Gender Equality

The Legacy of Original Intentions: The Non Violence of Wonder Woman by Nick Pumphrey

by Feminism and Religion

Originally posted on the Feminism and Religion project

What would a superhero comic be without Pow, wham!, Zap, and even a Boom! (insert your own campy sound bites from... more What would a superhero comic be without Pow, wham!, Zap, and even a Boom! (insert your own campy sound bites from Batman).  Oddly enough, when psychologist William Marston created the character of Wonder Woman, he did not intend for her to be a violent character.  When villains shot their mere bullets, she simply would deflect them with her indestructible bracelets.  Instead of stooping to the level of her attackers, she would wield the lasso of truth, capture her foes, and force them to admit their malevolent deeds.  Meanwhile, creator William Marston was actually developing the first polygraph using changes in blood pressure as exemplified in Wonder Woman’s lasso.  Wonder Woman was not the first female superhero; however, she was the first non-violent one.  While other writers like Siegel and Shuster (Superman’s creators) were using their religion as inspiration, Marston drew on the women of his life as example.  He intended to have a peaceful, warrior woman, who was more than equal on grounds of “sex,” and could stop the tyranny created by war and hatred (i.e. men) without having to embrace it.  He wanted an example for young girls to idolize and a way for boys to embrace feminine power. 

Beyond “Liberal” Female Piety or “Women Read the Qur’an Too” by Amy Levin

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

I’m a teacher’s assistant for an undergraduate course at New York University called, “What is Islam?” The other day in... more I’m a teacher’s assistant for an undergraduate course at New York University called, “What is Islam?” The other day in class, my professor asked the students whether or not the Qur’an is considered a “book”. Fraught with anxiety over inheriting such a problematic scholarly tradition of defining and delineating what “religion” is, I kept quiet. While my professor was aiming more for something sounding like, “a book is read, while the Qur’an is recited,” I kept thinking about the physicality and sacrality of the Qur’an (among other authoritative religious texts) and the way it is handled, revered, preserved, loved, an constantly under interpretation. It was about a week later when news broke out that U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan were guilty of burning several copies of the Qur’an on their military base, followed by an unfortunate slew of casualties including at least 30 Afghan deaths and five US soldiers.

Gender equality in local government: The role of New Public Management reforms.

by julie connelly

Presented at the ECPR Postgraduate Conference held in Dublin City University, on 31st August 2010

This paper discusses the impact of New Public Management (NPM) type reforms of the local government sector in Ireland... more This paper discusses the impact of New Public Management (NPM) type reforms of the local government sector in Ireland on gender equality, using Cork City Council as a case study. New Public Management (NPM) is the body of theory that advocates reforming the public sector by making it more similar to the private sector. In the past ten to fifteen years, all levels of government, including local government have undergone a process of reform. In Ireland, at local government level, Better Local Government: A Programme for Change (BLG) identified the changes that needed to be made. The reforms brought about because of this process strived for greater efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of services for what were now termed the public sector‟s „customers‟. From an equality perspective, BLG (Chapter 6 – Human Resources) also noted the lack of females in positions of higher management and in the engineering grades. It was a stated aim of BLG to improve gender equality within local government. To begin with, this paper will look at the rationale behind public sector reform and the characteristics of reforms that have taken place in the Irish public sector. Secondly, this paper will describe the case study in more detail. Then this paper will go on to present the research findings. Finally, the paper reflects on how the theory discussed earlier relates to the research findings.

Gender and Teaching in Higher Education by Margaret Miles

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

First thing to say is that your experience in teaching will be different than mine. Then was then (1978); now is... more First thing to say is that your experience in teaching will be different than mine. Then was then (1978); now is now.

My first position (GTU doctorate in history; assistant professor, tenure track) was at the Harvard University Divinity School. My starting pay was 15k and I felt rich because I’d been a grad student! The first thing I needed to know – and didn’t – was that everyone at HDS, students and faculty alike was sure that he/she, but especially she, was an imposter, the one that the search committee or admissions committee had made a mistake in inviting them. I became the first tenured woman at HDS in 1985. At the end of the 80s, still the only tenured woman, with a lot of help from my friends, I initiated a doctoral concentration in Religion, Gender, and Culture.

Big men large and small: toward a comparative perspective

by Rena Lederman

"Social Change?! The Status of Women’s Film Festivals Today."

by Skadi Loist

Keynote at "Women's Film Festivals in Dialog". International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Köln, 17.–22. Apr. 2012, Cologne, 20th April 2012

Career break, not career broken

by Sara Shinton

No Tolerance to Intolerance! We are different but we are all equal!

by Tornike Metreveli

Yesterday in Tbilisi  a peaceful protest for LGBT rights to mark the International Day Against Homophobia ended... more Yesterday in Tbilisi  a peaceful protest for LGBT rights to mark the International Day Against Homophobia ended in a physical scuffle when religious groups violently disrupted the gathering. In this letter, I try to search for reasons for intolerance and explain the calamity of certain actors by structural factors.

