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
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
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.
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
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
A Genderless Protest: Women Confronting Romanian Communism
Autor/in:
Petrescu, Cristina
Quelle: Annals of the University of Bucharest / Political science series, 16 (2014) 2, S 79-101
Inhalt: Far from accomplishing its utopian plans of transforming society, communism did not turn gender equality into a reality either. This paper moves beyond the common-place approaches that simply underline the failures of this political system and presumes that women experienced communism in very diverse and often ambiguous ways, for public and private roles conflicted more often than not. From among the few individuals who dared to articulate critical thoughts on Romanian communism prior to its collapse of 1989, the present paper recuperates the experience of three women. Members of the urban educated elite, they believed nonetheless in different values and pursued different strategies of expressing discontent with the regime. These female critics of the communist system went beyond personal or group interests, but among the issues of public concern they raised none belonged to a feminist agenda. Yet, these women acted as if gender equality was a reality in Ceauşescu’s Romania: they considered themselves the equal partners of like-minded men, while their male peers accepted them as such, for equalitarian perceptions of genders shaped the public roles assumed by non-conformist Romanian intellectuals. The example of these three women does not prove that communism succeeded in redefining the status of women, but it illustrates how the urban educated social group experienced gender relations then. No feminists in thinking, these three women were so in their behavior. Their criticism of Ceauşescu’s communism was genderless, but it nonetheless strengthened the idea that women are no less than men.
Schlagwörter:Feminismus; feminism; Geschlechtsrolle; gender role; Widerstand; resistance; kulturelle Vielfalt; cultural diversity; woman; Dissident; dissident; Kommunismus; communism; sozialer Wandel; social change; Geschlechterverhältnis; gender relations; Rumänien; Romania
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur
Bewegung unter den Genossinnen: zur Annäherung zwischen Sozialdemokratinnen und Feministinnen
Titelübersetzung:Movement among comrades: approchement between social democrats and feminists
Autor/in:
Amlinger, Fabienne
Quelle: Femina Politica - Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft, 23 (2014) 1, S 37-49
Inhalt: "Außergewöhnlich spät, erst 1971, erhielten Schweizerinnen die politischen Staatsbürgerrechte. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt waren Feministinnen der Neuen Frauenbewegung bereits seit mehreren Jahren außerparlamentarisch aktiv. Mit dem Stimm- und Wahlrecht erweiterte sich nun ihr politisches Wirkungs- und Handlungsfeld grundlegend. Doch unter den mächtigen Parteien vermochte einzig die Sozialdemokratische Partei SPS, eine gewisse Anziehungskraft auf die Bewegungsaktivistinnen auszuüben. So traten einige von ihnen Ende der 1970er-Jahre denn auch der Partei bei. Der Beitrag geht der Frage nach, wie dieser Einschluss von Feministinnen in die SPS verlief - eine Partei, die mit ihren hierarchischen Strukturen den Organisationsformen der neuen Frauenbewegung diametral entgegenstand, deren Genossen sich immer mal wieder als 'rote Patriarchen' entpuppten und wo die Frauenfrage stets als Nebenwiderspruch behandelt wurde. Konnten die Feministinnen inhaltliche, programmatische und strukturelle Akzente setzen, wurden sie lediglich von der Partei vereinnahmt oder drehten sie dieser gar nach einiger Zeit enttäuscht den Rücken?" (Autorenreferat)
Inhalt: "Only in 1971, Swiss women received political citizenship rights. At that time, feminists from the women's liberation movement had been actively involved in non-parliamentary politics for several years. With the right to vote and the right for election, however, their field of political action was expanded fundamentally. But among powerful parties only the Social Democrats SPS appealed to activists. Thus, by the end of the 1970s, some of the activists joined the party. This article examines how feminists were included into the SPS - a party whose structures were completely different from the non-hierarchical women’s liberation movement, whose comrades often turned out to be 'red patriarchs' and where gender issues were always treated as side contradictions. Were the feminists able to put emphasis on changes regarding content, program and structures of the party Did the SPS only incorporate them for the purpose of own interests? Did the feminists eventually turn their back on the party disappointedly?" (author's abstract)
Schlagwörter:Schweiz; Switzerland; woman; Wahlrecht; suffrage; Frauenbewegung; women's movement; Feminismus; feminism; politische Partizipation; political participation; sozialdemokratische Partei; social democratic party; Mitgliedschaft; membership; politisches Programm; political program; Frauenpolitik; women's policy; Gleichstellungspolitik; equal opportunity policy
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur
Titelübersetzung:Geschlecht und Terrorismus in städtischen Räumen
Autor/in:
Keenan, Kevin
Quelle: Historical Social Research, 39 (2014) 3, S 100-114
Inhalt: Theoretical development within gender studies and terrorism studies has occurred along the axes of identity, material and spatial power and inequality, and geography. Gender scholars have been concerned with the transformation of oppressive political structures, with increased inequality and understanding how gender structures limit women’s opportunities, and with the role of separate geo-graphical and social spheres in shaping outcomes. Terrorism scholars have con-ceptualized terror as a political process, the result largely of economic inequality and to some extent, gender structures, and they have articulated a role for urban space in conceptualizing interventionist policy to ameliorate the terrorist threat. This paper traces the development of these theoretical traditions, pointing out the thematic similarities, but also the dissimilar objects of inquiry. A review of the scholarship where gender informs terrorism studies points the way to future development of scholarship around (1) solving the global terrorism problem by further understanding gender structures for both men and women; (2) the role of urban and non-urban spaces as the backdrop for terrorist recruitment and formation processes; and (3) how gender is likely to affect actual survival for gendered urban populations when terrorism occurs.
