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42. Women's Poverty and Social Exclusion in the European Union at a Time of Recession: An Invisible Crisis?
- Publication Date:
- 03-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- In October 2009, Oxfam and the European Women's Lobby (EWL) commissioned research to explore and analyse the hidden impact of the current economic recession on women's poverty in EU countries. The research was conducted with EWL member organisations, and supplemented with other research and information available at the end of 2009.
- Topic:
- Economics, Gender Issues, Poverty, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- Europe
43. General patterns of women's representation at the European Parliament: did something change after 2004?
- Author:
- Willy Beauvallet and Sébastien Michon
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Political Sociology
- Abstract:
- The purpose of this paper is to analyze social and political features of women among members of European Parliament during its Sixth legislature. Beyond statistics aggregation, we will try to adopt a comparative perspective which includes three dimensions. The first one is historical. How can we understand evolutions in the composition of this sample? The second is cross-cutting and focuses on differences between women and men and evolutions of those diverging patterns. The third dimension attempts to analyze structural oppositions between national delegations on the path to feminization. Together, these interrogations will allow us to discuss general patterns of women's presence at the European Parliament after the 2004 and 2007 Eastern enlargements. The paper is based upon quantitative and qualitative data collected within the framework of a long-term sociological study of MEPs conducted at the University of Strasbourg.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Gender Issues, Political Economy, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Europe
44. Sociology of a new field of knowledge: gender studies in postcommunist Eastern Europe
- Author:
- Ioana Cîrstocea
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Political Sociology
- Abstract:
- A new research field named “gender studies” or “feminist studies” has emerged during the 1990s in East-European and post-Soviet countries. The scientific productions in that field often function as experts' studies and aim at contributing to improve women's condition. Established by agents who simultaneously act in several social spaces (scientific, associative or political), feminist studies are at the crossroads of academic and activist, national and international dynamics. Therefore, we consider them as a new discipline at the core of the social and political programmes of recomposition after the collapse of communist regimes, and as an indicator for the rebuilding of social sciences, the emergence of new academic topics, the international circulation and importation of scientific concerns, the reconstruction of intellectual elites in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CCEE). The paper offers some guidelines for a sociology of this new field of knowledge production.
- Topic:
- Cold War, Communism, Democratization, Gender Issues, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Europe
45. Getting Women into Local Strategic Partnerships: Knowing your community, improving public services
- Author:
- Sue Smith, Antonia Bance, and Louie Fooks
- Publication Date:
- 12-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- This paper, based on two pilot projects conducted by Oxfam with LSPs in Sunderland and Thurrock in 2008-9, looks at how local authorities can increase the representation and participation of women in LSPs, and how needs differ by gender. The evidence from the pilot projects clearly shows that LSPs can, and must, take concrete steps to involve women more effectively in local decision-making – and take their particular needs into consideration in setting targets for services such as transport, unemployment, and housing – in or der to improve their economic and social well-being and tackle the poverty and social exclusion they face. The paper makes a series of recommendations to those involved in LSPs as to how to do this, and gives examples of good practice.
- Topic:
- Economics and Gender Issues
- Political Geography:
- Europe
46. Women in the European Parliament: effects of the voting system, strategies and political resources. The case of the French delegation.
