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32. GENDER AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE
- Author:
- Rose McDermott
- Publication Date:
- 12-2020
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Political Violence @ A Glance
- Abstract:
- Recent commentary has noted that countries run by women have done a markedly better job at containing the COVID-19 pandemic than countries run by men. Previous commentary has also suggested that the public tends to think that female leaders do a better job on issues related to health and education. But the COVID-19 pandemic is not simply a health issue; it also presents major challenges in international relations, which begs the question: how does gender influence international relations? Gender affects international relations in many ways. It is at the root of many types and forms of conflict, from domestic violence to war. War is usually thought of as being something that is supported primarily by men even if the negative effects disproportionately fall on women. However, a great deal of conflict begins in and around battles over status between men, and between men and women. This is true in both domestic and international realms. Conflict, like much else, begins in the home. Children watch their parents disagree and observe how fights take place. Do parents have reasoned arguments that end in negotiated compromises? Or does their father beat their mother into submission? Children learn from watching, and take lessons about how to resolve conflict—and the role of domination and coercion in relationships—into the larger world, and use these models as the basis for how they feel they, and their nations, should behave.
- Topic:
- Political Violence, Gender Issues, Women, Leadership, Violence, and Peace
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
33. TWENTY YEARS AFTER UNSCR 1325: ANY PROGRESS ENDING WARTIME SEXUAL VIOLENCE?
- Author:
- Robert Nagel, Dara Kay Cohen, and Ragnhild Nordås
- Publication Date:
- 10-2020
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Political Violence @ A Glance
- Abstract:
- Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the groundbreaking UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security (WPS). Where are we on the road to ending conflict-related sexual violence? There is good news and bad news. When the UN Security Council passed resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security it was a momentous event. Women’s rights and violence against women had never before been on the agenda of the Security Council. Resolution 1325 emphasized the need for increased participation of women in national, regional, and international institutions, and for women’s inclusion in peace negotiations. Perhaps even more importantly, it acknowledged the agency of women in matters of war and peace, in contrast to the predominant idea of women as merely passive victims. A central component of 1325 was to explicitly call on all parties to armed conflict to take special measures to protect women and girls from violence, particularly sexual and gender-based violence.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, United Nations, Women, Gender Based Violence, Sexual Violence, and UN Security Council
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
34. Comrades in Arms: Military Masculinities in East German Culture
- Author:
- Tom Smith
- Publication Date:
- 02-2020
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Berghahn Books
- Abstract:
- Without question, the East German National People’s Army was a profoundly masculine institution that emphasized traditional ideals of stoicism, sacrifice, and physical courage. Nonetheless, as this innovative study demonstrates, depictions of the military in the film and literature of the GDR were far more nuanced and ambivalent. Departing from past studies that have found in such portrayals an unchanging, idealized masculinity, Comrades in Arms shows how cultural works both before and after reunification place violence, physical vulnerability, and military theatricality, as well as conscripts’ powerful emotions and desires, at the center of soldiers’ lives and the military institution itself.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Culture, Military Affairs, Institutions, and Masculinity
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Germany, and East Germany
35. Tunisia: COVID-19 Increases Vulnerability of Rural Women
- Author:
- Alessandra Bajec
- Publication Date:
- 11-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
- Abstract:
- Tunisian women in rural areas have played a vital role in maintaining food security during the coronavirus pandemic but continue to suffer exploitation and exclusion. While their working conditions are already known for being dire, the public health crisis has compounded their economic and social insecurity. This paper discusses the systemic exploitative treatment of female agricultural workers, the state’s inability so far to protect them, and how local NGOs are helping to improve their lives.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Women, Rural, Public Health, Pandemic, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Tunisia
36. How to Study Gender in the Middle East
- Author:
- Maya Mikdashi
- Publication Date:
- 06-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
- Abstract:
- Before resolving to write about gender, sexuality, or any other practice or aspect of life, subjectivity or power in the Middle East, one must first define what exactly the object of study is. Be specific. What country, region, and time period form the background picture of your study? The terms “Middle East,” “Islamic world,” and “Arab world” do not refer to the same places, peoples, or histories, but the linkages between them are crucial. Moreover, the region has always been transnational, with the nation state being a relatively new phenomenon in much of Middle East. In order to study political economy and gender in Syria, for example, one must be aware of the regional history that has produced “Syria” to begin with, as well as phenomena such as a “national” economy or political economy.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Sexuality, Academia, and Area Studies
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and North Africa
37. Economic Empowerment to Address Gender-Based Violence
- Author:
- SVRI
- Publication Date:
- 11-2019
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Sexual Violence Research Initiative
- Abstract:
- Poverty is a risk factor associated with gender-based violence; it also often intersects with and reinforces gender inequality. Various microfinance and other economic empowerment approaches have been implemented to try to address this intersection.
