Search

Begin New Search Topic Feminism Political Geography Global Focus

41. Introduction: Gender in the Global South: A Complex and Contradictory Agenda

Author:
Natália Maria Félix de Souza
Publication Date:
08-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Contexto Internacional
Institution:
Institute of International Relations, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Abstract:
The publication of the last of three parts of Contexto Internacional’s special issue ‘Gender in the Global South’ is the opportunity to both celebrate and lament the accomplishments of feminist scholarship in the so-called global South. Reflecting from the Brazilian experience and scenario, it is remarkable how much the women, gender and sexuality agenda has grown in the field of international relations: from a marginal perspective at the turn of the century (Nogueira and Messari 2005), it has now become a major locus of resistance and contestation, which can be attested to by looking at the power plays at the Brazilian international relations association’s annual meetings, the multiplication of feminist collectives inside public and private universities, not to mention the growing number of gender-sensitive research articles published by the main national journals – including this triple special issue. From where I look, there is no doubt that feminism has come to shake the conventions of the area and produce a much more plural and interesting picture of international relations – one which encompasses more voices, stories, subjectivities and narratives. From this standpoint, there is much to celebrate and hope for.
Topic:
International Relations, Gender Issues, Socialism/Marxism, Realism, International Relations Theory, Feminism, and Liberalism
Political Geography:
Latin America and Global Focus

42. Struggles Around the Empty Signifier of Freedom: An Interview with Leticia Sabsay

Author:
Thais de Bakker Castro
Publication Date:
08-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Contexto Internacional
Institution:
Institute of International Relations, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Abstract:
Leticia Sabsay is a prominent Argentinian academic, based at the London School of Economics, whose work has been exploring pressing issues and questions: how gender and sexuality relate to ideas of freedom, how to define human subjectivity, how to politically resist, among others. In Sabsay’s writing, ideas of gender and sexuality cannot be dissociated from our broader political formations and complex processes of becoming subjects in neoliberalism. And our aspirations to evoke political shifts and improvements cannot be separated from a notion of the human as a being with permeable borders, invariably interconnected to others and to a conjunction of experiences – as opposed to the liberal notion of autonomous individuality. I believe she joins theorists like Judith Butler in an attempt to resituate the ontological grounds of our notion of the individual and of our political formations, and she is thus an important reference for feminist and queer efforts to make sense of liberal cooptation, on the one hand, and conservative backlash, on the other. The following is an interview conducted in November of 2018, at the LSE, in which I asked her about her references, her more recent body of work, and her conceptualizations of current tendencies in politics. The interview was lightly edited for clarity.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, Freedom of Expression, and Feminism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

43. Gender and Feminisms in IR: Reviewing Theory and Practice: Interview with Marysia Zalewski

Author:
Amanda Álvares Ferreira
Publication Date:
08-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Contexto Internacional
Institution:
Institute of International Relations, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Abstract:
Marysia Zalewski is a Professor at Cardiff University, in Wales, and a renowned International Relations (IR) scholar. She has become a reference for her work with feminism and gender since the 1990s. She has published several books including The ‘Man’ Question in International Relations (edited with Jane Parpart, re-released in 2019 by Routledge), Feminist International Relations: Exquisite Corpse (2013) and Sexual Violence against Men in Global Politics edited with Paula Drumond, Elisabeth Prügl and Maria Stern (2018), among many other books and articles. Her work has brought important contributions in thinking feminist critical methodologies, as well as looking at everyday life as a productive site for empirical and theoretical analysis of how gender is implicated in international politics. She was in Rio de Janeiro for an event at the International Relations Institute of the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC-Rio), where she was part of two panels called ‘Rethinking the Borders between Gender and Sexuality’ and ‘The Rise of Conservatisms and the Challenges to the Women, Gender and Sexuality Agendas.
Topic:
International Relations, Gender Issues, Political Theory, International Relations Theory, and Feminism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

