The Reluctant Feminist: Angela Merkel and the Modernization of Gender Politics in Germany
Titelübersetzung:Feministin wider Willen? Angela Merkel und Geschlechtergleichheit in Deutschland
Autor/in:
Mushaben, Joyce Marie
Quelle: Femina Politica - Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft, 27 (2018) 2, S 83-95
Details
Inhalt: Academic studies regarding the impact of various forms of gender representation focus largely on quantitative evidence that women in power can make a difference, downplaying qualitative case studies that can establish causal links between women's participation in government and better policies for women. Analyzing policy changes initiated by Germany’s first female Chancellor since 2005, the paper argues that despite her CDU-affiliation, Angela Merkel has contributed more to gender equality in Germany than all previous chancellors, even though she refuses to label herself a feminist. The author explores three factors shaping Merkel's reluctance to embrace the (western dominated) feminist label, e.g., her socialization under a diametrically opposed GDR gender regime, her preference for data-driven policy learning, her aversion towards “ideological” framing, coupled with a tendency to pursue mixed motives, respectively. The paper concludes with recent examples geared towards leveling the global gender playing-field, attesting to her willingness to embrace transformational representation.
Schlagwörter:woman; Politikerin; ; politische Entscheidung; political decision; Entscheidungsfindung; decision making; Repräsentation; representation; Intersektionalität; intersectionality; Gleichstellung; affirmative action; Merkel, A.; Merkel, A.; Geschlechterpolitik; gender policy; Feminismus; feminism; Federal Republic of Germany
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Women's Coalitions beyond the Laicism-Islamism Divide in Turkey: Towards an Inclusive Struggle for Gender Equality?
Autor/in:
Çağatay, Selin
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 6 (2018) 4, S 48-58
Details
Inhalt: In the 2010s in Turkey, the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) authoritarian-populist turn accompanied the institutionalization of political Islam. As laicism was discredited and labeled as an imposed-from-above principle of Western/Kemalist modernity, the notion of equality ceased to inform the state’s gender policies. In response to AKP's attempts to redefine gender relations through the notions of complementarity and fıtrat (purpose of creation), women across the political spectrum have mobilized for an understanding of gender equality that transcends the laicism - Islamism divide yet maintains secularity as its constitutive principle. Analyzing three recent attempts of women's coalition-building, this article shows that, first, gender equality activists in the 2010s are renegotiating the border between secularity and piety towards more inclusive understandings of gender equality; and second, that struggles against AKP’s gender politics are fragmented due to different configurations of gender equality and secularity that reflect class and ethnic antagonisms in Turkish society. The article thereby argues for the need to move beyond binary approaches to secularism and religion that have so far dominated the scholarly analysis of women’s activism in both Turkey and the Nordic context.
Schlagwörter:gender relations; Gleichstellung; Säkularisierung; Islam; Populismus; Laizismus; laicism; Islam; Autoritarismus; equal opportunity policy; feminism; Türkei; Turkey; Gleichstellungspolitik; populism; gender; gender policy; Gender; secularization; Geschlechterpolitik; woman; Geschlechterverhältnis; Feminismus; coalition; affirmative action; authoritarianism; Koalition; piety; women’s coalitions
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
When the Personal Is Always Political: Norwegian Muslims' Arguments for Women's Rights
Autor/in:
Helseth, Hannah
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 6 (2018) 4, S 59-66
Details
Inhalt: For almost two decades, the public debate about Islam in Western Europe has been dominated by concerns about the lack of gender equality in the racialized Muslim population. There has been a tendency to victimize "the Muslim woman" rather than to encourage Muslim women’s participation in the public debate about their lives. This contribution to the study of discourses on Muslim women is an analysis of arguments written by Muslims about women’s rights. The data consists of 239 texts written by self-defined Muslims in major Norwegian newspapers about women’s rights. I will discuss two findings from the study. The first is an appeal to be personal when discussing issues of domestic violence and racism is combined with an implicit and explicit demand to represent all Muslims in order to get published in newspapers - which creates an ethno-religious threshold for participation in the public debate. The second finding is that, across different positions and different religious affiliations, from conservative to nearly secular, and across the timeline, from 2000 to 2012, there is a dominant understanding of women's rights as individual autonomy. These findings will be discussed from different theoretical perspectives to explore how arguments for individual autonomy can both challenge and amplify neoliberal agendas.
