Citation:

Richey, Lisa Ann. 2001. “In Search of Feminist Foreign Policy: Gender, Development, and Danish State Identity.” Cooperation and Conflict 36 (2): 177-212.

Author: Lisa Ann Richey

Abstract:

This article investigates the extent to which the Danish state's identification with gender issues is transferred into Danish development policy. Is Denmark pursuing a gender and development policy that is radically different from most other Western donor states and, if not, why might we see a less progressive policy in Denmark than we might expect from a domestically `feminist' state? In this article, it is suggested that the very nature of development aid and the policies in place to promote it are gendered. Gender and development aid could provide an arena for international constitution of domestically `feminist' policies. However, it is argued that `development' itself poses important challenges for implementing the goals of Denmark's gender and development policies. Conversely, implementing the critical strategy of agenda-setting within gender and development would reconstitute both `development' and the identity of the Danish state as donor.

Topics: Development [2], Feminisms [3], Feminist Foreign Policy [4], Gender [5], Gendered Discourses [6] Regions: Europe [7], Nordic states [8], Northern Europe [9] Countries: Denmark [10]

Year: 2001

Citation:

Silvey, Rachel M. 2000. “Diasporic Subjects: Gender and Mobility in South Sulawesi.” Women’s Studies International Forum 23 (4): 501–15.

Author: Rachel M. Silvey

Abstract:

The economic downturn in Indonesia (1997‐99) has changed the context of gendered spatial mobility in South Sulawesi. For low-income migrants in the region, the monetary crisis has not only reorganized the labor market, but it has also brought about an intensification of the stigma placed on young women's independent residence in an export processing zone. Household surveys and in-depth interviews with migrants and members of their origin and destination site neighborhoods, both before and during the economic retrenchment, illustrate that ideas about women's sexual morality are a key part of the context within which migration decisions are gendered. The article situates survey and interview findings within an overview of Indonesia's recent development history, economic crisis, and official state gender ideology. The article argues that migrants and their communities have identified the ‘prostitute’ as a female-gendered metaphor for the crisis, and finds that post-1997 narratives of women's mobility increasingly revolve around normative judgements regarding young women's independent mobility and sexual behavior.

Topics: Development [2], Displacement & Migration [12], Migration [13], Economies [14], Gender [5], Gendered Discourses [6], Women [15] Regions: Asia [16], Southeast Asia [17] Countries: Indonesia [18]

Year: 2000

Citation:

Boyer, Kate, Robyn Mayes, and Barbara Pini. 2017. “Narrations and Practices of Mobility and Immobility in the Maintenance of Gender Dualisms.” Mobilities 12 (6): 847–60. 

Authors: Kate Boyer, Robyn Mayers, Barbara Pini

Abstract:

This paper analyses the role of practices and representations of mobility in supporting particular kinds of gender orders. While scholarship has shown the various ways women are materially and symbolically ‘fixed’ in place, less attention has been paid to how discourses and practices of mobility interface with systems of gender differentiation more broadly. This work is based on a robust empirical base of 55 interviews, 90 h of participant observation and an analysis of museum displays in Kalgoorile, Western Australia, an iconic frontier mining town selected for this investigation as a site of strongly bifurcated gender discourses. Analysing our field data through the lens of feminist theory which problematizes gender binaries, we argue that while some narrations of gender mobilities serve to reinforce gender binaries, lived practices of movement can also destabilise (idealised) notions of gendered movement. This paper extends conceptual work by advancing understanding about the role of mobility within systems of gender differentiation, showing how lived practices of mobility are just as likely to challenge idealised patterns of gendered movement as they are to reinforce these patterns.

Keywords: mobility, sex work, skin-work, gender binaries, mining, Kalgoorlie Australia

Topics: Gender [5], Gendered Discourses [6], Women [15], Livelihoods [20], Sexual Livelihoods [21] Regions: Oceania [22] Countries: Australia [23]

Year: 2017

Citation:

Rothermel, Ann-Kathrin. 2020. “Gender in the United Nations’ Agenda on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 22 (5): 720–41.

Author: Ann-Kathrin Rothermel

Abstract:

The United Nations (UN) policy agenda on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) promotes a “holistic” approach to counterterrorism, which includes elements traditionally found in security and development programs. Advocates of the agenda increasingly emphasize the importance of gender mainstreaming for counterterrorism goals. In this article, I scrutinize the merging of the goals of gender equality, security, and development into a global agenda for counterterrorism. A critical feminist discourse-analytical reading of gender representations in P/CVE shows how problematic imageries of women as victims, economic entrepreneurs, and peacemakers from both the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Women, Peace and Security agenda are reproduced in core UN documents advocating for a “holistic” P/CVE approach. By highlighting the tensions that are produced by efforts to merge the different gender discourses across the UN’s security and development institutions, the article underlines the relevance of considering the particular position of P/CVE at the security–development nexus for further gender-sensitive analysis and policies of counterterrorism.

