global.gender.current on vacation for the summer

Transitions with GGP

The Global Gender Program is entering a new phase starting in the fall. Professor Barbara Miller, founding director of the GGP, is stepping down as of June 2016.

Along with Professor Shaista Khilji, Barbara will remain director of the U.S. State Department-funded partnership established in 2014 between the Global Gender Program and the Gender and Development Studies Department of Lahore College Women University (LCWU) in Pakistan.

All GGP communications, including the weekly Monday e-newsletter, the global.gender.current blog, Facebook, and Twitter, will be on vacation through the summer.

If you have questions for the GGP, please email ggp@gwu.edu for further information.

Women’s Empowerment Pakistan
Summer Conference

Please, mark your calendars for the annual summer half-day Women’s Empowerment Pakistan conference: August 2, 9am – 2pm. The theme is Faith-Based Organizations and Women’s Empowerment. The conference will be held at 1957 E Street NW, 6^th floor Commons, GW, Washington, DC.

Please click here to RSVP.

We hope you have a great summer!

Article of Note

The Arab Spring for Women? Representations of Women in Middle East Politics in 2011

by Laura Sjoberga & Jonathon Whooley

This article explores the complex, liminal, and difficult space in which stories of women in “the Arab Spring” were wielded as parts of political narratives of gender, race, class, religion, democracy, and Westernization in Western media as the Arab Spring unfolded. It examines those stories by using the tools of postcolonial feminism. After briefly describing what is meant by (gender and) the Arab Spring, the article outlines a method for evaluating the significations of the media narratives surrounding it. We find two dissonant narratives (of gender as emancipatory and of gender as problematic) and ask what assumptions about gender (and sex and race and culture) have to be made to produce these particular representations. We argue that the dissonant narratives have in common using the situation of women as a barometer for the success of Westernization, liberalization, and democratization. The article concludes by exploring the implications of these findings.

Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, Volume 36, Issue 3, 2015

Org Spotlight 6/20/16: Sonke Gender Justice Network

The Sonke Gender Justice Network of South Africa works to promote gender equality, prevent gender-based violence, and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS on the African continent and internationally. The NGO utilizes a human rights framework and works with a range of partners including individuals, women’s rights organizations, government departments, trade unions, social movements, and faith organizations. Sonke Gender Justice Network views gender equality as central to the development of just and democratic societies. The NGO works to build the capacity of government, civil society, and citizens, and to hold those in power accountable.

The Sonke Gender Justice Network was founded in 2006 and is based in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Bushbuckridge, South Africa. The NGO works in all nine provinces of South Africa and in nearly 20 countries in Africa. The organization’s presence on the continent is expanding, and Sonke partners with a variety of international bodies including the United Nations.

Sonke’s utilizes a “spectrum of change” model that draws on a broad range of strategies to achieve change, including:

• Community education and mobilisation
• Policy development and advocacy
• Networking and coalition work on a national and international level
• Partnering with government to promote policy development and implementation
• Capacity building and training with partner organizations
• Individual skills building
• Research, monitoring and evaluation

Sonke’s works within three broad issue areas: children’s rights and positive parenting; sexual and reproductive health and rights; and the social and structural drivers of violence.

Article of Note

Making war safe for women? National Action Plans and the militarisation of the women, peace and security agenda

by Laura J Shepherd

Cora Weiss, co-drafter of what became UN Security Council Resolution 1325, noted in 2011 that the purpose of eliminating conflict-related sexualised violence must not be to ‘make war safe for women’. UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and subsequent resolutions should not legitimise or normalise war, but rather the agenda should support the demilitarisation of society and facilitate the development of anti-militarist politics of peace. This article explores the translation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 into National Action Plans in a number of countries actively involved in contemporary conflict to investigate how these National Action Plans produce particular gendered logics of peace and security.

Org Spotlight 6/13/16: Justice for My Sister

The Justice for my Sister Collective is a gender-inclusive, feminist, pro-immigrant rights organization that promotes healthy relationships and anti-violence through the arts. The organization works in marginalized communities and fosters safe spaces “to initiate collective healing and develop local leaders to combat gender-based violence.” There are chapters in Los Angeles, California and Guatemala City, Guatemala. The Collective was founded in 2011 by survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse as a grassroots campaign to prevent gender-based violence using the arts.

Article of Note

Gendered Governing? Women’s Leadership Styles and Participatory Institutions in Brazil

by Kendall D. Funk

Previous research argues that the leadership styles of men and women differ significantly, with women’s styles being more inclusive and participatory. I test this argument by examining whether women elected officials are more likely to increase citizen participation using data on the adoption of two different types of participatory institutions in Brazilian municipalities: participatory budgeting and participatory policy councils.

Org Spotlight 6/6/16: Russian LGBT Network

The Russian LGBT Network, founded in 2006, is Russia’s only inter-regional LGBT non-governmental organization. The network’s mission  is to promote human rights and respect for human dignity, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity. LGBT people in Russia face substantial legal and social challenges and are afforded few rights and protections. The Russian LGBT Network seeks to increase the visibility and to improve the status of LGBT individuals in state and society.

Article of Note

Identifying women farmers: Informal gender norms as Institutional barriers to recognizing women’s contributions to agriculture

by Jennifer Twyman, Juliana Muriel and María Alejandra García

Sex-disaggregated data collection is an important step toward understanding women’s contributions to agriculture and including a gender perspective in agricultural research for development. However, social norms both in farming communities and research organizations often limit the amount of data collected from women and, in so doing, reinforce the notion that women are not farmers or producers. This is especially true for male-dominated crops, such as rice in Latin America.

Org Spotlight 5/30/16: Vietnam Women’s Union

The Vietnam Women’s Union, founded in 1930, is a Vietnamese organization working for women’s rights and gender equity. In VWU’s close to a century of operation, its membership has grown to over 13 million women, making  the organization one of the country’s most powerful forces advocating for women. VWU’s members belong to 10,472 local women’s unions in towns and communes throughout Vietnam.

Article of Note

Women and training: an empirical investigation in the Arab Middle East

by Hayfaa A. Tlaissa & Khalil M. Diranib

Few studies have explored the professional training experiences of Arab women within the contexts of learning organisational cultures and relevant human resource development (HRD) practices. Capitalising on in-depth, face-to-face interviews, this study explores the experiences of women managers in Lebanon with professional training and organisational learning.