Livelihoods

Citation:

Chisholm, Amanda. 2014. “The Silenced and Indispensible.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 16 (1): 26–47. 

Author: Amanda Chisholm

Abstract:

Using postcolonial analysis coupled with fieldwork in both Afghanistan and Nepal, I argue that contemporary colonial relations within private security make possible a gender and racial hierarchy of security contractors. This hierarchy of contractors results in vastly different conditions of possibilities depending on the contractors' histories and nationalities. Empirically documenting perspectives from Gurkhas, constituted as third country national (TCNs) security contractors, this article contributes to the existing critical theory and gender in both private military security company literature and postcolonial studies by (1) providing a needed racial and gendered analysis from the position of the racialized security contractors and (2) empirically documenting a growing subaltern group of men participating as security contractors.

Keywords: private security, private military security companies, third country nationals, Gurkhas, Afghanistan, martial race, postcolonial, masculinities, Gender

Topics: Combatants, Male Combatants, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Livelihoods, Militarized Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Private Military & Security, Privatization Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Nepal

Year: 2014

Citation:

Yamin, Alicia Ely, Junior Bazile, Lucia Knight, Mitike Molla, Emily Maistrellis, and Jennifer Leaning. 2015. “Tracing Shadows: How Gendered Power Relations Shape the Impacts of Maternal Death on Living Children in Sub Saharan Africa.” Social Science & Medicine 135 (June): 143–50. 

Authors: Alicia Ely Yamin, Junior Bazile, Lucia Knight, Emily Maistrellis, Jennifer Leaning

Abstract:

Driven by the need to better understand the full and intergenerational toll of maternal mortality (MM), a mixed-methods study was conducted in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa to investigate the impacts of maternal death on families and children. The present analysis identifies gender as a fundamental driver not only of maternal, but also child health, through manifestations of gender inequity in household decision making, labor and caregiving, and social norms dictating the status of women. Focus group discussions were conducted with community members, and in depth qualitative interviews with key-informants and stakeholders, in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, and South Africa between April 2012 and October 2013. Findings highlight that socially constructed gender roles, which define mothers as caregivers and fathers as wage earners, and which limit women's agency regarding childcare decisions, among other things, create considerable gaps when it comes to meeting child nutrition, education, and health care needs following a maternal death. Additionally, our findings show that maternal deaths have differential effects on boy and girl children, and exacerbate specific risks for girl children, including early marriage, early pregnancy, and school drop-out. To combat both MM, and to mitigate impacts on children, investment in health services interventions should be complemented by broader interventions regarding social protection, as well as aimed at shifting social norms and opportunity structures regarding gendered divisions of labor and power at household, community, and society levels.

Topics: Age, Gender, Girls, Boys, Gender Roles, Households, Livelihoods Regions: Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Ethiopia, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania

Year: 2015

Citation:

Lenette, Caroline. 2014. "‘I am a Widow, Mother and Refugee’: Narratives of Two Refugee Widows Resettled to Australia." Journal of Refugee Studies 27 (3): 403-21.

Author: Caroline Lenette

Abstract:

The sparse literature on contemporary narratives of widowhood among refugee women as a consequence of conflict situations indicates that this aspect of lived experience is relatively unexplored. While loss is integral to the refugee journey, there is a paucity of analysis of how the sudden loss of a spouse under such circumstances can compound resettlement anxieties, particularly when women raise children alone. By exploring meanings attached to widowhood using examples from the experiences of two younger refugee women resettled in Brisbane, Australia, this article demonstrates how they negotiated lives characterized by community ostracism and stigmatization attached to widowhood and lone parenting. The limited knowledge specifically on young or middle-aged widowhood, the compounded impact on lone parenting, and intra-group tensions among refugee women are highlighted. Such an oversight should be addressed to provide a full understanding of complex wellbeing experiences for refugee widows with children resettled in western nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Households, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict Regions: Oceania Countries: Australia

Year: 2014

Citation:

Plambech, Sine. 2014. “Between ‘Victims’ and ‘Criminals’: Rescue, Deportation, and Everyday Violence Among Nigerian Migrants.” Social Politics 21 (3): 382–402. doi:10.1093/sp/jxu021.

