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Begin New Search Topic Gender Issues Publishing Institution Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey

1. GENDEREDNESS IN ENGOs: A COMPARATIVE INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND TURKEY

Author:
Rakibe Külcür
Publication Date:
10-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
This paper analyses the gendered organisational practices of Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations (ENGOs) in the United Kingdom (UK) and Turkey and the possible outcomes of these practices on gender compositions in senior roles. Since gender is an important element in organisations, it is expected to have implications for policies of ENGOs. The research on which this paper is based was undertaken as part of a Ph.D. which examined the gendered nature of ENGOs in Turkey and the UK. The research revealed how and why ENGOs are gendered especially in positions of power and influence. This is an important question because of pressure groups’ influence on environmental decision-making, and yet it has largely been neglected until now. This research revealed that while the ENGO sector is dominated by young single middle-class female employees, white, middle class men are in charge of the decision-making. It showed that the ENGOs reflect the rest of the society and its dominant patriarchal values. The research concluded that gender-biased working practices such as culture of long working hours, lack of formal recruitment and promotion procedures and short-term contract work relations limit career progression of women. This is due to the gendered roles and the traditional division of work in society (the gender division of labour), where triple workload of women remains invisible as a result of patriarchal and capitalist relations existing in both societies.
Topic:
Environment, Gender Issues, Women, Feminism, and NGOs
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Europe, Turkey, and Asia

2. WOMEN EMPLOYMENT IN ASIA: A CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISON BETWEEN INDIA, SOUTH KOREA AND TURKEY

Author:
H. Işıl Alkan
Publication Date:
10-2018
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
In line with the recognition of the significance of women in the path to development, various countries have sought to increase female labor market participation over the past decades. While many European countries have been successful, numerous Asian countries have failed. The purpose of this study is to compare the patterns of female employment in three Asian countries since the 1990s including India, South Korea, and Turkey and to discover the main determinants of the issue. Female employment is a multidimensional concept that should be evaluated from cultural, economic and political perspectives. The study thus adopts a broad perspective containing cultural, economic and political factors in different nations.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Culture, Women, Employment, Economic structure, and Feminism
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, India, Asia, and South Korea

3. FEMALE STEREOTYPES IN LEBANESE CONTEMPORARY SONGS: A CASE STUDY OF TEN SONGS

Author:
Roy Jreijiry
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
Many studies have shown that popular music is a dynamic medium in the construction of personal and social identities. This study analyses the image of women in ten Lebanese songs produced between 2010 and 2014; each song ranked as big hits. Typical of contemporary popular songs, these songs do not accord to the woman the value of an equal partner of the man. While rarely mentioning the ideas of sharing, exchanging, or reciprocity, they circulate many stereotypes such as the threatened/beaten woman, the housewife won through presents and flattery, the woman under the care of a man, and the woman as an owned and sexual object.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Culture, Women, Feminism, and Music
Political Geography:
Middle East, Lebanon, and Beirut

4. RETHINKING, RETURNING, REFLECTING

Author:
V Spike Peterson
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
After almost four decades of feminist International Relations (IR), I here rethink the journey this has entailed – for myself and others -- and contemplate where it has taken us. I first consider my own introduction to the discipline of IR and interpret activist commitments of the ‘first generation’ of participants. I then return to early developments and initial questions that fostered boundary-transgressing feminist contributions. Recalling three ‘imagined’ critical conversations – regarding empirical criteria, epistemological frames and normative/political strategies – I then reflect on the feminist journey of many into, within, and increasingly beyond the constraining boundaries of disciplinary IR.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, Feminism, and Intersectionality
Political Geography:
Global South

5. QUEER FEMINIST INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: UNEASY ALLIANCES, PRODUCTIVE TENSIONS

Author:
Darcy Leigh
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
This article examines the ‘uneasy alliance’ between Feminist IR and Queer IR. The article focuses on three areas of tension and continuity between the fields: (1) sexuality, sexual deviance and gender variance; (2) the roles of liberalism in gendered, sexualized and racialized violence; and (3) binaries relating to sex, gender and sexuality. The article argues that it is around tensions between Queer and Feminist IR that a Queer Feminist IR can be productively articulated. In particular, a Queer Feminist IR should: centre women and femmes as well as sexuality and gender variance; disrupt of binaries and fixed identities without losing the political leverage that sometimes comes with them; and acknowledge entanglements with the institutions Feminist and Queer IR seek to transform while also resisting being neutralized by assimilation. Keywords: International Relations, Feminism, Queer, Gender, Sexuality.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, Feminism, and Sexuality
Political Geography:
Global

6. FEMALE ACADEMICS IN FRANCE AND THE GLASS CEILING ‘ORGANIZED SCARCITY’?

Author:
Laurence Corroy and Emmanuelle Savignac
Publication Date:
02-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
The place of women in the French academic world is often analyzed through the aspects of their place in research or the evolution of women's careers in universities and centers for research. In this article, we propose to consider aspects which have been overlooked by researchers, in particular their place in governing bodies of French universities: Administrative Council, the Council for Research (Conseil Scientifique), the Council of Studies and University Life (Conseil de la formation et de la vie universitaire) and the National University Councils (Conseil national des Universités). These councils have an important role in academic careers. For example, they deliberate about promotions, they decide on sabbatical leave for research, they establish schedules for courses, and they elect researchers to various posts or positions of responsibilities. What our research shows is a very contrasted result: - the place of academic women remains deeply unbalanced in these councils at the places of governance in spite of the parity principles that were introduced by the law in 2013; - women want to be invested in the places of the decision-makers when they have the opportunity to do that. They do not shy from them as it has been suggested in previous research; - but when large numbers of them have the opportunity to secure these places, as in the National University Councils, they are relegated to administrative tasks rather than decisional and political ones.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Feminism, and Academia
Political Geography:
Europe, Paris, France, and Western Europe