44. Young Women & Girls Read, Lead & Build Peaceful Communities

Author:
Elenore Veillet-Chowdhurry
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP)
Abstract:
The need to address girls’ and women’s empowerment remains pressing now more than ever, as we live in times of some of the worst refugee and humanitarian crises witnessed to date. Women are disproportionately affected by these conficts, and engaging them in peacebuilding efforts by investing in their leadership skills will have a multiplier effect in countering extremism and achieving lasting peace. With these objectives at heart, NAMA Women Advancement Establishment (NAMA) and the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP), launched the Girl Ambassadors for Peace Program (GA4P) in Bangladesh and Indonesia in 2017, in response to the escalating Rohingya crisis in these countries. The GA4P programme has trained 600 girls and young women above the age of 16 in Bangladesh (including Rohingya refugees). Sponsored by NAMA and developed collaboratively by GNWP and NAMA, this toolkit contains all materials used in the Bangladesh and Indonesia trainings, and includes interactive and instructive modules on all of the programme’s pillars: literacy, leadership, peacebuilding, economic empowerment, and the use of media, theater, and information and communication technologies. It has been translated to Bahasa and Bangla to ensure that it will be accessible to individuals, civil society organizations and institutions working at the grassroots level. It is important to mention that the security situation, economic divisions, and other challenges on the ground will differ from country to country. Any effort, thus, must have a locally-driven approach. Given the complexity of these goals, we believe in the power of leveraging collective strengths through strong partnerships in the territories we work in. NAMA’s outreach at both local and international levels is made possible by the unwavering support and guidance of Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasim, Wife of the Sharjah Ruler and Chairperson of NAMA. Extending our reach into new territories, combined with our partnerships with committed organizations, have helped take our message of creating an equitable world for women to a much larger audience. Dedicated, like-minded partners are critical to extending the reach of our expansion program to equip young women and girls with the necessary leadership and advocacy skills. At NAMA, we strongly believe that by empowering women and girls, we give peace, stability, and security a greater chance of success.
Topic:
Education, Peacekeeping, Feminism, Peace, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

45. Resisting Erasure The Politics of Reckoning with Statelessness in the Arts

Author:
Nicoletta Enria
Publication Date:
12-2019
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Statelessness & Citizenship Review
Institution:
Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Melbourne Law School
Abstract:
Stateless art interlocutors are reclaiming the discourse on statelessness through their creative productions. By reshaping and contesting statelessness to elicit an empathetic connection, they effectively reshuffle the European, and potentially global, system of knowledge on statelessness. First by rejecting the term and redefining it in terms of an ontologically real or delocalised ‘home’, then by shedding light on the universality of experience that exposes that membership must not be based on nation-state boundaries. Finally, stateless art interlocutors reflect on the colonial legacies of their plights, shedding light on historical connections and breaking colonial stereotypes that define stateless peoples as victims worthy of European rescue. This dissents from the discourse of statelessness as a ‘curse’ to be eradicated. Whilst still acknowledging statelessness as a source of torment and pain due to the context of becoming stateless being one of exile and conflict, and the anguish potentially contingent in a lack of a national identity, it does so in a dignified, empowering manner allowing affected populations a voice and agency. This is a perspective that must be taken into account in policy-circles. Through the arts, policy-makers can not only listen to the lived experience of affected populations, but be immersed in their experiential world. Moreover, others can become involved to help bring attention to statelessness in the arts: follow your local galleries, and urge them to support artists working on statelessness, and to include these voices in their collections. The radical empathy fostered in these artworks makes statelessness harder and harder to discard — leaving an indelible mark in our minds. Swaitat’s initial lesson rings truer than ever; he disappeared but he did not die – we must not let his story and that of other stateless art interlocutors slip through the cracks. In 2018 the Statelessness & Citizenship Review had an open call for artworks responding to the Review’s focus on advancing understandings of statelessness and citizenship phenomena and challenges.35 The winning artwork Critical Massby Wasim zaid Habashneh beautifully ties together many of the themes and styles adopted by the stateless art interlocutors I worked with, of home, global community, unity in difference and the universality of experience. The piece, created using a traditional Jordanian sand art in discarded fluorescent tubes with pixelated patterns, incorporates Habashneh’s architectural background in its composition moulded with larger concepts of home, belonging and identity. Critical Mass means the sufficient number to achieve a result — here Habashneh uses this as the title to prompt the question: what makes civil society? Critical Mass seems to resemble the shape of a world map, with the moving tubes structured with different slithers of colour. This alludes to a global community, whilst also delineating difference in the different colours. This also underlines how stateless people and non-citizens are equally as deserving of belonging in a global community, but should not have to erase their identity to become a part of it. Moreover, the motion of the tubes importantly signifies how societies are not static but are in fact always changing. In fact, what statelessness is and how it configures in societies will always be changing, much like shown by the fluid component of sand. Habashneh opens up our understanding of identity and belonging as territorially marked and fixed, but as always changing and able to incorporate stateless people and non-citizens, often excluded and considered anomalies. Critical Mass shows us how our perception of who and what makes a society must remain fluid and open to what the ‘critical mass’ for it to flourish is. Especially one that leaves no one behind.
Topic:
Arts, Feminism, Stateless Population, and Gender
Political Geography:
Global Focus