- Author:
- Willy Beauvallet and Sébastien Michon
- Publication Date:
- 10-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Political Sociology
- Abstract:
- This article aims to provide elements to explain the feminisation of French MEPs. While the voting system should be taken into account, its effects can only be understood in relation with two elements: on the one hand, the position of the European Parliament in the French political field; on the other, the specific configuration of social and political struggles of the public space in 1990s France. Within this framework, gender constitutes a political resource that is more valuable in the European Parliament than in the national parliament; as a result, women who are less politically professionalised are promoted. They turn towards forms of parliamentary “goodwill” and strategies of over-involvement in European political roles. The relative specificity of the postures they adopt within the institution does not have to do with a hypothetical “feminine nature”, but with a set of sociopolitical processes.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Gender Issues, Political Economy, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Europe and France
47. Gender Equality Politics in the Changing European Union: The European Union Anti-Discrimination Directive and Sexual Harassment
- Author:
- Kathrin S. Zippel
- Publication Date:
- 05-2006
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The European integration process has provided both challenges and opportunities to domestic women's movements. One such ambivalent success is the European Union anti-discrimination directive of 2002 that is the outcome of the lobbying efforts of an emerging European transnational advocacy network on gender. The 2002 Directive prohibits sex discrimination, including sexual and gender harassment. It calls on member states to better protect the rights of victims of sexual harassment and to ensure the integrity, dignity, and equality of women and men at work. This paper examines the 2002 Directive and its potential to effect significant changes in EU member states, in particular, to improve victims' rights in member states laws. It addresses the main question: “Is the EU Directive an opportunity to progress in the direction of protecting victims' rights?” The argument advanced here is that the 2002 Directive is the outcome of a political compromise among the member states, on which feminist discourses did have some bearing. On the one hand, the 2002 Directive can be interpreted as a success of feminist activism around sexual harassment, in particular, in the very definition, linking the problem to sex discrimination. On the other hand, it has limitations and does not go as far as feminists had hoped; for example, the EU has left it up to member states to deal with the most difficult aspects of the problem, prevention, implementation, and enforcement of the laws.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Human Rights, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Europe
48. Local Government Gender Mechanisms in the GPKT Micro-region
- Author:
- Kristina Hadzi-Vasileva
- Publication Date:
- 07-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- EastWest Institute
- Abstract:
- The areas constituting the GPKT micro-region (fYR Macedonia,1 Serbia and Kosovo) belong to some of the least developed countries in Europe. Transition to market economies has been delayed because of armed conflicts, exclusion from the international community during periods of conflict, as well as the slow process of privatization (in the case of fYR Macedonia and Serbia). Despite the fact they once used to be a part of a single country, the current connection between these areas is unfortunately their characterization of political instability and weak institutions, problems compounded by the common struggle to transform their respective economies.
- Topic:
- Economics, Gender Issues, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Kosovo, Serbia, and Macedonia
49. All for All: Equality and Social Trust
- Author:
- Bo Rothstein and Eric M. Uslaner
- Publication Date:
- 12-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The importance of social trust has become widely accepted in the social sciences. A number of explanations have been put forward for the stark variation in social trust among countries. Among these, participation in voluntary associations received most attention. Yet, there is scant evidence that participation can lead to trust. In this paper, we shall examine a variable that has not gotten the attention we think it deserves in the discussion about the sources of generalized trust, namely equality. We conceptualize equality in two dimensions: one is economic equality and the other is equality of opportunity. The omission of both these dimensions of equality in the social capital literature is peculiar for several reasons. One is that it is obvious that the countries that score highest on social trust also rank highest on economic equality, namely the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, and Canada. Secondly, these are countries that have put a lot of effort in creating equality of opportunity, not least in regard to their policies for public education, labor market opportunities and (more recently) gender equality. The argument for increasing social trust by reducing inequality has largely been ignored in the policy debates about social trust. Social capital research has to a large extent been used by several governments and policy organizations to send a message to people that the bad things in their society are caused by too little volunteering. The policy implication that follows from our research is that the low levels of trust and social capital that plague many countries are caused by too little government action to reduce inequality. However, many countries plagued by low levels of social trust and social capital may be stuck in what is known as a social trap. The logic of such a situation is the following. Social trust will not increase because massive social inequality prevails, but the public policies that could remedy this situation cannot be established precisely because there is a genuine lack of trust. This lack of trust concerns both “other people” and the government institutions that are needed to implement universal policies.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Economics, and Gender Issues
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Canada, and Netherlands
50. La Interminable Posguerra: La Escritura De Enriqueta Antolin En Los Años Noventa
- Author:
- Alicia Goicoechea Redondo
- Publication Date:
- 03-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper seeks to explain why the Civil War and the post-war period are dominant themes in the Spanish novels published in the 90s. Those of Enriqueta Antolin are not unique, for the theme of the post-war appears regularly in the works of both men and women authors. The paper draws on historians and analyzes a short story and four novels of Antolin to reveal her literary art and find an historical explanation for the persistent obsession with this theme.
- Topic:
- Demographics and Gender Issues
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Spain