Author: Sine Plambech

Abstract:

This article is about the lives of Nigerian sex workers after deportation from Europe, as well as the institutions that intervene in their migration trajectories. In Europe, some of these women's situations fit the legal definitions of trafficking, and they were categorized as "victims of human trafficking"; others were categorized as undocumented migrants -- "criminals" guilty of violating immigration laws. Despite the growing political attention devoted to protecting victims of trafficking, I argue that in areas of Nigeria prone to economic insecurity and gender-based violence, the categories of "victim" and "criminal" collapse into, and begin to resemble, one another once on the ground. The need to identify and distinguish groups of migrants from one another illustrates the dilemmas that have arisen in the wake of increasingly restrictive European immigration policies. Furthermore, the return processes create a hierarchical structure in which the violence women experience in the sex industry in Europe is imagined to be worse than the everyday violence they experience at home.

Keywords: sex industry, human trafficking, immigration policy, violence, Gender, Nigeria

Topics: Citizenship, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Forced Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Violence Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Nigeria

Year: 2014

Citation:

Maclin, Beth, Jocelyn Kelly, Justin Kabanga, and Michael VanRooyen. 2015. “'They Have Embraced a Different Behaviour’: Transactional Sex and Family Dynamics in Eastern Congo’s Conflict.” Culture, Health & Sexuality 17 (1): 119-31. 

Authors: Beth Maclin, Jocelyn Kelly, Justin Kabang, Michael VanRooyen

Abstract:

The decades-long conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has resulted in major changes to local economies, strained social networks and insecurity. This environment forces many to pursue unconventional and, at times, socially stigmatised avenues for income. This paper explores the ways in which individuals in eastern DRC engage in, and are affected by, the commoditisation of sex within the context of decades of violent conflict. Focus group discussions conducted with men and women in 2009–2010 highlight how the war in the region has placed individuals, particularly women, in dire economic circumstances, while also changing their roles within families. In the face of severe poverty, women and girls may choose to engage in transactional sex in order to support themselves and their families. Discussants detailed how engaging in transactional sex due to an economic imperative has nonetheless damaged women’s relationships with family members between spouses as well as parents and their children through breach of trust and failure to provide. These focus group discussions elucidate how transactional sex is both a symptom of, and a catalyst for, changes within family dynamics in eastern DRC.

Keywords: family dynamics, transactional sex, conflict, DRC

Topics: Civil Society, Class, Economies, Economic Inequality, Poverty, Gender, Women, Households, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Sexuality, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Year: 2015

Citation: Kantor, Paula. 2009. “Women’s Exclusion and Unfavorable Inclusion in Informal Employment in Lucknow, India: Barriers to Voice and Livelihood Security.” World Development 37 (1): 194–207. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2008.05.002.

Author: Paula Kantor

Abstract:

This paper provides comparative analyses across women’s employment-status groups to examine how processes of exclusion and constrained and adverse inclusion shape different women’s labor market opportunities and outcomes in Lucknow, India. It examines under what conditions, if at all, women’s labor contributes to household-poverty reduction and for which work types paid employment leads to increased voice for women in the household, one dimension of a process of empowerment. It finds that women’s labor force participation has a meager influence on household and individual level development outcomes largely due to the inter-related processes of exclusion and inclusion, where social norms and responsibilities for reproductive work can lead to constrained inclusion in the labor market, adversely affecting women’s terms of incorporation. The findings have relevance for programming focusing on improving the range and quality of choices for women in the paid economy.

Keywords: South Asia, India, informal employment, women, exclusion

Topics: Development, Economies, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Households, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2009

Citation:

Author: Nishioka Tsutomu

Topics: Combatants, Male Combatants, Gender, Women, Boys, Gender-Based Violence, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Livelihoods, Militarized Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Rights, Women's Rights, Security, Human Security, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexual Slavery, SV against Women, Torture, Sexual Torture, Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, East Asia Countries: Japan, South Korea

Year: 2007

Citation:

Rondon, Glevys. 2008. “Canadian Mining in Latin America: Corporate Social Responsibility and Women's Testimonies.” Canadian Woman Studies 27 (1): 89-96.

