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881. Women's Advocacy and the Building of Civil Society in Serbia

Author:
Lilijana Cickaric
Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, City University of New York
Abstract:
This study provides an illuminating analysis of the role of women's organizations in rapidly developing non-profit sector in Serbia. It presents up-to-date information on the shifting political and socioeconomic context within they operate, the main areas of activity and representative sample of women's organizations and initiatives. The research is designed on feminist principle of subjectivity, where the researcher is also an activist with the purpose of making women's history socially visible and recognized. The aim is also to stress essential role of women advocacy in wider network of non-governmental organisations oriented towards the building of civil society.
Topic:
Civil Society, Gender Issues, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Europe and Serbia

882. The Role of Muslim Women's Organizations in Family Planning Advocacy in Medan

Author:
Hj. Chalidjah Hasan
Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, City University of New York
Abstract:
This article deals with the role of Muslim women organizations in Medan in the KB (Family Planning) Advocacy. The sources of the article came from the field study with an observation method, in-depth interview and secondary data. The observation was carried out to look directly at activities concerning the KB Advocacy conducted by Muslim women organizations. Meanwhile the depth interview was conducted with the heads of Muslim women organizations and KB clinic staffs, namely doctors and nurses. The secondary data were used to compare the advocacy programs with the written sources, which were relevant with the studied topic. The samples of the study came from the big three Muslim women organizations in Medan, namely `Aisyiah, Muslimat Nahdlatul Ulama, and Muslimat Al- Washliyah.
Topic:
Development, Gender Issues, and Religion
Political Geography:
Asia

883. Violence Against Women Construction Workers in Kerala, India

Author:
S.K. Hari Priya
Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, City University of New York
Abstract:
Woman constitute nearly half of the population of India (48.1 percent which makes 403.4 million women in absolute numbers as per 1991 census). Out of this female population, 74.7 percent are in rural areas and it is abundantly clear that there can be no development unless their needs and interests are fully taken into account. The provision of the constitution of India granting equality to women in various spheres creates the legal framework within which the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of India functions for women's development. Women as a motherhood of the nation, should be strong aware and alert. India is the signatory to the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against woman (CEDAW). India ratified the convention in June 1993. The Department of Woman and Child Development was set up in the year 1985 to give the much needed impetus to the holistic development of women and children in India. The major policy initiatives undertaken be the Department in recent past include, the establishment of the National Commission for Women (NCW), Rasthriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) adoption of National Nutritional Policy, (NNP) Strengthening of Integrated Child Development Schemes (ICDS) setting up National Creche Fund (NCF), launching of Indira Mahila Yojana (IMY), Balika Samridhi Yojaja (BSY) and Rural Women's Development and Empowerment Project etc. There are also few other departments in various ministries considering women's empowerment and gender equality etc. in some of their programmes.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Human Rights, and Poverty
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, and Kerala

884. Unveiling Human Rights: A Postcolonial Feminist Analysis of Women, Veiling, Human Rights and Western Geopolitical Discourse

Author:
Jessica L. Urban
Publication Date:
02-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Studies Association
Abstract:
The contributions of feminist scholarship to International Relations have exposed gender bias in the field and have provided inroads toward the internationalization of women's human rights. Nevertheless, non-Western women's bodies continue as an important site for the construction of Western geopolitical discourse. Western discourse on Islam represents Muslim societies as inherently violent and backwards with Muslim men as irrational victimizers of passive Muslim women. The veil epitomizes this oppression. Subsequently, this discourse justifies Western intervention into Muslim countries.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Human Rights, and Islam

885. Defining Limits on Religious Expression in Public Institutions: The Turkish Crisis Over Headscarves

Author:
George E. Gruen
Publication Date:
02-1999
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Abstract:
On June 10, 1998, Turkish police and Islamist students scuffled at Istanbul University after authorities refused to allow eleven women wearing Muslim headscarves to take final exams. The students attempted to force their way into the examination hall past police who were helping college authorities enforce a long-standing ban on Islamist attire in places of education, government ministries, and other public institutions. Istanbul University, like nearly all educational institutions in Turkey, receives public funding. Similar scuffles had occurred the previous day when police forcibly removed headscarves from some girls' heads, the pro-Islamist newspaper Zaman said. The paper printed photographs of what it said were female students who fainted in distress after their headscarves had been torn off.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Government, Human Rights, Islam, and Religion
Political Geography:
Turkey and Middle East

