Gender Analysis

Gender Perspective on Nuclear Weapons and Human Rights

Citation:

Venturini, Gabriella. 2018. “Gender Perspective on Nuclear Weapons and Human Rights.” Edited by Jonathan L. Black-Branch and Dieter Fleck. In Nuclear Non-Proliferation in International Law IV: 99–115. The Hague: T.M.C. Asser Press.

Author: Gabriella Venturini

Abstract:

Gender perspective is currently being mainstreamed in the context of security, disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control. Since gender is not just about women and girls but also relates to men and boys, gender perspective must be balanced and take into account the broad socio-cultural context as a whole. The adverse effects of nuclear detonations may impinge on the right to life and encroach upon a number of other civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights among which the right to family life, health, education, property and housing. It has become apparent that the use and testing of nuclear weapons affect differently men and boys, women and girls, both physically and in the context of society, hindering their ability to fully exercise their basic human rights. Gender-aware assistance is needed to contribute reducing the adverse consequences of nuclear detonations for the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. Gender perspective may help redirect debates concerning nuclear weapons towards a greater consideration of human factors, and ultimately reshape the strategies for security, disarmament, non-proliferation and arms control. Women’s engagement in the struggle for peace and disarmament is extremely relevant and should gain more influence, while involving more women in nuclear issues, at both national and international level, could enhance the non-proliferation and disarmament agenda. However, only if women and men are able to work together within governments, international organisations and civil society with full awareness of, and respect for, their respective roles, diversities and needs, effective and sustainable solutions on issues of nuclear disarmament can be achieved.

Keywords: gender, women, human rights, nuclear weapons, nuclear disarmament, nuclear tests

Topics: Gender, Gender Analysis, Gendered Discourses, Gender Balance, Gender Mainstreaming, Peace and Security, Political Participation, Rights, Human Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Year: 2018

Gendering Nuclear Disarmament: Identity and Disarmament in Sweden during the Cold War

Citation:

Rosengren, Emma. 2020. “Gendering Nuclear Disarmament: Identity and Disarmament in Sweden during the Cold War.” PhD diss., Stockholm University.

Author: Emma Rosengren

Abstract:

This dissertation provides new knowledge about gender, nuclear weapons and disarmament. Previous feminist research has shown that in contexts where positive associations are made between military strength, masculinity and nuclear weapon possession, it is hard to imagine nuclear renunciation and disarmament as anything other than potential emasculation or feminization. Meanwhile, empirically based feminist theorization about gender, nuclear renunciation and disarmament remains a blind spot. This dissertation uses Sweden as a case to analyze nuclear weapon renunciation and disarmament from a feminist angle. As one of the countries that had the opportunity to acquire nuclear weapons – and considered doing so for some time – before deciding to become engaged with international disarmament aims instead, Sweden is an interesting case to study. The empirical focus is on disarmament policymaking in relation to the Swedish nuclear weapon debate (1954–1968) and the submarine crisis (1981–1989). The study draws on a broad set of primary sources, ranging from government speeches and parliamentary records to media output including comics and personal correspondence and diaries. Approaching the nuclear weapon debate and the submarine crisis as arenas for debating disarmament policy, and understanding disarmament policymaking as historically situated and marked by gendered, nationalized and sexualized power structures in specific contexts, the dissertation contributes empirical and theoretical insights relevant to feminist IR theory, and to nuclear history and IR studies more broadly. Contrary to previous feminist theorizing about disarmament as associated with femininity and/or emasculation, my findings suggest that Swedish disarmament policy was co-constructed with certain forms of masculinity, and that alternative policy discourses and identity representations were feminized and sidelined to the margins. The dissertation suggests that rather than assuming preconceived linkages between nuclear weapons possession and masculinity on the one hand, and disarmament and femininity on the other, it is necessary to challenge such binary conceptualizations and investigate how masculinities and femininities, and nuclear weapon and disarmament policy, have been co-constructed in specific historical contexts. The opposite, to depart from preconceived conceptualizations about gender and policy not only contributes to the reconstruction of gender, but also rules out alternatives to nuclearized security strategies and nuclearized masculinity. The dissertation provides a methodological and theoretical framework for further research on the making of disarmament policy from a feminist perspective.

