Women

Noticing Gender (or Not) in Disasters

Citation:

Seager, Joni. 2005. “Noticing Gender (or Not) in Disasters.” Social Policy 36 (2): 29-30.

Author: Joni Seager

Abstract:

The article focuses on the gender disparity among New Orleans victims of Hurricane Katrina in August, 2005. While mass media acknowledged that a disproportionate number of black residence of New Orleans were left behind, few noticed that more women were affected by the storm then men. This pattern has held in several natural disasters, such as the Kobe, Japan earthquakes of 1995 and the Southeast Asia Tsunami in December, 2004. The plight of poverty stricken women worldwide is discussed in detail.

Topics: Economies, Poverty, Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women Regions: Americas, North America Countries: United States of America

Year: 2005

Barrio Women and Popular Politics in Chávez’s Venezuela

Citation:

Fernandez, Sujatha. 2007. “Barrio Women and Popular Politics in Chavez’s Venezuela.” Latin American Politics and Society 49 (3): 97–127.

Author: Sujatha Fernandez

Abstract:

Since President Hugo Chávez came to power in Venezuela in 1998, ordinary women from the barrios, or shantytowns, of Caracas have become more engaged in grassroots politics; but most of the community leaders still are men. Chávez's programs are controlled by male-dominated bureaucracies, and many women activists still look to the president himself as the main source of direction. Nevertheless, this article argues, women's increasing local activism has created forms of popular participation that challenge gender roles, collectivize private tasks, and create alternatives to male-centric politics. Women's experiences of shared struggle from previous decades, along with their use of democratic methods of popular control, help prevent the state from appropriating women's labor. But these spaces coexist with more vertical, populist notions of politics characteristic of official sectors of Chavismo. Understanding such gendered dimensions of popular participation is crucial to analyzing urban social movements.

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Governance, Political Participation Regions: Americas, South America Countries: Venezuela

Year: 2007

The Reintegration of Teenage Girls and Young Women

Citation:

Specht, Irma, and Larry Attree. 2006. “The Reintegration of Teenage Girls and Young Women.” Intervention 4 (3): 219–28. doi:10.1097/WTF.0b013e3280118167.

Authors: Irma Specht, Larry Attree

Abstract:

Women combatants are not a homogeneous group. The current approach of many Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) programmes is inappropriate for girls between 14 and 25 years of age. In order to provide reintegration assistance that has a significant long-term impact, it is essential first to understand why girls the join armed forces. Before DDR programme plans are finalized and programmes started, time and resources need to be invested firstly to locate the girls and then begin the process of understanding their potentials, vulnerabilities, dreams and ambitions.

Keywords: child soldiers, girl soldiers, reintegration, Liberia

Topics: Combatants, Female Combatants, DDR, Gender, Women, Girls, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Liberia

Year: 2006

Making Peace: Preventing and Responding to Sexual Exploitation by United Nations Peacekeepers

Citation:

Spencer, Sarah W. 2005. “Making Peace: Preventing and Responding to Sexual Exploitation by United Nations Peacekeepers.” Journal of Public and International Affairs 16: 166–79.

Author: Sarah W. Spencer

Topics: Gender, Women, Girls, Boys, International Organizations, Peacekeeping, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Regions: Africa

Year: 2005

What Are We Mainstreaming When We Mainstream Gender?

Citation:

Eveline, Joan, and Carol Bacchi. 2005. “What are we mainstreaming when we mainstream gender?” International Feminist Journal of Politics 7 (4): 496–512. doi:10.1080/14616740500284417.

Authors: Joan Eveline, Carol Bacchi

Abstract:

In the policies and practices of gender mainstreaming, gender itself is a contested concept. This article examines versions of gender mainstreaming in two countries, focusing on approaches we term the Canadian and Netherlands models. We show how different understandings of gender are attached to different reform approaches, and intimate how particular ways of conceptualising gender inhibit the efficacy of the mainstreaming strategy. In order to increase that effectiveness we suggest that gender mainstreaming models incorporate a view of gender as a verb rather than as a noun, so that the focus is on the processes of gendering rather than on the static category of ‘gender.’ We make the argument that such a shift could: a) incorporate a feminist ontology of the body; b) align an understanding of gender as an unfinished process with the ways in which those who make and implement policy experience gender mainstreaming as always partial and incomplete.

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender Mainstreaming Regions: Americas, North America, Europe, Western Europe Countries: Canada, Netherlands

Year: 2005

A Question of Security: Violence Against Palestinian Women and Girls: Occupied Palestinian Territories

Citation:

Deif, Farida, and Lucy Mair. 2006. A Question of Security: Violence Against Palestinian Women and Girls: Occupied Palestinian Territories.18 (7). New York: Human Rights Watch

Authors: Farida Deif, Lucy Mair

Abstract:

All too often, Palestinian women and girls who suffer from family violence pay the price for their abuse. The criminal justice system and health care providers largely ignore these abuses, leaving Palestinian women and girls with little protection. Inadequate and discriminatory laws condone the violence and perpetuate a situation of virtual impunity for perpetrators. Most women and girls consider it futile to pursue justice for family violence. Those who do report abuse confront authorities that prioritize the need to avoid public “scandal” and maintain the reputation of the victim’s family over her own health and life.