- Topic:
- Economics, Gender Issues, Poverty, Women, Gender Based Violence, and Microcredit
- Political Geography:
- Bangladesh, Egypt, and Global Focus
38. Shifting Cultural Norms to Address GBV
- Author:
- SVRI
- Publication Date:
- 11-2019
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Sexual Violence Research Initiative
- Abstract:
- Gender-based violence (GBV) is rooted in harmful gender norms and attitudes – unspoken social rules of behavior that are maintained by the approval or disapproval of a group. Gender roles and norms that condone violence against women are deeply embedded to varying degrees throughout most societies in the world, and are predictive of violence perpetration. Without changes in norms, laws and other interventions to reduce and prevent GBV can prove ineffective. Evidence indicates that transforming gender norms and power relations is one of the most effective ways of tackling violence against women.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Culture, Women, Gender Based Violence, and Sexual Violence
- Political Geography:
- Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Syria, Jordan, and Peru
39. Behind the Veil: Women in Jihad After the Caliphate
- Author:
- Lydia Khalil
- Publication Date:
- 06-2019
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- Lowy Institute for International Policy
- Abstract:
- Women will be important to the resurgence and transformation of the Islamic State from governance project to global terrorist insurgency. Islamic State has expanded both the potential and the scope of the roles and functions women can play, providing additional avenues for their participation in jihad in both kinetic and non-kinetic roles. The cohort of former caliphate members of mostly women and children now held in camps pose a key challenge for counterterrorism efforts around the world. Assumptions about women and violence can obstruct an accurate assessment of the threat female IS supporters pose and an accurate understanding of their agency.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Violent Extremism, Counter-terrorism, Women, Radicalization, Islamic State, and Jihad
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Middle East, Australia, and Syria
40. Comparing Global Trends in Multidimensional and Income Poverty and Assessing Horizontal Inequalities
- Author:
- Francesco Burchi, Daniele Malerba, Nicole Rippin, and Claudio E. Montenegro
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- German Development Institute (DIE)
- Abstract:
- The 2030 Agenda has provided new impetus to two facets of the struggle for poverty alleviation, which is a central goal of the international development community. First, poverty is no longer viewed strictly in monetary terms, but rather as a multidimensional phenomenon. Second, the need to reduce poverty for different social groups and not just at the aggregate, national level is explicitly recognised. Against this background, this paper has three objectives: (1) to analyse the trends in multidimensional poverty in low- and middle-income countries, (2) to explore rural-urban differences in poverty over time, and (3) to assess the validity of the claim that there has been a feminisation of poverty. The analysis relies on a new indicator of multidimensional poverty, the Global Correlation Sensitive Poverty Index (G-CSPI), that incorporates three key components: education, employment and health. The G-CSPI has several methodological advantages over existing measures, including that it is an individual rather than a household-level measure of poverty, which is crucial for gender-disaggregated analysis. Regarding aggregate trends, this paper shows that both income poverty and multidimensional poverty fell between 2000 and 2012. However, the decline in (extreme) income poverty in percentage terms was twice as large as the decline in multidimensional poverty. There is significant heterogeneity in the results across regions. Multidimensional poverty declined the most in Asia, converging towards the relatively low levels of Latin America and Europe, while sub-Saharan Africa’s slow progress further distanced it from other regions. These findings point to the existence of poverty traps and indicate that more efforts are needed to eradicate poverty. Regarding the urban-rural comparison, our analysis shows that poverty is predominantly a rural phenomenon: the rural G-CSPI was more than four times the urban G-CSPI. This difference remained nearly constant over time. As for the third objective, we find no gender bias in 2000 at the global level. This contrasts with the claim made in 1995 in Beijing that 70 per cent of the poor were women. However, we find that multidimensional poverty declined more among men (-18.5 per cent from 2000) than women (-15 per cent), indicating a process of feminisation of poverty. This was triggered by the decline in employment poverty, which was much slower among women. As most existing studies conclude that there was no evidence of the feminisation of poverty, this finding is new to the literature.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Poverty, Inequality, Urban, and Rural
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, Latin America, and Global Focus