Global Pandemic and the Veiled Crisis of Care in Turkey: Politics of Social Reproduction and Masculinist Restoration
Titelübersetzung:Globale Pandemie und die verschleierte Krise der Pflege in der Türkei: Politik der sozialen Reproduktion und maskulinistische Restauration
Autor/in:
Akkan, Başak
Quelle: Historical Social Research, 46 (2021) 4, S 31-49
Inhalt: Drawing on feminist debates about social reproduction and care while looking closely at gendered care politics and gender-insensitive containment measures, this article critically explores the politics of care in Turkey in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It does so by engaging with the theoretical debate over "social reproduction as a site of crisis" (Fraser 2016, 2017) and provides a contextualised reflection on the contested features of the crisis of care in a highly gendered political setting where a familialist regime defines gender relations. Because such regimes expect women to increase their burden of care in times of crisis, the pandemic’s gender-insensitive containment politics fundamentally strengthened the boundaries between paid and unpaid work. The article explores the combination of gendered vulnerabilities related to increased unpaid care work and degraded conditions experienced by care workers during lockdowns as a manifestation of the crisis of care in Turkey. Besides neoliberal capitalism, as suggested by Fraser, Turkey's rising authoritarian conservatism also characterises the crisis of care, which has implications for gender inequalities. Accordingly, this article invokes the conceptual framework of "masculinist restoration," as suggested by Kandiyoti (2016, 2019) and argues that women’s situatedness as care providers has been losing its positional power as a cultural element of the familialist regime in Turkey. Instead, this situatedness is being enforced as a political project that aims to institutionalise familialism to secure patriarchal domination in a society, which therefore pertains to a veiled crisis of care.
Transitions and Conflicts: Reexamining Impacts of Migration on Young Women’s Status and Gender Practice in Rural Shanxi
Autor/in:
Yang, Lichao; Ren, Xiaodong
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 2, S 58-67
Inhalt: This article explores impacts of migration on young women’s status and gender practice in rural northern China. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a village in Shanxi Province, it suggests that rural-urban migration has served partially to reconstruct the traditional gender-based roles and norms in migration families. This reconstructive force arises mainly from the changes of the patrilocal residence pattern and rural women’s acquisition of subjectivity during the course of migration. However, after migrant women return to their home villages, they usually reassume their roles as care providers and homemakers, which is vividly expressed by a phrase referring to one’s wife as ‘the person inside my home’ (wo jiali de). Meanwhile, although migrant women’s capacity and confidence have greatly increased consequent upon working out of the countryside, their participation in village governance and in the public sphere has been decreasing. Further examination suggests that the reinforcement of gender inequality and the transformation of gender relations result from the continuous interplay of local power relations, market dominance, and unchallenged patrilocal institutions. Through adopting a life course perspective, it challenges too strict a differentiation between migrant and left behind women in existing literature.
Schlagwörter:China; China; Landbevölkerung; rural population; Patriarchat; patriarchy; gender-specific factors; woman; Ethnographie; ethnography; Feldforschung; field research; Stadt-Land-Beziehung; city-country relationship; Geschlechtsrolle; gender role; traditionelle Gesellschaft; traditional society; Geschlechterverhältnis; gender relations; gender relations; migration; patriarchy; rural Chinese women
Geschlechterwissen in Gewerkschaften - eine Typologie von Deutungsmustern gewerkschaftlicher Geschlechterpolitik
Titelübersetzung:Gender knowledge in trade unions - typical interpretative patterns of trade union gender politics
Autor/in:
Holland, Judith
Quelle: AIS-Studien, 13 (2020) 2, S 161-173
Inhalt: An der Schnittstelle von Gender Studies, Arbeits- und Organisationssoziologie setzt dieser Beitrag an, indem die gewerkschaftliche Repräsentation von Frauen vergleichend dargestellt und zugleich typische Deutungen im Verständnis gewerkschaftlicher Geschlechterpolitik rekonstruiert werden. Aufbauend auf Angelika Wetterers Typologie von Geschlechterwissen zeigen sich in diesen Deutungsmustern Unterschiede, woran die Geschlechter(un)gleichheit festgemacht wird, welche Relevanz gleichstellungspolitischen Maßnahmen beigemessen wird und welche Rolle sie für die eigene Praxis gewerkschaftlicher Interessenpolitik spielen. Das frauenpolitische, das geschlechtertheoretische und das konservative Deutungsmuster werden vorgestellt und zugleich diskutiert, unter welchen Bedingungen es trotz dieser Unterschiede gelingen kann, Gleichstellungspolitik als organisationsübergreifende Aufgabe zu etablieren. Die empirische Basis bilden qualitative Interviews, die mit Gewerkschaftssekretär*innen der ver.di, der IG BAU sowie der IG Metall durchgeführt wurden.
Women in China Moving Forward: Progress, Challenges and Reflections
Autor/in:
Yang, Juhua
Quelle: Social Inclusion, 8 (2020) 2, S 23-35
Inhalt: While China's socialist revolution has been credited with improving the status of women, gender inequality remains. Drawing on macro data, this article provides an overview of gender equality in China, focusing on labor force and political participation in the past 70 years, particularly since 1978, the onset of socioeconomic reform. Specifically, the article describes, compares, and examines the progress and challenges that women face in accessing economic opportunities and political resources. We find a more equal relationship between male and female when resources are relatively adequate, but that females are disadvantaged when resources are scarce, for example, including representation in more prestigious occupations, higher income, and political positions. These findings illustrate how inequality is maintained and reproduced, and suggest that despite China’s progressive socialist agenda, its gender revolution remains 'stalled.'
