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801. Economic Empowerment of Women in Iraq: The Way Forward

Author:
Yll Bajraktari
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
A UN/World Bank survey conducted after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime revealed that even though women represented about 55 percent of Iraq's population, they made up only 23 percent of the workforce. Although the international community and Iraqis have since devoted considerable attention to boosting the status of women in Iraq, most of these efforts have focused on the social and political empowerment of women. Full democratic consolidation in Iraq can only be achieved by guaranteeing, in addition, a leading economic role for women in Iraq.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Gender Issues
Political Geography:
Iraq and Middle East

802. Human security and peacebuilding through a gender lens. Challenges of implementation in Africa

Author:
Heidi Hudson
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
Empirical evidence shows that while both women's near absence at the formal level as peace negotiators and political decision-makers and their informal peacebuilding contributions at the grassroots level have been routinely recognised, it remains difficult to translate gender awareness into workable plans for implementation. The paper argues for a hybrid position between cultural relativism and 'one size fits all' solutions. Four areas of attention are highlighted, namely women's ambivalent roles in peace and conflict, the challenges of a truly inclusive post-conflict transformation process, the need for an organised women's movement, and connecting the international legislative framework with the national context.
Topic:
Security, Gender Issues, and Peace Studies
Political Geography:
Africa

803. On the Road to the EU: Monitoring Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in Serbia

Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
Currently Serbia is a diverse community with no social consensus on the majority of war crimes-related issues, as well as racism, homophobia, and gender equality. The conflict in values, ideologies, and goals is intense and persistent. At the same time, poverty, social exclusion, and violence are predominant characteristics, a way of life for marginalized groups, including women. One of the rare issues where consensus has emerged is a strong sense of affiliation and orientation towards the European Union (EU). To date, the EU has played an important if not crucial role in political and public rhetoric, although there remains an ostensible rift between the values it espouses and those that currently obtain in Serbia. Serbia’s parliament has enacted some important legislation vis-à-vis the state’s responsibility to protect political, social, and other human rights. Some gender-equality mechanisms have been introduced, but randomly funded. New institutions generally lack the requisite authority to stop and prevent discriminatory practices by those who violate other's rights or abuse their own power. This report is one of a seven-part series, "On the Road to the EU," prepared as part of the OSI Network Women’s Program's “Bringing the EU Home” Project. This three-year project aims to promote awareness, advocacy, and enforcement of equal opportunity legislation at the national level and to build the capacity of national actors in civil society to use EU-level gender equality mechanisms effectively. The project further aims to help increase the importance of equal opportunities on the European agenda. An assessment of the status of equal opportunities between women and men, de jure and de facto, was carried out in seven South Eastern European entities: Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The reports were prepared in cooperation with the International Gender Policy Network.
Topic:
Gender Issues, European Union, Women, Sexuality, Men, and Equality
Political Geography:
Serbia

804. On the Road to the EU: Monitoring Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently undergoing integration into the international legal order, in compliance with international and European requirements to establish a general nondiscriminatory framework and adopt gender-specific legislation and measures. This is a positive step toward possible implementation of equal opportunities for women and men, but its impact is extremely limited in everyday practices. Although the government has made significant efforts with regard to "gender mainstreaming," there is a wide gap between de jure and de facto treatment. Although most of the relevant laws have incorporated the principle of equal opportunities for women and men, in practice women usually cannot realize those opportunities in either the private or public sectors. A truly gender-sensitive policy and practice has almost completely failed to materialize in the fields of economy, employment, education, social security, health care, and women's participation in decision-making bodies in public and political life. This report is one of a seven-part series, "On the Road to the EU," prepared as part of the OSI Network Women’s Program's "Bringing the EU Home" Project. This three-year project aims to promote awareness, advocacy, and enforcement of equal opportunity legislation at the national level and to build the capacity of national actors in civil society to use EU-level gender equality mechanisms effectively. The project further aims to help increase the importance of equal opportunities on the European agenda. An assessment of the status of equal opportunities between women and men, de jure and de facto, was carried out in seven South Eastern European entities: Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The reports were prepared in cooperation with the International Gender Policy Network.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, Legislation, Sexuality, Men, and Equality
Political Geography:
Bosnia and Herzegovina

805. On the Road to the EU: Monitoring Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in Albania

Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
Albania is preparing for eventual EU membership and is in the midst of bringing its legal framework in compliance with the requirements of EU directives and guidelines. In regard to gender equality, Albanian legislation has generally met priorities established in the Stabilization and Association Process (SAP) with the European Union. However, as the following report details, implementation of these laws faces major hurdles. In recent years, significant progress has been made in developing national legislation to promote the protection of women’s rights as basic human rights, and foster equality between women and men in the economy and in public life. The Albanian government has endorsed this equality by enacting the appropriate legislation, giving women equal rights and obligations with men. However, the absence of political mechanisms to effectively enforce the new laws has actually increased gender inequality, which directly impairs the process of economic development, democratization, and political stability. Without effective enforcement, gender stereotypes and traditional mentalities preserve the structural inequalities between women and men and unequal power relations between them. This report is one of a seven-part series, "On the Road to the EU," prepared as part of the OSI Network Women’s Program's “Bringing the EU Home” Project. This three-year project aims to promote awareness, advocacy, and enforcement of equal opportunity legislation at the national level and to build the capacity of national actors in civil society to use EU-level gender equality mechanisms effectively. The project further aims to help increase the importance of equal opportunities on the European agenda. An assessment of the status of equal opportunities between women and men, de jure and de facto, was carried out in seven South Eastern European entities: Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The reports were prepared in cooperation with the International Gender Policy Network.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, Legislation, Sexuality, Men, and Equality
Political Geography:
Albania