Toward a Political Sociology of Conjugal-Recognition Regimes: Gendered Multiculturalism in South African Marriage Law

by Michael Yarbrough

While conjugal-recognition policies are often a subject of political debate, scholarly attempts to explain such... more While conjugal-recognition policies are often a subject of political debate, scholarly attempts to explain such policies are relatively rare and typically focused on discrete policies—same-sex marriage, no-fault divorce, etc.—with comparatively little investigation of potential connections among policies. This article begins to develop a more holistic approach focused on explaining and understanding what I call conjugal-recognition regimes. Adapting the concept from the existing literature on welfare regimes, I argue that conjugal-recognition regimes exist when an identifiable pattern or principle organizes an institution’s conjugal-recognition policy and thereby shapes social relations at multiple levels, from the individuals in conjugal relationships to the multiple institutions (state, religious, and so on) that confer official conjugal recognition. I argue that these organizing patterns or principles emerge out of historically specific, institutionally situated, and discursively constructed political debates on specific conjugal issues and go on to shape subsequent conjugal-policy controversies. I demonstrate these ideas through an extended analysis of post-apartheid South African marriage law, which has recently incorporated numerous previously excluded conjugal formations but has also assigned each new form to its own statutory and administrative structure or, as I call it, “silo.” I argue that these silos entrench a principle of “gendered multiculturalism” that officially defines cultures in terms of their supposedly characteristic gender relations. This principle increasingly tends to favor religious and cultural elites’ understandings of their respective traditions.

Zasebno je politično: asimetrična delitev gospodinjskega in skrbstvenega dela ter profesionalno življenje žensk in moških v politiki/The Private Is Political: The Asymmetrical Division of Household and Care Work and the Professional Life of Women and Men in Politics

by Iztok Šori

Co-authored with Aleksandra Kanjuo Mrčela and Jasna Podreka

Teorija in praksa, let. XLIX, št. 2 (2012)

Povzetek: Analiza političnega v Sloveniji izhaja iz predpostavke, da specifične vsakdanje prakse v politiki temeljijo... more Povzetek: Analiza političnega v Sloveniji izhaja iz predpostavke, da specifične vsakdanje prakse v politiki temeljijo na tradicionalni definiciji vlog v javnem in zasebnem življenju, jih utrjujejo in s tem ovirajo enakopravno sodelovanje žensk in moških v tej sferi javnega življenja. Z analizo intervjujev s političarkami in politiki, ki delujejo na državni ravni, avtorici in avtor ugotavljajo, da na ravni pričakovanj in dejanskih praks obstaja in deluje spolna pogodba, ki se kaže v asimetrični obremenjenosti politikov in političark z obveznostmi v zasebnem življenju. Politika v Sloveniji je izrazito maskulinizirana profesija, v katero se ženske in moški vključujejo tako, da se prilagajajo obstoječi strukturi, ki se ne spreminja v korist boljšega usklajevanja zasebne in profesionalne sfere ter skladno s tem večjega upoštevanja zasebnih življenj pripadnikov in pripadnic profesije.

Ključni pojmi: spol, politično, usklajevanje poklicnega in zasebnega življenja, gospodinjsko delo, skrbstveno delo, družina.


Abstract: We assume that specific everyday practices in the field of politics in Slovenia are based on the traditionally defined gender roles of men and women in private and public life, that they reinforce these roles, as well as hinder the equal participation of men and women in politics. The analysis of interviews with male and female politicians active at the national level shows the existence of a gender contract that operates at the level of expectations as well as actual practices and which results in an asymmetrical load of private life responsibilities of men and women in politics. The political profession in Slovenia is highly masculinised. Female and male politicians adapt to the existing structure which does not consider the benefits of the coordination of their private and professional lives.

Key words: gender, political, reconciliation of professional and private life, household work, care work, family.

The diffusion of diversity management: The case of France

by Alain Klarsfeld

Post review, post acceptance, pre-publication version at copy-edition stage. Please quote as follows :
Klarsfeld, A., (2009). The diffusion of Diversity Management : the case of France, Scandinavian Journal of Management, Volume 25, Issue 4, December, Pages 363–373

Diversity, a ‘voluntary’ concern as seen through the Anglo-Saxon lens, and discrimination, a ‘legal’ mandated concern... more Diversity, a ‘voluntary’ concern as seen through the Anglo-Saxon lens, and discrimination, a ‘legal’ mandated concern as seen through the same lens, have simultaneously been gaining popularity in France since 2003. In this respect, this country is undergoing a regulation process with various constituencies promoting new sets of rules to make French society more inclusive. Through three different explanatory lenses, I examine how published discourse regarding adoption of diversity practices is converted into action. These lenses, the Anglo-American business case, which insists on the economic rationality of such adoption, and neo-institutional theory, which views diversity management as a result of isomorphic change processes, is joined by French social regulation theory, which posits diversity management as part of a process of designing new rules. My data shows that mandated practices have higher adoption rates than voluntary practices, but there are important variations in terms of rates of adoption, within both voluntary and mandatory processes. Besides the perceived threats from not complying, French managers take into account levels of flexibility as well as implementation cost. In this sense, French organizational constituents mediate the various initiatives suggested to them by their environment and exert a form of autonomous regulation. Laws focus attention and trigger action, rather than constraining it.