46. Transformative Leadership for Women’s Rights (TLWR): Lessons and Recommendations from Oxfam’s Experiences

Author:
Ines Smyth
Publication Date:
04-2018
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The aim of promoting gender equality and women’s rights as integral parts of development efforts is enshrined in the key strategies and plans of many organizations. This is the case for the individual affiliates that comprise Oxfam International (OI), and the Oxfam confederation as a whole. This report sets out to assist Oxfam to better understand and learn from the Confederation’s work in this area to date. The purpose of the report is to provide an initial mapping of work on transformative leadership for women's rights (TLWR) in order to offer suggestions, impetus and a programmatic framework for the development of an ambitious global program on TLWR. It is intended to complement and drive Oxfam’s efforts to bring about the transformation of the pervasive gender inequality that limits women’s wellbeing, confidence and potential, reproduces negative masculinity traits, and contributes to the inequity dominant in contemporary societies.
Topic:
Civil Society, Gender Issues, Leadership, and Feminism
Political Geography:
Global Focus

47. Feminizm ve Çokkültürlülük Arasındaki İlişki Üzerine Bir İnceleme

Author:
Bilge Durutürk
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bilgi
Institution:
Sakarya University (SAU)
Abstract:
Bu çalışmada feminizmin ve çokkültürlülük ilişkisi üzerine bir inceleme yapılması amaçlanmaktadır. Bu paralelde 1980’li yıllardan beri ortaya konmuş olan ikinci dalga feminizmin parametreleri ve 1990’lar itibari ile toplumsal cinsiyet kavramsallaştırması ve kimlik politikaları paralelinde ele alınan üçüncü dalga feminizmin parametreleri değerlendirilecektir. Bu temel unsurlar üzerinden çokkültürlülük kuramı içerisindeki liberal ve eleştirel yaklaşımların ikinci ve üçüncü dalga feminizm ile kesiştiği problemli durumlar ataerkillik ve kadının özgürleşmesi bağlamında kültürel farklılıkların ortaya koyduğu ırk, cinsiyet ve sınıf temelindeki tartışmalar üzerinden değerlendirilecektir.
Topic:
Multiculturalism, Feminism, Intersectionality, and Identity Politics
Political Geography:
Turkey, Middle East, and Global Focus

48. Disrupted: The Post-Colonial Issue

Author:
Katie Washington
Publication Date:
07-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy
Abstract:
The aim of this journal is to disrupt the ‘single-story’ of mainstream foreign policy. Through highlighting both experienced and emerging voices from across the globe, we seek to understand, challenge, and critique foreign policy. This issue focuses on the theme of post-colonialism and foreign policy, which was chosen by our members and supporters. Through a post-colonial analytical lens, our contributors challenge the unquestioned objectivity of elitist, Western-centric foreign policy, and unpack the complex connections between gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality that are embedded in the everyday actions and politics of people from across the world. Alongside our written contributions, you will find artwork and poetry engaging with this theme. A feminist foreign policy brings all voices to the table, through whichever medium they choose to express themselves, challenging the academic and un-inclusive paradigm it is embedded in. Thank you for supporting this publication. CFFP is a non-profit volunteer-run organisation and we are proud to lead the way in making foreign policy more feminist, more transparent, and more intersectional. With your support, we’re amplifying a different and more nuanced conversation that can better inform policy decisions and begin to alleviate global inequality. We hope you enjoy and learn from this journal, but we also encourage you to consider contributing to our next issue. From articles to artwork, we are always looking for new contributors and we are eager to hear (and see) new voices and fresh perspectives.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Gender Issues, Post Colonialism, Political Theory, Women, Feminism, LGBT+, and Indigenous
Political Geography:
Global Focus