Author: Glevys Rondon

Annotation:

“In the past decade Canadian mining corporations have come to dominate the Latin American mining investment market, an achievement well-documented in the business literature (Mining Association of Canada). However, at the community level, many of these mining corporations have met nothing but fierce opposition. In response to grassroots conflict, mining corporations across the world have coined the concept of "corporate social responsibility" (CSR). The idea that business enterprises should integrate environmental concerns into their operations is not new; what is unique to CSR in the mining context is how major mining corporations have used the concept to discuss issues of social inequality; the rights of groups traditionally excluded such as Indigenous peoples; and to produce complex codes of how they will work with governments and communities. Without doubt, one of the most important changes within the mining sector in the last few years has been its unprecedented interest in promoting high standards of corporate behaviour based on ethical values.

In the mining literature, women's participation on issues of mining and development is beginning to be considered a key factor for the evaluation of CSR's models of good practice ("Ethical Performances") and mining sustainability (Empowering Communities Programme). For Latin American women, a more tangible outcome is that women's activism on issues of mining and development can play a role in destroying centuries of social and economic marginalization as well as help to sensitize communities on issues that are important to women. There are already indications that women's contributions are appreciated: for example in Morona Santiago, Ecuador, the organization Campesina Centro held a "women and mining" public meeting in March 2007 to celebrate women's role in the defence of human rights and the struggle for social justice.” (Rondon, 2008, p. 89).

Topics: Economies, Environment, Extractive Industries, Gender, Women, Indigenous, Justice, Livelihoods Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Canada

Year: 2008

Citation:

Mercier, Laurie, and Jaclyn Gier. 2007. “Reconsidering Women and Gender in Mining.” History Compass 5 (3): 995–1001. doi:10.1111/j.1478-0542.2007.00398.x.

Authors: Laurie Mercier, Jaclyn Gier

Abstract:

This article examines the neglected role of women in mining, long believed to be the most ‘masculine’ of industries. The authors probe how the gendered nature of mining work evolved over time and in different parts of the world. Since the nineteenth century, colonialism, capitalism and cultural traditions have shaped gender roles for women and men in the world's mining communities. The article examines how even as men and women joined in militant protests against capital and the state, they struggled over appropriate roles in work, family and community.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Economies, Extractive Industries, Feminisms, Gender, Gender Roles, Livelihoods

Year: 2007

Citation:

Kulkarni, Seema. 2016. “Gender and Water in India: A Review.” In Indian Water Policy at the Crossroads: Resources, Technology and Reforms, edited by Vishal Narain and Annasamy Narayanamoorthy, 73–91. Global Issues in Water Policy 16. Springer Science & Business Media B.V. 

Author: Seema Kulkarni

Abstract:

This chapter provides an overview of key issues in the area of gender and water. It gives an overview of different debates around women and environment and shows how these have shaped the discourse and practice around gender and water. The chapter then goes on to discuss the reforms in the water sector at the global level and how this has impacted the discussions around gender and water. A comprehensive review of literature is done in the context of India which covers the various writings and actions in the area of gender and water. The review specifically looks at gender and equity issues in the areas of rivers, dams and displacement, water for production and domestic water. The chapter argues for going beyond the politics of representation and developing new agendas and creative forms of engagement with people’s movements- more specifically women’s movements, farmers movements and unions working on the question of growing informalisation of the economy, greater accumulation of capital, increasing injustices and disparities in everyday living- to see the linkages between land, water, rivers, natural resources and livelihoods.

The chapter argues for going beyond the politics of representation and developing new agendas and creative forms of engagement with people’s movements- more specifically women’s movements, farmers movements and unions working on the question of growing informalisation of the economy, greater accumulation of capital, increasing injustices and disparities in everyday living- to see the linkages between land, water, rivers, natural resources and livelihoods. (Abstract from Springer Link)

Keywords: Domestic water, Water for Production, dams and displacement, ecofeminism, Gender

Topics: Civil Society, Displacement & Migration, Forced Migration, Economies, Economic Inequality, Poverty, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Gender, Gender Analysis, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Gender Equity, Households, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Livelihoods, Political Participation Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2016