Schlagwörter:China; China; soziale Ungleichheit; social inequality; gender-specific factors; woman; Erwerbsbeteiligung; labor force participation; politische Partizipation; political participation; Gleichstellung; affirmative action; historische Entwicklung; historical development; Geschlechterverhältnis; gender relations; Benachteiligung; deprivation; Ostasien; Far East
Unsichtbare Arbeit: geschlechtersoziologische Perspektiven auf Verfestigungen und Neuverhandlungen von Ungleichheiten am Beispiel von Digitalisierung, körpernahen Dienstleistungen und der Corona-Pandemie
Titelübersetzung:Invisible Work: stabilization and re-negotiation of inequality in the fields of digital work, body work and in light of the Covid-19 pandemic - a sociology of gender perspective
Autor/in:
Carstensen, Tanja; Klein, Isabel
Quelle: AIS-Studien, 13 (2020) 2, S 61-77
Inhalt: Die Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung hat bereits in den 1970er Jahren herausgearbeitet, dass sich das Verhältnis von Arbeit und Geschlecht entlang der Achse Sichtbarkeit/Unsichtbarkeit konstituiert. Die Un/Sichtbarkeit von Arbeit ist grundlegend für die Hervorbringung von Geschlechterungleichheiten, sowohl in Erwerbsarbeit als auch in (unbezahlter) Reproduktionsarbeit. Gleichzeitig wird die Grenze zwischen beiden immer wieder neu verhandelt. Der Beitrag rekonstruiert dieses Verhältnis und untersucht am Beispiel von Digitalisierung, körpernahen Dienstleistungen und der Corona-Pandemie, wie sich durch aktuelle Veränderungen das Verhältnis von Arbeit, Geschlecht und Unsichtbarkeit neu konstituiert und differenziert. Der Beitrag zeigt, dass Unsichtbarkeit als analytische Kategorie in der Erforschung von Arbeit und Geschlechterverhältnissen den Blick auf historische Kontinuitäten genauso wie auf Grenzverschiebungen und Neuaushandlungen schärfen kann.
Schlagwörter:gender-specific factors; gender; woman; berufstätige Frau; working woman; soziale Ungleichheit; social inequality; Digitalisierung; digitalization; Dienstleistungsarbeit; service work; Epidemie; epidemic; Geschlechterverhältnis; gender relations; COVID-19; Coronavirus
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Industrie- und Betriebssoziologie, Arbeitssoziologie, industrielle Beziehungen
Representation of women in the news: balancing between career and family life
Autor/in:
Vandenberghe, Hanne
Quelle: Media and Communication, 7 (2019) 1, S 4-12
Inhalt: An in-depth literature review showed that women, despite their increasingly prominent roles worldwide, continue to be persistently underrepresented and stereotyped in news media. This study aimed to investigate the extent to which the representation of women changed over time in two Dutch-speaking Belgian newspapers De Standaard and Het Laatste Nieuws. An automated quantitative content analysis revealed that there is no increase of the number of women in the newspapers between 2005 and 2015. On the contrary, women are significantly less represented over time in the popular newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. A qualitative analysis on two cases about women stepping into a leadership position -in 2012 (Catherine De Bolle as head of the Federal police) and in 2014 (Dominique Leroy as CEO of a Belgian telecom company)- showed that the press emphasised their femininity, their being a role model for other women, their being part of a family and having certain looks. Moreover, these women are clearly portrayed as "the best candidate" pointing at the selection procedures and their capabilities to perform professionally. Probably, this strong emphasis is a way of justifying that these women are not selected because of positive discrimination. Further analysis of cases of both men and women stepping into top positions across countries and media platforms is recommended.
Representation of women in the news: balancing between career and family life
Autor/in:
Vandenberghe, Hanne
Quelle: Media and Communication, 7 (2019) 1, S 4-12
Inhalt: An in-depth literature review showed that women, despite their increasingly prominent roles worldwide, continue to be persistently underrepresented and stereotyped in news media. This study aimed to investigate the extent to which the representation of women changed over time in two Dutch-speaking Belgian newspapers De Standaard and Het Laatste Nieuws. An automated quantitative content analysis revealed that there is no increase of the number of women in the newspapers between 2005 and 2015. On the contrary, women are significantly less represented over time in the popular newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. A qualitative analysis on two cases about women stepping into a leadership position -in 2012 (Catherine De Bolle as head of the Federal police) and in 2014 (Dominique Leroy as CEO of a Belgian telecom company)- showed that the press emphasised their femininity, their being a role model for other women, their being part of a family and having certain looks. Moreover, these women are clearly portrayed as "the best candidate" pointing at the selection procedures and their capabilities to perform professionally. Probably, this strong emphasis is a way of justifying that these women are not selected because of positive discrimination. Further analysis of cases of both men and women stepping into top positions across countries and media platforms is recommended.
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
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.