886. CSD Bulletin, A Delicate Balance

Author:
Chantal Mouffe, Abdelwahab El-Affendi, Bert A. Rockman, Doreen Massey, Tony McGrew, Kimberly Hutchings, and Niels Jacob Harbitz
Publication Date:
09-1998
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster
Abstract:
Ideological disputes about the respective domains of the state and the market have convulsed much of the twentieth century. Yet recent research and experience suggest that the interaction between politics and economics, between the state and the market, is complex and systemic. An understanding of these systemic properties is crucial for effective democratic reconstruction. This is especially so in countries with a legacy of communism - such as the transition states of the former Soviet Union and East-Central Europe - where not only the market but the state, and indeed society, may have to be reconstructed, if not reinvented.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Globalization, and Government
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Central Europe

887. CSD Bulletin, The Media and Democracy

Author:
Chantal Mouffe, Abdelwahab El-Affendi, Bert A. Rockman, Doreen Massey, Tony McGrew, Kimberly Hutchings, and Niels Jacob Harbitz
Publication Date:
09-1998
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster
Abstract:
Does the power of the media threaten democracy (understood as the participation of the people in political debate and decision- making)? In answering this question we need to distinguish between three kinds of power: political, economic, and intellectual.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Globalization, and Government
Political Geography:
United Kingdom

888. Women Coping with Crisis: Social Consequences of Export-Led Industrialization in the Dominican Republic

Author:
Helen I. Safa
Publication Date:
04-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The North-South Center, University of Miami
Abstract:
What are the social consequences of export-led industrialization, and are they a deterrent to sustainable development? This paper explores these questions by examining the link between export-led industrialization, the feminization of labor, and the growth of female-headed households in the Dominican Republic in a community that has undergone a marked shift in economic base from sugar production, employing mostly men, to export manufacturing, employing mostly women. Employment in export manufacturing gives women greater economic autonomy and greater leverage in the household, which, combined with deterioration in male employment, raises women's resistance to marriage and weakens the role of the male breadwinner. While female-headed households have increased in number, the economic and emotional support provided by consanguineal kin, often living in extended families, has enabled these households to function quite adequately. Under these circumstances, the female-headed household should not be seen as a deterrent to sustainability.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Gender Issues
Political Geography:
Caribbean

889. Liberals, Radicals, and Women's Citizenship in Chile, 1872-1930

Author:
Erika Maza Valenzuela
Publication Date:
11-1997
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
This paper analyzes women's organizations in the anticlerical-and middle- to upper-class-segment of Chilean society from the late nineteenth century to 1930. It focuses on their leaders' positions regarding women's rights, especially the suffrage. The feminist organizations within the anticlerical segment developed later than the Catholic ones and they had less contact with women in the popular sectors. These organizations had varying degrees of anticlericalism. Some of their members were free thinkers, a few were Protestant, and many of them were Catholics who were critical of the clergy's influence in society and politics. This paper shows that, during the period studied here, the anticlerical leaders, both men and women, were opposed to granting women full suffrage rights. They argued that, before voting, women should be given their civil rights and access to secular education under state auspices. However, even after the Civil Code had been partially modified and the number of women with secular secondary education had become roughly equal to that of men in the mid 1920s, anticlerical leaders still only supported the vote for women in municipal elections. By enfranchising women only for local elections, anticlerical leaders-Liberals and Radicals-sought to 'educate' women politically while preventing them from tipping the balance of forces benefiting the Conservative Party in legislative and presidential elections. Catholic-Conservatives had been more inclusive of women in education, social life, and politics since the mid-nineteenth century, and for this reason they had a greater capacity to appeal for women's votes.
Topic:
Gender Issues and Government
Political Geography:
Latin America