Topics: Development [2], Feminisms [3], Gender [5], Gender Analysis [25], Gendered Discourses [6], Gendered Power Relations [26], Gender Equality/Inequality [27], Security [28], Terrorism [29], UN Security Council Resolutions on WPS [30]

Year: 2020

Citation:

Wilson, Joanna. 2017. “Climate Change Politics in the UK: A Feminist Intersectional Analysis.” Paper presented at ECPR General Conference, Oslo, September 6-9.

Author: Joanna Wilson

Abstract:

Despite growing concern of environmental and climate justice, the issue of gender and climate change has, to date, received comparatively little scholarly attention. What is lacking is empirical evidence showing the ways in which overwhelmingly masculinised discourses of climate change can exacerbate or entrench existing inequalities, such as the gendered division of labour or the feminisation of poverty. Currently, the majority of gender and climate change scholarship, and most gender and climate change focused NGOs, perpetuate a narrative of impacts and vulnerabilities of women in the Global South. While this has been critical in ensuring recognition of gender in climate politics, it has arguably kept the construction of women firmly rooted in problematic narratives of subdued, passive women in need of masculine protection. In this paper, therefore, we explore how gender priorities are considered in contemporary policy. We do so by first highlighting the ways in which UK climate change politics can, or does, exacerbate the gendered division of environmental labour through: the ‘good jobs’ in masculinised professions, performed by men; the ‘dirty’ jobs in recycling, performed by migrant labourers; and the ‘household’ jobs or reproductive work, performed by women. Finally, we conclude by offering insights into how gender experts and activists can respond to a changing political climate.

Keywords: climate change politics, gender, feminism, intersectionality, environmental justice

Topics: Environment [32], Climate Change [33], Gender [5], Gender Roles [34], Gendered Discourses [6], Intersectionality [35] Regions: Europe [7], Northern Europe [9] Countries: United Kingdom [36]

Year: 2017

Citation:

Gay-Antaki, Miriam. 2020. “Grounding Climate Governance through Women’s Stories in Oaxaca, Mexico.” Gender, Place & Culture. doi:10.1080/0966369X.2020.1789563.

Author: Miriam Gay-Antaki

Abstract:

Constructions of women in the Global South, as poor and rural, portray them as most vulnerable and passive to the effects of environmental degradation. This conception has been informing institutional responses to environmental change that incorporate a gender component. It is in this context that climate change interventions increasingly target women in the Global South, so it is important to evaluate their impact. This paper sets out to question why a gender agenda is being pushed alongside a climate agenda, what these projects look like in the communities and households where they are implemented, and the impacts of these projects on the lives of people that encounter them in Oaxaca, Mexico. Through reflexive storytelling, this paper aims to ground environmental governance around gender and climate change using feminist geography by calling attention to the everyday lives of people in Mexico involved in gender and climate change interventions. Using postcolonial insights and reflexive approaches, this paper highlights the agency of actors and fights against tendencies in climate and development work that homogenize gender, erasing the agency and autonomy of people outside of western spaces. Through reflexive research, I call attention to the ways that concepts operating in global contexts do not merely operate on ‘third world women’ but are imbricated in the performance of their every-day lives as they manage and negotiate global discourses around gender and climate change while transforming them so that they become meaningful to their every-day lives.

Keywords: feminist geography, gender and climate change, mexico, postcolonial perspectives, reflexivity

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality [38], Environment [32], Climate Change [33], Feminisms [3], Gender [5], Gendered Discourses [6], Governance [39] Regions: Americas [40], North America [41] Countries: Mexico [42]

Year: 2020

Citation:

[44]

Authors: Bernadette P. Resurrección, Rebecca Elmhirst

Abstract:

Feminist encounters with technical water professionals such as, for example, engineers, modelers and bureaucrats bring into view fundamental questions and differences in approaching and understanding the use and management of water. Women engineers, for their part, may not be taken seriously by their male peers. According to Liebrand & Udas, for them to succeed and belong, they have to reconcile the performances of being a ‘lady engineer’ with that of a ‘normal’ masculinised engineer, which may be asking for the irreconcilable. This brings to fore how feminist politics in water contexts also involves becoming aware of, navigating and contesting prevailing identity boundaries. The gender experts in water development projects often lack the political clout to change the terms of dialogue with their technical colleagues, as their work is often considered marginal to the main task of achieving water productivity. (Abstract from Taylor & Francis Group)

Topics: Feminisms [3], Gender [5], Gendered Discourses [6], Infrastructure [45], Water & Sanitation [46]

Year: 2020

Citation:

Alda-Vidal, Cecilia, Maria Rusca, Margreet Zwarteveen, Klaas Schwartz, and Nicky Pouw. 2017. “Occupational Genders and Gendered Occupations: The Case of Water Provisioning in Maputo, Mozambique.” Gender, Place & Culture 24 (7): 974–90.