Keywords: feminist theory, nuclear disarmament, nuclear weapons, gender nation sexuality, dentity and policy, identity and policy

Topics: Gender, Femininity/ies, Gender Analysis, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Peace and Security, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Countries: Sweden

Year: 2020

The Challenges of Gendering Genocide: Reflections on a Feminist Politics of Complexity

Citation:

Helms, Elissa. “The Challenges of Gendering Genocide: Reflections on a Feminist Politics of Complexity.” European Journal of Women’s Studies 22 (4): 463–69.

Author: Elissa Helms

Keywords: genocide, Bosnia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia

Annotation:

"When feminists and activists tackle the gendered dynamics of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and contemporary armed conflict, it seems safe to assume that their analyses and interventions are rooted in solidarity with the victims and survivors, in a desire to understand in order to contribute to the eradication of such violence and suffering. Yet some feminist or women-centered positions have sparked serious anxiety and anger among women war survivors and their advocates, rifts in feminist alliances, as well as disturbing political and material consequences for survivors and for the wider societies in which they live. The very collective nature of genocide and ethnicized violence makes them resistant to feminist critique – to scrutiny of the ways in which (ethno-) national collectivities create, and mask, power hierarchies within purported unity (McClintock, 1993) (...) This essay is a reflection on some of the issues and challenges for feminist scholarship and activism that emerge out of critical study of gendered war violence and the politics of collective ethnic and gender victimhood in a postwar setting" (Helms 2015, 463).

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gender-Based Violence, Genocide, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Europe, Balkans Countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina

Year: 2015

Gender Equality in Ownership of Agricultural Land in Rural Tanzania: Does Matrilineal Tenure System Matter?

Citation:

Kongela, Sophia Marcian. 2020. “Gender Equality in Ownership of Agricultural Land in Rural Tanzania: Does Matrilineal Tenure System Matter?” African Journal on Land Policy and Geospatial Sciences 3 (3): 13-27.

Author: Sophia Marcian Kongela

Abstract:

Gender gap in ownership of agricultural land is still wide in many developing countries, mainly in favour of men. In some of these countries, both patrilineal and matrilineal systems are practised and recognized by governments. Tanzania is one of the countries in which both systems are practised. This paper explores the extent of gender equality in ownership of agricultural land in Kisarawe and Mkuranga districts which are typical rural agricultural settings and mainly matrilineal societies in Tanzania. It also attempts to examine women’s benefits from agricultural activities. Respondents were randomly selected from village registers of the six villages studied. The findings contradict the conventional narratives of gender inequality that women are discriminated in land ownership. Despite insignificant percentage of societies which embrace matrilineal system in Tanzania, to a large extent the system seems to support women in owning land in those societies. However, a few elements of gender discrimination were noted especially for widows and divorced women. The findings make a case for more intervention in ensuring statutory and customary land tenure practices are complimentary in enhancing gender equality in accessing land especially in rural areas. 

Keywords: gender equality, access to land, land ownership, land tenure, Tanzania

Topics: Agriculture, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gender Roles, Men, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Land Tenure, Rights, Land Rights, Property Rights, Women's Rights, Security, Food Security Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Tanzania

Year: 2020

Gender Dimensions of Land Tenure Reforms in Ethiopia 1995-2020

Citation:

Holden, Stein T. 2020. “Gender Dimensions of Land Tenure Reforms in Ethiopia 1995-2020.” CLTS Working Papers 6/20. Aas: Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies.
 

Author: Stein T. Holden

Abstract:

This chapter investigates how land tenure reforms in Ethiopia have influenced the position of women in terms of land tenure security, access to land, decision-power over land within households, as well as the gendered impacts of these tenure reforms on land investments, land productivity, land renting, and household consumption welfare. It is based on a careful screening of the relevant literature based on its quality and critically examining the reliability of the causal effects in each study. As most studies are based on survey data, studies that have been able to provide reasonably robust quantitative assessments are utilized. The review concludes that there exists strong evidence that the low-cost land registration and certification reform in Ethiopia has contributed to strengthening women’s land rights and decision-power over land and this has had positive welfare effects in female-headed as well as male-headed households. More research is needed to study the productivity and welfare effects of the ongoing 2nd Stage Land Registration and Certification reform but early findings indicate that it has contributed to formally document parcel-level land rights of women that are close to that of men even in the Tigray region where 1st Stage Land Registration and Certification was in the name of the head of household that in most cases was a man.