Schlagwörter:perception; gender studies; gender; Wahrnehmung; Risiko; Gender; risk; Bedrohung; Stadt; USA; woman; town; Geschlechterforschung; Feminismus; terrorism; feminism; threat; Terrorismus; United States of America; urban space; hazards
SSOAR Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur
Ecofeminist Ideology of Petra Kelly: The Challenges of Modern Political Thought
Autor/in:
Nadić, Darko
Quelle: European Quarterly of Political Attitudes and Mentalities, 2 (2013) 2, S 63-70
Inhalt: Petra Kelly (1947-1992) has remained recorded in history as one of the true icons of modern German and European environmental movement. Combining the ideas of feminism, peace, nonviolence, ecology (environmental protection) and social justice, she has managed to reconcile these seemingly opposing ideas and merge them into one specific type of ideology that was the guiding idea of the German Green Party until the mid-nineties of the last century. This is not the case of an eclectic kind of ideology, the simple merging of ideas into a single functional unit policy, but of an ideology that is based on the notion that the nuclear age, political, social, gender, class and other differences are something that inhibits humanity in its real progress. At the same time, Petra Kelly has shown that true feminism is not necessarily something that is obscure or something that is politically incorrect. Modern feminism, as it was propagated by Petra Kelly, in compliance with environmental political idea, the idea of peace, nonviolence, anti-nuclear policy and the idea of direct democracy, represents an ideology that, by its political radicalism and its strong criticism of the capitalist society, stands side by side with ecologism. "Cassandra of the nuclear apocalypse", "The Ulrike Meinhof of the eighties", in spite of all her accomplishments for the formation of the German Greens, unfortunately, remained forgotten in the political thought and political practice of the party
Schlagwörter:Federal Republic of Germany; Die Grünen; Greens; politischer Akteur; political actor; woman; Umweltschutz; environmental protection; Feminismus; feminism; Umweltpolitik; environmental policy; Gewaltlosigkeit; non-violence; Friedensbewegung; peace movement
SSOAR Kategorie:politische Willensbildung, politische Soziologie, politische Kultur
Bewegter Stillstand? Überlegungen zur Neuen Frauenbewegung am Beispiel ihrer Projekte
Titelübersetzung:Turbulent standstill? Reflections on the new women's movement, using its projects as an example
Autor/in:
Brückner, Margrit
Quelle: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (DGS); Hradil, Stefan; Kongreß der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie "Differenz und Integration; Frankfurt am Main, 1997. S 464-478
Inhalt: "Vor gut zwanzig Jahren entwickelte feministische Gewißheiten über Frauen sind aufgrund vielfältiger Erfahrungen neuen Suchbewegungen gewichen, denn das Bild von der Frau als besserem Menschen und hohe Glückserwartungen an Frauenzusammenhänge haben sich als problematisch erwiesen. Die positive Besetzung des eigenen Geschlechts ist zwar weiterhin die conditio sine qua non für Fraueninitiativen, ein überhöhtes Frauenbild stellt aber nicht selten auch einen Hemmschuh für strukturelle und psychosoziale Entwicklungen dar, wie sie besonders in den Projekten der Neuen Frauenbewegung erforderlich sind. Das Ideal des 'Anderen' ist sowohl Antriebskraft als auch Behinderung, indem es die Frauenbewegung maßgeblich vorangetrieben hat, im Rahmen einer beruflich organisierten Praxis aber zwiespältige Wirkungen zeitigt. Ohne die Privatsphäre zum Politikbereich zu erheben, wäre es nicht möglich gewesen, kollektiv an die Interessen und Problemlagen von Frauen anzuknüpfen, statt sie auszugrenzen. Gleichzeitig enthält diese Ausweitung die Gefahr, private und berufliche Umgangsformen, politische Interessen und psychische Bedürfnisse unreflektiert miteinander zu vermischen. Die Differenzierungen der Neuen Frauenbewegung und zunehmende Institutionalisierungen weisen auf die notwendige Entwicklung neuer Organisations-, Verhaltens- und Kommunikationsprinzipien hin, die weder als Abweichung noch als Entwertung von früheren Formen feministischen Denkens und Handels angesehen werden Und ihrerseits gleichberechtigte Teilhabe und Selbstbestimmung nicht aus dem Auge verlieren." (Autorenreferat)