7. PORTUGUESE WOMEN IN FRENCH PUBLIC SPHERE: FROM INVISIBILITY TO EMANCIPATION

Author:
Manuel Antunes de Cunha
Publication Date:
02-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
This paper aims to examine the representation and role of Portuguese women in French public space. If the media discourses today are still being dominated by the national and masculine figures, it is nonetheless true that the immigration context is often a space of gender roles reorganization. Between a dual legal discrimination in media sphere (being an immigrant and being a woman) and a process of individual emancipation in the spheres of work and family, migrant women outline a process of identity reconfiguration. Our case study focuses on the diachronic analysis of the image of Portuguese women in France (since 1960) from a corpus consisting of thirty samples from emissions of the main TV channels as well as formulated in the framework of the so-called ethnic humour speeches. This case study is limited to the emigration of economic nature, distinct from most graduate migration. Keywords: Diaspora, Portuguese women, television, France.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Mass Media, Diaspora, and Discrimination
Political Geography:
Europe, France, Portugal, and Western Europe

8. ON FEMINISMS IN CZECH POLITICAL CONTEXTS

Author:
Blanka Knotkova-Capkova
Publication Date:
02-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
This paper is suggesting a periodization of Czech emancipist women’s movement within historical, political and other contexts, from the perspective of feminist analysis. The first phase (roughly up to 1860s – 1870s) represents the beginings of of the movement. This period of the emancipist movement was much influenced by liberal thoughts, namely those of John Stuart Mill. The main emphasis was put on female education. During the seconf phase (up to the end of the First World War and establishing of independent Czechoslovakia), new political aims were articulated, especially the struggle for the female suffrage. In 1905, a “Committee for women’s suffrage” was founded. This phase can be characterized as a shift from more vague emancipism to feminism as a political program. The period between the First and Second World Wars is often called as a „Golden age of feminism in the Czech country“. By the constitution of the new state, education became equal for all the citizens, women got the right to vote and be elected. Czech feminist movement became a part of the world’s movement of the times. This development was cut by the war. The communist dictatorship (1948-1989) supressed any activities from below, feminist activities included. Women as obligatory “builders of socialism” remained loaded with the duties in the private sphere (family) and thus faced a double burden work. Their “emancipation” was rather doubtful. After 1989, a beginning of a transfer to democracy opened the scene for independent activities, the feminist ones included (NGOs). Some laws supporting equal opportunities were passed but some are waiting for acceptance. In the academy, gender studies emerged for the first time – a separate Master´s department was established at Charles University, Prague. Feminism has been developing as a plural system of thoughts, with the specifics of the Czech historical experiences.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Discrimination, Feminism, and Dictatorship
Political Geography:
Europe, Czech Republic, Central Europe, and Prague

9. APPROCHING FEMINISM FROM THE MARGINS: THE CASE OF ISLAMIC FEMINISMS

Author:
Laura Navarro
Publication Date:
02-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
This article tries to contribute to one of the most relevant debates within the framework of current Gender Studies and feminist activism: the debate dealing with feminism and religions. The aim is to provide these reflexions with some theoretical elements that help us to better understand some of the complex issues of this field, such as the meaning of considering secular feminism as the only acceptable feminist model, and the possibilities of building one feminist movement that takes into account all the diversity of women's needs, wishes and oppressions. The author goes in depth these questions through the analysis of the "Islamic feminism", which takes an element as the religion (historically discarded by the European hegemonic feminism) as its starting point. Firstly, the article puts it in context by analysing "new feminist currents from the margins" that, in the eighties, started to question the ethnocentric and classist visions of an hegemonic feminism that concentrated their struggles on the concerns and interests of western, white, secular and middle class women, leaving aside the specific claims of other women's profiles. Afterwards, the article goes deep into the characteristics shared by the different Islamic feminist movements, its areas of work as well as its main purposes. Finally, it highlights some of the most important Muslim feminist thinkers and activists emerged in recent decades in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Religion, Discrimination, and Feminism
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America

10. INTERSECTING LIVES IN POST-MIGRATION PERIOD: THE DYNAMICS OF RELATIONS BETWEEN “HOST” WOMEN FROM TURKEY AND “GUEST” WOMEN FROM SYRIA

Author:
Selin Altunkaynak
Publication Date:
10-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Alternative Politics
Institution:
Department of International Relations, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
Abstract:
Turkey undertakes an important role in responding to the Syrian humanitarian crisis by hosting the largest number of refugee population around the world through opening its borders to Syrian refugees subsequent to the conflict in Syria after 2011. Turkey has been managing the refugee phenomenon at the beginning with a discourse of 'guest'. The temporary protection regime for Syrian refugees in Turkey ratified in October 2014 on the one hand, and the discourse of 'guest' on the other, constitute significant basis to the sociological aspect of the matter at hand. By nature, the terms 'host' and 'guest' imply an element of temporariness. Against this backdrop, there is a pressing need to focus on the fact that over 2.5 million refugees settled in the urban areas will not be returning shortly to their country of origin even if the war is over now. This study, based on gendered perspective, aims to explore the factors determining the perception of the insider for the outsider and vice versa within the scope of Simmel's 'stranger' typology. Following Simmel's definition of the stranger, in this article I consider Syrian refugees as people who comes today and stays tomorrow. The methodology of this study is based on in-depth interviews with refugee women from Syria and native women in Turkey as well as focus group meetings in Hatay and Gaziantep provinces, conducted in the framework of my PhD thesis.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Migration, United Nations, and Refugees
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, Middle East, Asia, and Syria