806. On the Road to the EU: Monitoring Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in South Eastern Europe

Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
Women in South Eastern Europe have yet to attain full gender equality and are at severe disadvantage compared to their counterparts in the EU, according to On the Road to the EU: Monitoring Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in South Eastern Europe, a report sponsored by the Open Society Network Women's Program. Published as some of the countries in South Eastern Europe are set to join the EU or begin accession negotiations, the report provides a much-needed assessment of how the region is complying with EU standards on gender equality. Although many countries in South Eastern Europe have made progress over the past three years in bringing national laws on gender equality into line with the EU, much remains to be done. Among other findings, the report shows that more than half the women in the region are without jobs, with the highest rate of unemployment—70 percent—in Kosovo. In Croatia, which is expected to join the EU in 2010, the number of employed women has fallen by about 6.5 percent since 2000. The statistics on gender pay gaps are equally troubling. On average, women in South Eastern Europe make 25 percent less than men, with the difference rising to 80 percent in Kosovo. Other affronts to women’s rights in the workplace persist. In Macedonia, for example, the law does not prevent employers from discriminating against pregnant women and mothers. And throughout much of South Eastern Europe, women who return from maternity leave have no guarantee in resuming their previous position. Gender and age discrimination in advertisements remains widespread in Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Montenegro. In Albania, for example, most advertisements for private-sector secretarial, assistant, or sales positions list a preference for women under 25, while those for managerial positions ask for men to apply. A seven-part series, On the Road to the EU was prepared as part of the Open Society Network Women’s Program's “Bringing the EU Home” Project. This three-year project aims to promote awareness, advocacy, and enforcement of equal opportunity legislation at the national level and to build the capacity of national actors in civil society to use EU-level gender equality mechanisms effectively. The project further aims to help increase the importance of equal opportunities on the European agenda. An assessment of the status of equal opportunities between women and men, de jure and de facto, was carried out in seven South Eastern European entities: Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The reports were prepared in cooperation with the International Gender Policy Network.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, Legislation, Sexuality, Men, and Equality
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Southern Europe

807. Research Cultures in Local and Global Contexts: The Case of Middle East Gender Studies

Author:
Zeinab Abul-Magd and Aurelie Evangeline Perrier
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)
Abstract:
Through a critical dialogue, this workshop aimed to trace the various changes, shifts in intellectual paradigms, and transformations in both global and local contexts that have affected the growing field of Middle East Gender and Women's studies in the US and the Middle East. It sought to understand how the particularity of a researcher's milieu-made up of sociological, intellectual, political and cultural components interacting with one another to form what we term “a research culture”- have informed the approaches, agendas, and conclusions of scholars on gender-related issues. In particular the workshop explored the differences between and challenges to Middle East gender research in the US academy and in the academies of the Middle East.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Islam, and Culture
Political Geography:
United States, Middle East, and Arabia

808. The Miniskirt and the Veil: Aid and Islam in Bulgaria

Author:
Dana Steinberg (ed)
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
In 1989, while traveling through Spain, Kristen Ghodsee stared in disbelief at the television in the bus station in Barcelona as images appeared of the Berlin Wall crumbling. A year later, she backpacked through Eastern Europe to witness the unprecedented changes in the region. But these countries that held such promise soon suffered economic collapse, and Ghodsee wondered what went wrong.
Topic:
Economics, Gender Issues, Islam, and Religion
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Bulgaria

809. Ethics and International Debt: A View from Feminist Economics

Author:
Julie A. Nelson
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
Abstract:
Feminist scholars examine not only the gendered impacts of development programs whose design has been influenced by disciplines such as economics, but also the gendered biases that permeate the models and methods of the disciplines themselves. This essay draws on aspects of feminist critiques of economics, philosophy, psychology, law, and finance to analyze the way in which international debt is discussed. Feminist critiques raise serious questions about the rational choice framework that often undergirds scholarly discussions of “agents,” “contract,” “ethics,” and “capital and debt.”
Topic:
Economics, Gender Issues, and International Trade and Finance

810. Comprehensive Services for Survivors of Human Trafficking: Findings from Clients in Three Communities

Author:
Laudan Y. Aron, Janine M. Zweig, and Lisa C. Newmark
Publication Date:
06-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
Humans are trafficked across international borders for the purposes of labor exploitation (e.g., domestic servitude, sweatshops) or sexual exploitation (e.g., forced prostitution) and the victims are subjected to coercion, fraud, abuse, or some other form of deception on the part of the traffickers. The Department of State (2004, 2006) estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 people—adults and children—are trafficked across international borders around the world annually. About 90 percent of these victims are females and over half of all those trafficked each year are believed to be trafficked for sexual exploitation. Among those trafficked, about 14,500 to 17,500 are trafficked into the United States each year. Recent data show that victims are often trafficked by perpetrators of the same nationality (Free the Slaves and Human Rights Center 2004).
Topic:
Crime, Gender Issues, Human Rights, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
United States