Schlagwörter:Arendt, H.; Arendt, H.; Feminismus; feminism; Individualismus; individualism; Neoliberalismus; neoliberalism; Islam; Islam; Gleichstellung; affirmative action; Menschenrechte; human rights; woman; Muslim; Muslim; Europa; Europe; Norwegen; Norway; Brown, W.; public debate; traditional media; women’s rights
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Religionssoziologie
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Solidarity in Head-Scarf and Pussy Bow Blouse: Reflections on Feminist Activism and Knowledge Production
Autor/in:
Gemzöe, Lena
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 6 (2018) 4, S 67-81
Details
Inhalt: The author of this article discusses the ways in which gender equality and intersectionality are understood and enacted in two recent feminist campaigns in Sweden that use similar techniques to mobilise support for different causes. The first campaign is the so-called Hijab Call-to-Action, a solidarity action that took place in 2013 in which women in Sweden wore a hijab (the Muslim headscarf) for one day in defence of Muslim women’s rights. This campaign manifests the ways in which the notion of gender equality brings with it a norm of secularity, but also how the equation of equality and secularity is contested. The second feminist campaign discussed is the so-called Pussy Bow Blouse manifestation that aimed at taking a stand in the controversies surrounding the Swedish Academy as a result of the Metoo campaign in Sweden. The author looks at the political and discursive processes enfolded in these campaigns as a sort of collective learning processes that connect feminist activism and scholarship. A key concern is to critically analyse a binary model of powerless versus gender-equal or feminist women that figure in both debates. Further, the author shows that both campaigns appeal to solidarity through identification, but at the same time underscore the contingent and coalitional nature of identity in the act of dressing in a scarf or a blouse to take on a (political) identity for a day.
Schlagwörter:Feminismus; feminism; Muslim; Muslim; Gleichstellung; affirmative action; Gleichberechtigung; equality of rights; Religion; religion; Säkularisierung; secularization; Solidarität; solidarity; woman; Frauenbewegung; women's movement; politische Identität; political identity; Metoo campaign; headscarf; pussy bow blouse
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Religionssoziologie
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
"Fashion is political"?! Nachhaltige Mode und unternehmerische Feminismen in Berlin
Autor/in:
Fisher, Melissa; Neusüss, Claudia; Perrottet, Anna
Quelle: Femina Politica - Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft, 26 (2017) 2, S 127-135
Details
Schlagwörter:woman; Unternehmensgründung; setting up a business; Mode; fashion; Genossenschaft; cooperative; berufliche Selbständigkeit; self-employment; Nachhaltigkeit; sustainability; Feminismus; feminism; Gleichstellung; affirmative action; Berlin; Berlin; Federal Republic of Germany
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Misrepresenting America's Women: Trump's Three-pronged Attack on Gender Equality
Autor/in:
Mushaben, Joyce Marie
Quelle: Femina Politica - Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft, 26 (2017) 2, S 147-152
Details
Schlagwörter:woman; USA; United States of America; Gleichstellung; affirmative action; Frauenpolitik; women's policy; Diskriminierung; discrimination; Feminismus; feminism
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Islamism, Secularism and the Woman Question in the Aftermath of the Arab Spring: Evidence from the Arab Barometer
Autor/in:
Fox, Ashley M.; Abdelkarim Alzwawi, Sana; Refki, Dina
Quelle: Politics and Governance, 4 (2016) 4, S 40-57
Details
Inhalt: "The uprisings that led to regime change during the early period of the Arab Spring were initially inclusive and pluralistic in nature, with men and women from every political and religious orientation engaging actively in political activities on the street and in virtual spaces. While there was an opening of political space for women and the inclusion of demands of marginalized groups in the activists' agenda, the struggle to reimagine national identities that balance Islamic roots and secular yearnings is still ongoing in many countries in the region. This paper seeks to deepen understanding of the extent to which the pluralistic sentiments and openness to accepting the rights women have persisted following the uprising. We aim to examine changes in attitudes towards women's equality in countries that underwent regime change through popular uprisings during revolutionary upheavals of the Arab Spring and in countries where regimes have remained unchanged. Using available data from consecutive rounds of the Arab Barometer survey, we examine changes in attitudes in nine countries with two rounds of Arab Barometer during and post Arab Spring (Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, Algeria, Lebanon, Sudan, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine). We find that support for 'Muslim feminism' (an interpretation of gender equality grounded in Islam) has increased over the period and particularly in Arab Spring countries, while support for 'secular feminism' has declined. In most countries examined, relatively high degrees of support for gender equality co-exist with a preference for Islamic interpretations of personal status codes pertaining to women. We discuss the implications of these findings for academics and activists concerned with women's rights in the Middle East North Africa (MENA)." (author's abstract)