Keywords: gender, land rights, land registration and certification, joint land certification, impacts, Ethiopia

Topics: Gender, Gender Analysis, Households, Land Tenure, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Ethiopia

Year: 2020

The Black Feminist Spatial Imagination and an Intersectional Environmental Justice

Citation:

Ducre, Kishi Animashaun. 2018. “The Black Feminist Spatial Imagination and an Intersectional Environmental Justice.” Environmental Sociology 4 (1): 22–35.

Author: Kishi Animashaun Ducre

Abstract:

Starting with seminal work from Katherine McKittrick and Katherine McKittrick and the late Clyde Woods, this paper compares and contrasts articulations of justice as espoused by Black feminism, ecofeminism, and the movement for environmental justice. The utilization of an intersectional genealogical approach allows for examination of the ways in which these movements might serve as the ideological bases for a Black feminist spatial imagination and an intersectional environmental justice. A Black feminist spatial imagination is an orientation that accounts for the merger of frames around race, gender, and ecology; it serves as a unique departure from conventional Black feminist analysis by its particular attention to the construct of space in Black feminist epistemology. Analysis reveals that manifestos engage similar strategies around boundedness, an identification among a collective identity and the subject of reproductive justice and liberation as wresting control and self-determination of physical bodies. The final task is an outline of essential tenets for a singular notion of justice of a Black feminist spatial imagination which incorporates the spirit of all of three manifestos and expands current environmental justice discourse to include those ‘who know no one knows’ while highlighting Black women’s agency in environmentally degraded environments.

Keywords: ecofeminism, environmental justice, intersectionality, geographies, Black feminism

Topics: Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Gender Analysis, Justice, Race

Year: 2018

Land Tenure, Gender, and Productivity in Ethiopia and Tanzania

Citation:

Melesse, Tigist M., and Yesuf M. Awel. 2020. “Land Tenure, Gender, and Productivity in Ethiopia and Tanzania.” In Women and Sustainable Human Development: Empowering Women in Africa, edited by Maty Konte and Nyasha Tirivayi, 89-108. Maastricht, The Netherlands: Palgrave Macmillan.

Authors: Tigist M. Melesse, Yesuf M. Awel

Abstract:

Agricultural land use and tenure systems in many African countries are characterized by subsistence production and a communal land tenure system. Reforming the tenure system in a way that ensures tenure security could promote sustainable agriculture in the region. In addition, the right of women to own land is essential for rural development. This chapter, therefore, analyses the gender differential effects of land tenure security on productivity in East Africa using Living Standard Measurement Study data from Ethiopia and Tanzania. The chapter uses plot- and household-level data to investigate the effect of land title and other determinants of crop productivity. The main results show that tenure security positively and significantly affects households’ productivity in general and is marginally significant for female-headed households in particular. Potential indicators that positively correlate with crop productivity are total land and plot sizes, inorganic fertilizer use, input credit access, herbicide use, soil, and plot type. Policy implications are based on the results.

Topics: Agriculture, Development, Gender, Gender Analysis, Women, Households, Land Tenure, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Ethiopia, Tanzania

Year: 2020

Using a Gender-Responsive Land Rights Framework to Assess Youth Land Rights in Rural Liberia

Citation:

Louis, Elizabeth, Tizai Mauto, My-Lan Dodd, Tasha Heidenrich, Peter Dolo, and Emmanuel Urey. 2020. “Using a Gender-Responsive Land Rights Framework to Assess Youth Land Rights in Rural Liberia.” Land 9 (8): 247–68.

 

Authors: Elizabeth Louis, Tizai Mauto , My-Lan Dodd, Tasha Heidenrich, Peter Dolo, Emmanuel Urey

Abstract:

This article summarizes the evidence on youth land rights in Liberia from a literature review combined with primary research from two separate studies: (1) A qualitative assessment conducted as formative research to inform the design of the Land Rights and Sustainable Development (LRSD) project for Landesa and its partners’ community level interventions; and (2) a quantitative baseline survey of program beneficiaries as part of an evaluation of the LRSD project. The findings are presented using a Gender-Responsive Land Rights Framework that examines youth land rights through a gender lens. The evidence highlights that female and male youth in Liberia face significant but different barriers to long-term access to land, as well as to participation in decisions related to land. Our suggested recommendations offer insights for the implementation of Liberia’s recently passed Land Rights Act as well as for community-level interventions focused on increasing youth land tenure security in Liberia.