A Question of Security reveals, through survivors’ testimony, serious shortcomings in the Palestinian Authority’s response to family violence. There is no legislation outlawing domestic violence. Marital rape is not a crime under penal codes in force in the West Bank and Gaza. Only male relatives can file incest charges on behalf of minors. Rapists who agree to marry their victim are exonerated from punishment. Courts apply laws providing a reduction in sentence for murders committed in a “fit of fury” even in clearly premeditated cases involving “honor” crimes. The government poorly enforces laws that do penalize violence, due in part to police and doctors lacking the training, expertise and will to take family violence seriously. While the West Bank has a few small domestic violence shelters, they are not accessible to all women. Gaza lacks any women’s shelter for victims of violence.

There is no question that the Palestinian Authority faces daunting economic, political and security challenges, at this particular juncture, that hinder its response to all social and criminal justice problems. Yet despite these challenges, the Palestinian Authority has built important new institutions and reformed and unified some laws, such as those governing the justice system and children’s rights. Now the same must be done to protect women and girls from family violence.

There are measures—even in this difficult climate—that the Palestinian Authority can take to combat family violence. This report calls on the Palestinian Authority to establish guidelines and policies for responding to family violence, in line with international standards, and to train government employees to respond appropriately to violence. The Palestinian Authority should also enact a specific law on domestic violence and repeal the discriminatory laws that hinder efforts to tackle family violence.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender-Based Violence, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Security Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2006

Independent Women: The Story of Women’s Activism in East Timor

Citation:

Cristalis, Irena, and Catherine Scott. 2005. Independent Women: The Story of Women’s Activism in East Timor. London: Catholic Institute for International Relations.

Authors: Irena Cristalis , Catherine Scott

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, International Organizations, NGOs Regions: Oceania Countries: Timor-Leste

Year: 2005

Women and Democratization Conceptualizing Gender Relations in Transition Politics

Citation:

Waylen, Georgina. 1994. “Women and Democratization Conceptualizing Gender Relations in Transition Politics.” World Politics 46 (3): 327–54. doi:10.2307/2950685.

Author: Georgina Waylen

Abstract:

This article examines the impact of gender relations on democratization. It considers a number of key questions: what role do women's movements play in the transition to democratic rule and what impact does a return to competitive electoral politics have on women and women's movements. The starting point is a critique of the existing literature on democratization. That literature cannot provide a satisfactory analysis of the role of women in transition politics because of the narrow definitions of democracy used and the top-down focus of much of it. The article then develops a gendered analysis through a comparison of the different processes of transition in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. It highlights the significance of the relationship between civil society and the state and the existence of “political space.”

Topics: Democracy / Democratization, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Governance, Elections, Political Participation Regions: Americas, Caribbean countries, Central America, North America, South America, Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe

Year: 1994

Mothers of Buddhas, Mothers of Nations: Kumaranatunga and Her Meteoric Rise to Power in Sri Lanka

Citation:

Bartholomeusz, Tessa. 1999. “Mothers of Buddhas, Mothers of Nations: Kumaranatunga and Her Meteoric Rise to Power in Sri Lanka.” Feminist Studies 25 (1): 211-25.

Author: Tessa Bartholomeusz

Topics: Gender, Women, Governance, Elections, Political Participation, Religion Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Sri Lanka

Year: 1999

Traffic in Women in War and Peace: Mapping Experiences in Southeast Europe

Citation:

Corrin, Chris. 2004. “Traffic in Women in War and Peace: Mapping Experiences in Southeast Europe.” Journal of Contemporary European Studies 12 (2): 177-92.

Author: Chris Corrin

Abstract:

How concerns around prostitution and migration are politically framed  can decide and formulate policy strategies, with neighbouring countries taking radically different approaches to legislation. Traffic in women entails situations of violence and social control, where the lines between migration, human trafficking and smuggling become blurred. This article considers the growth of trafficking in women for prostitution across Central and South Eastern Europe over the last decade in the context of human rights policies. The brief mapping of trafficking in women in southeast Europe (SEE) focuses primarily on Albania and Kosova, to assess the diverse developments and the impact of militarisation, alongside increasing research and policy expansion. Practical changes to legislation with regard to human rights and migration are considered by some feminist analysts to create conditions that will limit the negative impacts of key aspects of women trafficked into prostitution.

Topics: Gender, Women, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Rights, Human Rights, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, Violence Regions: Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe

Year: 2004

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