Gender Balance in Social Security Reform China

by Eileen Drew

This paper compares current gender balance and social security arrangements in the EU and China and sets out  the... more This paper compares current gender balance and social security arrangements in the EU and China and sets out  the areas where EU experience can be applied to the Chinese context.
It highlights the gender gaps in social security cover under the headings: healthcare, old age pensions, unemployment and worker injury insurance.
Noting the key gender balance indicators used to assess progress in the field of gender balance for Social Security, both internal and external to the EUCSS, it makes the case for gender mainstreaming of social security provision in China.

Delivering better government: The challenge of gender equality

by Eileen Drew

E'QUALITY: CONTRIBUTING TO BUSINESS EXCELLENCE

by Eileen Drew

EU Enlargement Policies and Gender Equality: Backlashes and Advances, with a Focus on the Case of Bulgaria in the Period of Transition to Democracy

by Ioanna Mincheva

This paper shall be divided in four separate parts. It will particularly focus on the enlargement of the EU and some... more This paper shall be divided in four separate parts. It will particularly focus on the enlargement of the EU and some influences brought by the new ex-socialist members from Central and Eastern Europe. The case of Bulgaria will be explored as an example of a „duality of social realities” and women’s coming to terms with socialist and post-socialist definitions of women’s rights, and whether the Communist ideology’s gender equality is something to be drawn upon and preserved. The legal framework will also inevitably be touched upon, with a mention of the concept of gender equality and whether it is present in this sense in the ECHR and other important documents.

Commentary: Imedi TV’s “Hope” for Cheap Ratings

by Tornike Metreveli

Un análisis del efecto de la Ley de igualdad en la representación electoral, parlamentaria y en el comportamiento electoral de las mujeres en las elecciones generales de 2008

by Álvaro Martínez Pérez

Co-authored with Kerman Calvo
Piblished in Estudios de Progreso series, Fundación Alternativas, 2010

The distribution of wages in Belarus

by Francesco Pastore

Co-authored with Alina Verashchagina.
Revised version published in: Comparative Economic Studies, 2006, 48 (3), 351-376.

This paper uncovers evidence on the distribution of wages in Belarus in the second half of the 1990s. The returns to... more This paper uncovers evidence on the distribution of wages in Belarus in the second half of the 1990s. The returns to education and work experience are high and stable. While the former is a typical finding of transition studies, the latter is not.
This might be due to the pervasive role of the state in fixing wages in the dominant budget sector, rather than to market forces coming into play. Women experience a small, though largely unexplained wage gap coupled with higher than average
returns to education. A wage curve effect is found, which is similar in size to that of other transition countries, but much higher than in market economies.

Welfare state as an idea of gender equality. Comparative analysis Sweden vs. Poland

by Karolina Króliczek

The paper was supervised by Steven Saxonberg (Masaryk University) and produced under the course Swedish Public Policy on Masaryk University (Brno), Faculty of Social Science

What Hobbes and Locke Didn't Say about Women: Examining the implications of their philosophical discussions of equality

by Stacey Goguen

A version of this paper was presented on May 12, 2011 at Boston's WOGAP

Abstract:

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke presumably put a lot of thought into their lengthy works on... more Abstract:

Thomas Hobbes and John Locke presumably put a lot of thought into their lengthy works on political philosophy.  It is striking, then, that much of what they say about women and equality is not fully thought out or even always consistent. In this essay I will (I) introduce why it is somewhat peculiar that these two figures did not say more about women and equality in their respective works.

I will then in turn look at (II) Hobbes and (III) Locke in turn, examining what conceptual resources they had at their disposal and pointing out how they failed to fully use these resources to offer further arguments for the positions they presumably supported.  I conclude (IV) that seeing how these two figures mis-stepped in arguing for the equality they explicitly endorsed is important for the larger philosophical projects of examining how forms of social oppression and inequality are manifested in a culture.  Over the decades, studies of kyriarchy  and -isms (racism, sexism, classism, ableism, etc.) have brought to light that implicit bias and structures are as important--if not even more important in some facets--as conscious bigotry for supporting these social hierarchies.  It is important then, that as we assess a political philosopher s' stance towards social equality we look not only at what they explicitly claim to support, but what they end up supporting and arguing for in depth.