Keywords: youth land rights, gender- responsive land rights, Liberia Land Rights Act, land governance, tenure security

Topics: Age, Youth, Gender, Gender Analysis, Land Tenure, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Liberia

Year: 2020

Perceived Tenure (In)Security in the Era of Rural Transformation Gender-Disaggregated Analysis from Mozambique

Citation:

Ghebru, Hosaena, and Fikirte Girmachew. 2019. “Perceived Tenure (In)Security in the Era of Rural Transformation Gender-Disaggregated Analysis from Mozambique.” IFPRI Discussion Paper 017999 (2019): 1-33. 

 

Authors: Hosaena Ghebru, Fikirte Girmachew

Abstract:

This study examines the drivers of tenure insecurity in Mozambique using data from the National Agricultural Survey (TIA) 2014 as well as a follow-up supplemental survey with detailed land tenure gender-disaggregated data from three groups: namely, principal male, principal female, and female spouses. Perceived risk of land loss (collective tenure risk) and perceived risk of a private land dispute (individual tenure risk) are used to measure land tenure insecurity. The empirical findings reveal, overall, collective tenure risks are the real threat to women’s tenure security while individual tenure risks (ownership, inheritance, border disputes, etc.) are more of a threat to the tenure security of men. However, a more gender-disaggregated analysis reveals that individual tenure risk is higher among female spouses as compared to male heads within the same household. Moreover, perceived risk of land loss is higher among non-indigenous male heads while female spouses who have no control over family land are more likely to have higher perceived tenure insecurity. Results also show that land-related legal awareness seems to be more significant in dictating the (positively) perceived tenure security of women as compared to their male counterparts. Generally, tenure insecurity for female spouses seem to be associated with the emergence of land markets while relative land scarcity in a given community dictates tenure insecurity of the principal female (female heads). Hence, the empirical findings reinforce the need to complement ongoing efforts to enhance tenure security at the household and community level with gender-tailored/targeted programs that take into account the intra-household dimension of addressing issues of land tenure security.

Keywords: gender, Mozambique, Perception, rural transformation, tenure insecurity

Topics: Agriculture, Gender, Gender Analysis, Men, Women, Intersectionality, Land Tenure, Security Regions: Africa, East Africa Countries: Mozambique

Year: 2019

Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Gender-Biased Land Tenure Systems: An Exploration and Conceptualization of Interactions

Citation:

Fischer, Gundula, Akosua Darkwah, Judith Kamoto, Jessica Kampanje-Phiri, Philip Grabowski, and Ida Djenontin. 2020. “Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Gender-Biased Land Tenure Systems: An Exploration and Conceptualization of Interactions.” International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability. doi:10.1080/14735903.2020.1791425.

Authors: Gundula Fischer, Akosua Darkwah, Judith Kamoto, Jessica Kampanje-Phiri, Philip Grabowski, Ida Djenontin

Abstract:

How does sustainable agricultural intensification’s (SAI) tenet of increased productivity on the same area of land relate to prevailing gender-biased land tenure systems? How can one conceptualize the interactions between intensified land use and control over land, labour, crops and benefits – and how can equitable outcomes be facilitated? These questions (which have not yet received sufficient attention in SAI research) are explored in this study using a qualitative methodology and a gender-transformative approach. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with a total of 248 respondents were conducted in matrilineal and patrilineal intensification contexts in Ghana and Malawi. We develop a conceptual framework that extends Kabeer’s institutional analysis to include gender implications of SAI. Selected cases reveal how farmers and key actors link land use intensification to existing land-related institutions with diverse outcomes. We conclude that SAI interventions should adopt gender-transformative approaches. These facilitate equitable outcomes by supporting consensus-based institutional changes and creating positive synergies between multiple scales.

Keywords: gender, land, sustainable agricultural intensification, Ghana, Malawi

Topics: Agriculture, Economies, Ecological Economics, Gender, Gender Analysis, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Land Tenure Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Ghana, Malawi

Year: 2020

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