Western Europe

Citation:

Eulriet, Irène. 2012. Women and the Military in Europe: Comparing Public Cultures. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. http://link.springer.com/10.1057/9780230369863. t

Author: Irène Eulriet

Abstract:

Keywords: international relations, gender studies, social policy, sociology of work, organizational studies, economic sociology, military and defence studies

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Society, Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Livelihoods, Militarized Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militaries Regions: Europe, Central Europe, Western Europe Countries: France, Germany, United Kingdom

Year: 2012

Citation:

Byrne, Siobhan. 2014. “Troubled Engagement in Ethnicized Conflict.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 16 (1): 106–26. doi:10.1080/14616742.2012.757020.

Author: Siobhan Byrne

Abstract:

Feminist cross-community initiatives, which emerged in Northern Ireland and Israel/Palestine in the 1980s, are frequently lauded in the gender and conflict literature as evidence of the ways in which women can work across ethnonational boundaries. In particular, the theory of ‘transversal dialogue’, developed by Nira Yuval-Davis and adopted by other feminist scholars and activists, suggests that participants have developed a mode of dialogue that enables them to acknowledge differences while developing common goals. In ethicized conflict, transversal politics is understood as an alternative to the essentializing of ‘identity politics’ as well as their undemocratic character. The empirical research, however, suggests that identity politics remains relevant for participants, particularly when cross-community dialogue is limited by external political realities and internal community divisions. In my view, understanding the ways in which identity politics contributes to the development of feminist goals related to women's inclusion in peace processes and post-conflict peace-building is not at odds with transversal politics; rather, women use both modes of politics to build feminist networks and tackle women's marginalization in hyper-masculinized and militarized zones of ethnicized conflict.

Keywords: cross-community feminist activism, ethnicized conflict, identity politics, Israel/Politics, Northern Ireland, transversalism

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes, Post-Conflict Regions: Africa, MENA, Asia, Middle East, Europe, Western Europe Countries: Ireland, Israel

Year: 2014

Citation:

Hayes, Bernadette C. and Ian McAllister. 2012. “Gender and Consociational Power-Sharing in Northern Ireland.” International Political Science Review 34 (2): 123-139.

Authors: Bernadette C. Hayes, Ian McAllister

Abstract:

Designing political arrangements is the most viable approach to resolving inter-communal divisions in post-conflict societies. Yet women are frequently ill-served by such peace settlements, since gender equality is often sacrificed in an effort to resolve conflicts over national identity. Northern Ireland is no exception to this trend. Although the 1998 Northern Ireland Agreement made specific provision for gender equality, it was primarily framed in terms of national identity. This article examines to what extent this focus on inter-communal ethnic division undermined support for the Agreement among women. Using data from the 2010 Northern Ireland Election Survey, we examine gender differences in attitudes towards the consociational institutions of government. The results show a significant gender gap in support for the institutional arrangements that were established by the Agreement. We propose and test three explanations to account for this gender gap. 

Keywords: post-conflict, consociationalism, Gender, national identity, power-sharing

Topics: Armed Conflict, Civil Wars, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Civil Society, Democracy / Democratization, Domestic Violence, Economies, Poverty, Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Men, Girls, Boys, Governance, Constitutions, Elections, Post-Conflict Governance, Justice, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Paramilitaries, Nationalism, Peacebuilding, Peace Processes, Political Participation, Post-Conflict, Rights, Human Rights, Women's Rights, Weapons /Arms Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: Ireland

Year: 2012

Citation:

Nye, Robert A. 2010. “Western Masculinities in War and Peace.” The American Historical Review 112 (2): 417-438. 

Author: Robert A. Nye

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Men, Military Forces & Armed Groups Regions: Americas, North America, Europe, Western Europe

Year: 2010

Citation:

Krogstad, Anne and Aagoth E. Storvik. 2010. “Reconsidering Politics as a Man’s World: Images of Male Political Leaders in France and Norway.” Historical Reflections 36 (19): 19-38. 

Authors: Anne Krogstad, Aagoth E. Storvik

Abstract:

Researchers have often pointed to the masculine norms that are integrated into politics. This article explores these norms by studying male images of politics and power in France and Norway from 1945 to 2009. Both dress codes and more general leadership styles are discussed. The article shows changes in political aesthetics in both countries since the Second World War. The most radical break is seen in the way Norwegian male politicians present themselves. The traditional Norwegian leadership ethos of piety, moderation, and inward orientation is still important, but it is not as self-effacing and inelegant as it used to be. However, compared to the leaders in French politics, who still live up to a heroic leadership ideal marked by effortless superiority and seduction, the Norwegian leaders look modest. To explain the differences in political self-presentation and evaluation we argue that cultural repertoires are not only national constructions but also gendered constructions

Topics: Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Discourses, Gendered Power Relations, Governance, Nationalism, Political Participation Regions: Europe, Nordic states, Northern Europe, Western Europe Countries: France, Norway

Year: 2010

Citation:

Cockburn, Cynthia. 2013. “What Became of 'Frontline Feminism'? A Retro-Perspective on Post-Conflict Belfast.” Feminist Review 105 (1): 103-21.

