, the paper argues that there are no discrete groups of ‘liberal’ interveners and ‘local’ subjects, or any hybrids thereof. Problematic results cannot be located in hybrid peacebuilding. Rather, it explains how an elite class coalition has risen to dominate the post-conflict East Timorese state relying on a highly gendered allocation of the country’s petroleum fund resources. This gendered access to resources has allowed the elite coalition to shore up materially exploitative patriarchal relations, strongest among the rural base, and to consolidate a fragile, yet historically resilient, socio-political coalition crucial to its rule.

Topics: Class, Feminisms, Feminist Political Economy, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict Regions: Oceania Countries: Timor-Leste

Year: 2017

Citation:

Smith, Sarah. 2015. "When 'Gender' Started: The United Nations in Post-Occupation Timor-Leste." Global Change, Peace & Security 27 (1): 55-67.

Author: Sarah Smith

Abstract:

This article examines gender mainstreaming processes in successive UN peacebuilding missions in Timor-Leste, with a focus on the relationship between these missions and the national women's organizations who were vehicles for implementation. Apparent frictions occur in this process and the article suggests that the gender rhetoric and practice incorporated into UN peacebuilding since 2000 can have potentially destabilizing effects for women's activism in post-conflict settings. Women's organizations socialize and negotiate around gender norms in order to mitigate this potential and aim to identify the synergies between women's activism before peacebuilding, and gender mainstreaming policies and practice post-conflict. This article provides insight into how national women's organizations socialize gender norms, as well as how women's post-conflict activism can be shaped by the presence of UN peacebuilding.

Keywords: Gender, United Nations, peacebuilding, Timor-Leste

Topics: Gender, Gender Roles, Gender Mainstreaming, International Organizations, Post-Conflict, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping Regions: Oceania Countries: Timor-Leste

Year: 2015