Authors: Cecilia Alda-Vidal, Maria Rusca, Margreet Zwarteveen, Klaas Schwartz, Nicky Pouw

Abstract:

Taking issue with how associations between technical prowess or entrepreneurship and masculinity tend to be taken for granted or are seen as stemming from natural or intrinsic gender differences, over the last two decades feminist scholars have developed theoretical approaches to understand the gendering of professions and abilities as the performative outcome of particular cultures and histories. We build on these insights to explore how associations between masculinities, technology and entrepreneurship shape ideas and practices of small-scale water provision in Maputo. Our findings show how activities (i.e. technical craftsmanship, hard physical work) or abilities (i.e. risktaking, innovativeness) regarded as masculine tend to be considered the defining features of the profession. This shapes how men and women make sense of and talk about their work, each of them tactically emphasizing and performing those aspects best fitting their gender. Our detailed documentation of men’s and women’s everyday involvements in water provisioning challenges the existence of sharp boundaries and distinctions between genders and professional responsibilities. It shows that water provisioning requires many other types of work and skills and male and female household members collaborate and share their work. The strong normative-cultural associations between gender and water provisioning lead to a distinct underrecognition of women’s importance as water providers. We conclude that strategies to effectively support small-scale water businesses while creating more space and power for women involved in the business require the explicit recognition and re-conceptualization of water provisioning as a household business.

Keywords: technology, entrepreneurship, small scale water providers (SSIP), urban water supply, Maputo, occupational masculinities and femininities

Topics: Feminisms [3], Gender [5], Gender Roles [34], Gendered Discourses [6], Households [48], Infrastructure [45], Water & Sanitation [46] Regions: Africa [49], East Africa [50] Countries: Mozambique [51]

Year: 2017

Citation:

Tyagi, Niharika, and Smriti Das. 2018. “Assessing Gender Responsiveness of Forest Policies in India”. Forest Policy and Economics 92: 160–68. 

Authors: Niharika Tyagi, Smriti Das

Abstract:

Gender Research spread over the last three decades in South Asia has positioned gender as an imperative in forest policy and practice. Policy attempts have been made to improve women's participation in forest governance at the local level. However, this has had insignificant effect on women's inclusion in forestry as it neglected the structural problems of power and inequity. This paper examines how forest policy has attended to gender concerns in India. It maps the gender trajectory within policy positions and identifies the gap in policy and research. It provides an analytical framework to analyse the Gender Responsiveness of forest policies. The framework helps classifying post-independence forest policies as Gender Blind, Gender Aware and Gender Responsive, based on the gender specific provisions. Analysis indicates that except for few provisions in the FRA, 2006, none of the forest policies appear to be categorically Gender Responsive. This could possibly be because of the limited engagement with structural issues; and, failure to design enabling institutions. Finally, our findings suggest that forest policies need to be grounded in a more nuanced understanding of gender relations and gender roles for sustainable socio-ecological outcomes.

Keywords: Forest policy, gender responsive, gender needs, content, discourse analysis

Topics: Gender [5], Gender Roles [34], Gendered Discourses [6], Women [15], Gendered Power Relations [26], Gender Equality/Inequality [27], Political Participation [53] Regions: Asia [16], South Asia [54] Countries: India [55]

Year: 2018

Citation:

Chigbu, Uchendu Eugene. 2019. “Anatomy of Women’s Landlessness in the Patrilineal Customary Land Tenure Systems of Sub-Saharan Africa and a Policy Pathway.” Land Use Policy 86: 126–35.

Author: Uchendu Eugene Chigbu

Abstract:

A typical character of land tenure or property systems in sub-Saharan Africa is that the systems exclude women (implicitly and explicitly). That is why the discourse on women and land tenure remains a burgeoning policy debate in sub-Saharan Africa. This study is relevant for land policy (and land governance) in sub-Saharan Africa because it evokes the minority voices of women in the land and gender discourse in sub-Saharan Africa. The study dissects, anatomically, female landlessness by probing why women still do not enjoy equal land rights today, and what must be done (policy-wise) to unchain women from their state of landlessness. By way of methodology, the study reviews relevant literature on the historical dimension of women's access to property rights. It is an explorative study based on two e-Focus Group Discussions conducted on two different online platforms to enable the capture of more expert knowledge on the subject of customary land tenure, gender and women's land rights in (and on) sub-Saharan Africa. The findings exposed three pillars of women's landlessness in sub-Saharan Africa, including an analysis of the stages of male power that cripple women's capacity to own or have access to land. The study identified and explained the nature of the contributions of different stages of male powers — including linguistic power, son power, husband power, and father power — to women's landlessness. It shows how these powers form the elements of male dominance which interact over a life course to cripple women's physical and psychological strength within their social spaces (which usually results into socio-political and economic disempowerments). As a key output, the study produced a policy pathway to neutralising the pillars of women's landlessness.

Keywords: Africa, Customary tenure, gender equality, gender equity, landlessness, land governance, land policy, land rights, land tenure, Sub-Saharan Africa, women

Topics: Gender [5], Gendered Discourses [6], Gendered Power Relations [26], Gender Equality/Inequality [27], Gender Equity [57], Land Tenure [58], Rights [59], Land Rights [60], Property Rights [61], Women's Rights [62] Regions: Africa [49]

Year: 2019