Author: Cynthia Cockburn

Abstract:

A feminist stock-taking on ‘post-conflict’, this paper revisits a study made by the author in 1996–1997, when the women’s community sector was a lively actor in the processes leading to the Good Friday Peace Agreement of 1998. Refusing to observe sectarian conflict lines, women’s centres were re-writing official ‘community development’ policy as community empowerment and political challenge. The author draws on new interviews conducted in 2012 with feminist community activists of that earlier period of ‘frontline feminism’, associated with the Belfast Women’s Support Network. The women reveal how continuing poverty, discrimination, violence and unhealed trauma still characterise working-class life in the post-conflict period, and impede the integration of Protestant and Catholic communities. Official provisions for gender equality have been interpreted in gender-neutral ways, and in some cases turned against women. The demilitarisation of masculinity has been painfully slow. The women’s community sector has experienced a loss of political drive as women’s centres have become service providers, dependent on state funding. Feminism is renewing itself, but in fresh forms with different priorities. Will it recover a voice that ‘speaks truth to power’?

Keywords: women, post-conflict, feminism, Northern Ireland, community

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Health, Trauma, Post-Conflict Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: Ireland

Year: 2013

Citation:

Hayhurst, Lyndsay M. C. 2014. “The 'Girl Effect’ and Martial Arts: Social Entrepreneurship and Sport, Gender and Development in Uganda.” Gender, Place and Culture 21 (3): 297–315.

Author: Lyndsay M. C. Hayhurst

Abstract:

In recent years, three notable trends have emerged in the gender and development landscape: the increasing use of sport as a tool to achieve gender and development objectives (SGD); the expanding involvement of transnational corporations (TNCs) in creating, funding and implementing development programs; and the girling' of development. The last trend has largely been facilitated by the proliferation of the global Girl Effect' campaign, or the unique potential of 600 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world' (Girl Effect 2011). This article reports on findings from a global ethnography - involving semi-structured interviews, participant observation and document analysis - that considered how sport-oriented Girl Effect interventions impact the lives of girls they target. Using a Girl Effect-focused partnership among a TNC (based in Western Europe), an international nongovernmental organization (NGO) (based in Western Europe) and a Southern NGO (based in Uganda) as a case study, this article examines how SGD programs for Ugandan girls encourage them to become entrepreneurs of themselves' (Rose 1999) equipped to survive in the current global neoliberal climate using social entrepreneurial tactics such as training to be martial arts instructors combined with activities such as cultivating nuts. Results show how Girl Effect-oriented SGD programs that focus on social entrepreneurship tend to overlook the broader structural inequalities and gender relations that marginalize girls in the first place. I conclude by suggesting that future studies must further explore the socio-economic, cultural and political implications and consequences that social entrepreneurship and economic forms' of SGD interventions hold for girls.

Keywords: social entrepreneurship, sport for development, gender and development, neoliberalism, Girl Effect

Annotation:

Topics: Development, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Girls, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, Multi-National Corporations, NGOs Regions: Africa, East Africa, Europe, Western Europe Countries: Uganda

Year: 2014

Citation:

Holvoet, Nathalie. 2007. “Gender Budgeting in Belgium: Findings From a Pilot Project.” European Societies 9 (2): 275-300.

Author: Nathalie Holvoet

Abstract:

The article highlights activities and findings of the Belgian initiative regarding gender budgeting, which are put against the background of theory and practice developed so far elsewhere. Attention is drawn upon the opportunities of gender budgeting to push further forward the policy goals of gender equality, thereby overcoming a number of problems commonly associated with the currently widely propagated strategy of gender mainstreaming. The article provides first-hand information on the origin of the Belgian initiative, its political location, the activities performed and the methodology used. Analysis of findings addresses a number of key dimensions in gender budgeting, including (i) the overarching importance of the political location, (ii) the internal management and monitoring function of gender budgeting and the importance of prevailing budgetary systems, and (iii) the external accountability function of gender budgeting and the need to link up with outside government initiatives.

Keywords: gender budgeting, Belgium, gender mainstreaming, gender budget analysis, accountability, public management

Topics: Gender, Gender Budgeting, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: Belgium

Year: 2007

Citation:

Cole, Jennifer. 2014. “Producing Value among Malagasy Marriage Migrants in France: Managing Horizons of Expectation.” Current Anthropology 55 (S9): S85-S94.

Author: Jennifer Cole

Topics: Economies, Gender, Women, Gender Roles Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: France

Year: 2014

Citation:

Conlon, Deirdre.  2011.  "A Fractured Mosaic: Encounters with the Everyday amongst Refugee and Asylum Seeker Women." Population, Space and Place 17: 714-26.

Author: Deirdre Conlon

Abstract:

In his critique of everyday life, Henri Lefebvre called for an understanding of the everyday as a complex, fragmentary and dynamic constellation. Apprehending everyday life in this way complements the calls – from scholars of migration geography in particular – to ground meta-narratives of globalisation and mobility within the physical locales, material objects and social and spatial practices where the daily lives of migrants actually unfold. This paper takes up these issues by drawing on qualitative interview research conducted over an 11-month period with asylum seeker and refugee women living in contemporary Irish society. Drawing on some of Lefebvre’s ideas the paper examines how the presence and absence of material objects and textures of the everyday train and emplace participants in local contexts while simultaneously linking them in concrete and abstract ways to global transnationality. In this process, the ‘fractured mosaic’ that marks migrants’ social, material and cultural everyday lives becomes crystal clear while illustrating the value of Lefebvre’s perspectives for apprehending the intricate sociality and materiality of transnational migration.

Keywords: asylum seeker, everyday life, materiality, Henri Lefebvre, transnational mobility

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Forced Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Households Regions: Europe, Western Europe Countries: Ireland

Year: 2011