49. Kroc Insight – Negotiating at the Invisible Peace Table: Inclusion of Women in Informal Peacebuilding Processes

Author:
Jennifer Bradshaw and Mariam Yazdani
Publication Date:
01-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace Justice, University of San Diego
Abstract:
In the second installment of the Kroc Insight series, Program Officer Jennifer Bradshaw and 2018 Woman PeaceMaker Fellow Mariam Yazdani explore how to build more effective and inclusive peace negotiations. What came out of these conversations was a need to share out an often under-documented space within peace negotiations, “the invisible peace negotiation table."
Topic:
Peacekeeping, Women, Feminism, and Negotiation
Political Geography:
Global Focus

50. Women and the Law

Author:
Council on Foreign Relations
Publication Date:
10-2018
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
The connection between women’s economic participation and global prosperity is undeniable. Over the past two decades, international organizations and world leaders have increasingly recognized how critical women’s economic empowerment and financial inclusion are to economic prosperity and growth. Analyses from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank, and other leading institutions demon- strate the growth potential of women’s increased economic partici- pation. UN frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals recognize the relationship between economic opportunity for women and development, and include time-bound targets—such as equal access to financial services, natural resources, and technology, and equality in property ownership and inheritance—to advance women’s economic participation. However, despite growing awareness that women’s economic empowerment is critical to women, their families, and broader eco- nomic prosperity, many countries still legally undermine women’s economic participation and undervalue women’s work. Of the 189 economies surveyed in the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2018 report, 90 percent have at least one regulation that impedes wom- en’s economic opportunities. More than one hundred economies still prevent women from working in certain jobs; fifty-nine economies provide no legal recourse to women who experience sexual harassment in the workplace; and in eighteen countries, men can legally prevent their wives from working outside the home. An array of other legal barriers—from limitations on access to finance to laws restricting women’s agency and mobility—prevent women from fully participat- ing in the economy. Even in 2018, the legal landscape for women in the economy fails to reflect the value women’s participation adds to eco- nomic growth. But change is on the horizon. Over the last decade, several countries have enacted legal reforms that significantly advance women’s rights. Today, all but thirty-two countries legally guarantee gender equality in their constitutions, and a record number of countries now have laws prohibiting discrimina- tion or violence against women. While these gains—rightfully cel- ebrated—show that progress is possible, proposals to eliminate the critical barriers that limit women’s economic potential remain absent from mainstream discussions on international and national economic policy, and barriers to female economic enfranchisement persist in every region of the world. In order to realize the economic potential of 50 percent of the world’s population, nations need to do more to level the legal playing field for women. This volume collects in-depth analysis and commen- tary on legal barriers to women’s economic participation, with a focus on five areas in which the greatest obstacles to women’s economic par- ticipation endure: financial inclusion, identification laws, land rights, workplace discrimination, and family law. In the opening essay, I make the economic case for eliminating legal barriers that inhibit women’s economic participation. Closing gender gaps in the workplace could add an estimated $12 trillion to the global economy. Countries simply cannot afford to waste this economic poten- tial—and governments from Saudi Arabia to Japan are taking notice and enacting policies to promote women’s workforce participation. A web of discriminatory laws impedes women’s access to financial services and undermines their capacity to borrow, save, or obtain insur- ance. In an essay on financial inclusion, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Senior Fellow Jamille Bigio highlights how banks stand to ben- efit economically by ensuring women’s access to and use of financial services, by sharing the experience of a Nigerian woman who employed digital tools to save for her daughter’s school fees. CFR Senior Fellow Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, reporting on a successful financial inclusion program in Tanzania, explores how education can help women over- come legal and social barriers to opening bank accounts. The economic case for legal reform to promote women’s financial inclusion is strong: when women can use financial services without spousal consent and have control over where they live, and when unpaid work is recognized in marital property regimes, gender gaps in financial inclusion are nar- rowed. Legal reform needs to be a central component of any strategy to advance women’s access to and use of savings, credit, and insurance.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, Feminism, and Participation
Political Geography:
Global Focus