Schlagwörter:Nordafrika; North Africa; arabische Länder; Arab countries; Nahost; Middle East; politischer Wandel; political change; politische Partizipation; political participation; Islamismus; islamism; Säkularisierung; secularization; woman; Menschenrechte; human rights; Feminismus; feminism; Muslim; Muslim; Gleichstellung; affirmative action; Einstellung; attitude; gender-specific factors; Einstellungsänderung; attitude change; Islam; Islam; Religiosität; religiousness; Arab democratic exceptionalism; Arab Spring
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur, Religionssoziologie
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Gender and the New Coalition Government in Greece
Autor/in:
Kambouri, Nelli
Quelle: Femina Politica - Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft, 24 (2015) 2, S 101-105
Details
Schlagwörter:Gender; gender; Regierungswechsel; change of government; Griechenland; Greece; Geschlechterverhältnis; gender relations; soziale Ungleichheit; social inequality; Wirtschaftskrise; economic crisis; gender-specific factors; Feminismus; feminism; Benachteiligung; deprivation; Sparpolitik; austerity policy; woman; Frauenanteil; proportion of women; Parlament; parliament; Europaparlament; European Parliament; Abgeordneter; representative; Gleichstellung; affirmative action; Geschlechterpolitik; gender policy; EU; EU; EU-Politik; EU policy
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
"Freie Frauen" gegen den "Gender-Wahn": Paradoxe (neue) Allianzen in der (extremen) Rechten
Autor/in:
Ajanovic, Edma; Mayer, Stefanie
Quelle: Femina Politica - Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft, 24 (2015) 2, S 119-123
Details
Schlagwörter:woman; Gender; gender; Gender Mainstreaming; gender mainstreaming; Österreich; Austria; Feminismus; feminism; Konservatismus; conservatism; Rechtsradikalismus; right-wing radicalism; politische Rechte; political right; Gleichstellung; affirmative action; Geschlechterpolitik; gender policy; Diskurs; discourse; Ideologie; ideology; Bevölkerungspolitik; population policy; Reproduktion; reproduction; Feindbild; image of the enemy
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Diskurse des islamischen Feminismus
Titelübersetzung:Discourses of Islamic feminism
Autor/in:
Salah, Hoda
Quelle: GENDER - Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, 2 (2010) 1, S 47-64
Details
Inhalt: "Der Beitrag identifiziert verschiedene Diskurse innerhalb des islamischen Feminismus. Es wird gefragt, ob islamischer Feminismus dazu beiträgt, Frauenrechte zu stärken, und inwieweit er Frauen einen Zugang zur öffentlichen Sphäre und Autonomie in der privaten Sphäre ermöglicht. Es wird gezeigt, dass der islamische Feminismus einen positiven Einfluss auf die Förderung von Frauenrechten hat, und zwar nicht nur innerhalb islamischer Diskurse, sondern auch in nationalen und internationalen Institutionen. Dennoch trägt der islamisch-feministische Diskurs auch eine mögliche Gefahr für den Status von Frauen in muslimischen Gesellschaften in sich, da religiös motivierte Argumente gegen die UN-Konvention für Frauenrechte vorgebracht werden, sobald diese zum islamischen Recht der Scharia im Widerspruch steht." (Autorenreferat)
Inhalt: "This article identifies different discourses within Islamic Feminism. The question is whether it contributes to the improvement of women's rights, and in how far it enables women to attain access to public space and autonomy in the private sphere. It will be argued that Islamic Feminism has a positive influence on the promotion of women's rights, not only within Islamic discourses and movements, but also in national and international institutions. However, the Islamic-feminist discourse also carries a potential danger for the status of women in Muslim societies, since religious arguments are being directed against the UN Convention for Women's Rights insofar as it contradicts the Islamic Sharia." (author's abstract)
Schlagwörter:Gender Mainstreaming; Menschenrechte; Islam; radicalism; power; Koran; sozialer Status; Africa; conservatism; Nordafrika; Konservatismus; arabische Länder; feminism; Ägypten; Afrika; social status; Liberalismus; Arab countries; liberalism; Selbstbestimmung; woman; Geschlechterverhältnis; sharia; Entwicklungsland; argumentation; Egypt; Religion; religion; affirmative action; islamische Gesellschaft; North Africa; Scharia; gender relations; Gleichstellung; Islamic society; Koran; Diskurs; discourse; Middle East; Islam; Recht; gender mainstreaming; Macht; self-determination; human rights; Feminismus; Nahost; Radikalismus; law; developing country; Argumentation
SSOAR Kategorie:Religionssoziologie, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Sozialgeschichte, historische Sozialforschung
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz