Explaining Women's Legislative Representation in Sub‐Saharan Africa

This study examines the relative impacts of social, economic, cultural, and political determinants on women's legislative representation in sub‐Saharan Africa by using an ordinary least squares multiple regression model. Under study are sub‐Saharan African countries that held democratic legislative elections between January 1990 and June 30, 2001. Only the latest election in each country is included for analysis. My study finds that patriarchal culture, proportional representation systems, and gender quotas are statistically significant. This study, by focusing on sub‐Saharan Africa, fills a gap in the extant literature, which has focused on women's legislative representation in advanced industrialized democracies.     

Being a woman judge in Turkish judicial culture

ABSTRACT

This study is a feminist exploration of how gender influences the professional and social lives of women judges in Turkey. I asked women judges from lower courts to talk about their professional journey to explore if and how gender emerges as a category that makes sense to them. Gender was sometimes more visible in the form of a “success” story of playing along men’s rules, or in memories of struggling to balance work and family; while other times it was more implicit in narratives on meeting expectations, failing expectations, ignoring expectations. All in all, these narratives attest to the gendered hierarchies and instances of institutional sexism in what is considered a masculine profession. They also reveal the prevalence of a particularly conservative and patriarchal culture upon the ways in which these inequalities and disadvantages are experienced by women judges in Turkey.     

The Elastic Ceiling: Gender and Professional Career in Chinese Courts

Since the 1990s, the number of women in Chinese courts has been increasing steadily. Many women judges have risen to mid‐level leadership positions, such as division chiefs and vice‐chiefs, in the judicial bureaucracy. However, it remains difficult for women to be promoted to high‐level leadership positions, such as vice‐presidents and presidents. What explains the stratified patterns of career mobility for women in Chinese courts? In this article, we argue that two social processes are at work in shaping the structural patterns of gender inequality: dual‐track promotion and reverse attrition. Dual‐track promotion is dominated by a masculine and corrupt judicial culture on the political track that prevents women from obtaining high‐level promotions, but still allows them to rise to mid‐level leadership positions on the professional track based on their expertise and work performance. Reverse attrition enables women to take vacant mid‐level positions left by men who exit the judiciary to pursue other careers. Taken together, the vertical and horizontal mobility of judges in their career development presents a processual logic to gender inequality and shapes women's structural positions in Chinese courts, a phenomenon that we term the “elastic ceiling.”     

To object or not to object: The question of women judges in Egypt

Developing countries where women have not been permitted into the judiciary are excluded from feminist scholarship on women and the law. Such exclusion limits comparative views to a specific cultural‐historical domain. This paper explores the case of Egypt, where women have not entered the judiciary, in an attempt to extend the cross‐cultural discussion. A premise of the paper is that a theological vision of women's gender roles, which is qualitatively different from the prevailing one in the West, is a strong influencing factor on women's access to the judiciary in Egypt. After presenting a brief overview of women's status in Islam, this paper explores perspectives on women's role as judges within Islamic Shari'a. Building on the brief exploration of Islam's views regarding women's access to the judiciary, this paper then presents contemporary debates regarding women as judges in the Egyptian case. A recommendation for a more careful examination of the theological influences on the Egyptian debate regarding women's access to the judiciary concludes the paper.     

Slave Women,Resistance and Criminality:

The system of slavery, a reflection of a patriarchal and racist social order, legitimatized and facilitated not only the economic and racist oppression but the sexual exploitation of black slave women. An extensive review of the literature on slavery was used to address how slave women accommodated and resisted these multiple forms of oppression. The findings presented here indicate that as blacks, both sexes experienced the harsh and inhumane consequences of racism and economic exploitation. In response to their exploitation, there was a significant convergence in male and female involvement in such forms of "criminal" resistance, such as murder, assault, theft and arson. These actions were employed to improve the slaves' lot in life and to express opposition to the slave system. "Criminal" resistance therefore set the stage for black women's participation in the criminal activities characteristic of today. Findings also suggest that in response to sexual exploitation, gender specific forms of accommodation-eg., acting as breeders and sex workers-were utilized in order to make slave women's lives bearable. The article concludes that the various forms of accommodation served as a preface to black women's vulnerability to sex-oriented crimes within the context of the twentieth century American society.     

Women's Political Representation in the European Union

Feminist studies of the European Union seek to make sense of a field that has become enormously complex. Gender equality has been an issue in the EU since the inclusion of Article 119 on equal pay in the Treaty of Rome 1957 but has since widened to the recognition of equality between women and men as a fundamental principle of democracy for the whole EU. Gender equality is present both in gender-specific policies, such as women's participation in the labour market, sexual harassment and reconciliation of work and family, as well as informing the basic principles and functioning of the EU institutions wherever gender mainstreaming is implemented. Feminist explorations of the EU have tended to overlook one aspect of EU gender policies: women's political representation in the EU institutions. This article seeks to address this gap.     

Women's Emancipation and the Ownership of Firearms

ABSTRACT

Criminologists argue that the involvement of women in traditionally male forms of criminality has increased as a result of their increased economic and social liberation from patriarchal control. Although this argument remains controversial, it has been suggested that emancipated attitudes and behaviors can also be linked to women's gun ownership. Using data from the General Social Survey, we test an emancipation model of women's firearm ownership. Our analysis reveals that emancipation is related to the ownership of such weapons among married but not among unmarried women. Further analysis suggests that this finding reflects the power of culture to shape the action strategies through which attitudes are put into action.     

Brazilian judges in-between professionalism,gender and difference

This paper analyzes how Brazilian judges experience difference, focusing on how professionalism, gender, generation and diversity intersect in identity formation among women and men who are judges in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. In attempting to avoid attaching one fixed meaning to the concept of difference, we work with Avtar Brah's typology; this in turn enables us to capture how difference is perceived and experienced by our interviewees. Our results provide a look at how the specificities of the professionalization process influence the composition of the two courts we have studied (one at state and another at federal level), and how they increase or reduce the gender stratification within these careers. Being a judge is experienced through difference, in particular as the ‘Other' to those outside the career, and wherein identification is intersected by questions of gender, sexuality and generation. Although professionalism establishes boundaries between ‘us' and ‘them', it is also diluted through the ways in which the above-mentioned social markers and attributes permeate the self and professional groups. We interviewed 18 judges (women and men) from the São Paulo State Courts (Tribunal de Justiça de São Paulo) and 10 judges from the Regional Federal Courts (Tribunal Regional Federal) from the São Paulo circuit.     

Sisters in Terrorism? Exploding Stereotypes

New Terrorism is increasingly deploying women in the field as combatants. Female suicide bombers have proven to be highly effective, precisely because of the persistence of gender stereotypes in target societies. Women terrorists convey a powerful message of political seriousness, heighten the sense of intimidation and threat, and attract greater mass media attention—all key strategic objectives of New Terrorism. Gender stereotypes are also at work in explanations for women's recourse to terrorist activism. Such stereotypes simplify complex motivations and either overvalue or undervalue women's agency. The net result of this stereotyping is that women end up worse off individually and collectively, domestically and internationally. The lives of women in geopolitical hotspots have become more precarious, and the valorization of women terrorists undermines the quest for women's emancipation in fundamentalist cultures. In Western democracies, paternalistic outrage at women's subordination under fundamentalist regimes may have initially served as a dubious justification for military and other interventions, but the involvement of women in terrorist activism now risks reinforcing an even more dangerous “clash of civilizations” thinking. One effect is to undermine the demands for greater gender equality in Western democracies as well as indirectly support the war on women political agenda domestically.     

Early European population statistics and censuses

This paper examines the relationship between gender composition and rural household strategies in Cavan, a county in north-central Ireland, during the first half of the 19th century. I show that the ratio of adult females to males was highest in small farm households that depended for their survival on intensively deployed family labour in agriculture, flax-cultivation and spinning. By contrast, households without land or with micro-holdings relied on the income from men's employment as agricultural labourers, supplemented by women's work as spinners. More substantial landholders employed men as agricultural labourers. In both of the latter categories household labour strategies centred on men's activities, with women's work representing an important supplement, whereas in the small-farm category household labour strategies centred on a strategic balance between men's and women's labour input. Amongst households engaged in linen weaving the ratio of women to men was lower across all landholding categories. Differences in gender composition resulted from a complex interplay amongst household labour and inheritance strategies in a changing socio-economic environment.     

Gender composition and household labour strategies in pre-Famine Ireland

This paper examines the relationship between gender composition and rural household strategies in Cavan, a county in north-central Ireland, during the first half of the 19th century. I show that the ratio of adult females to males was highest in small farm households that depended for their survival on intensively deployed family labour in agriculture, flax-cultivation and spinning. By contrast, households without land or with micro-holdings relied on the income from men's employment as agricultural labourers, supplemented by women's work as spinners. More substantial landholders employed men as agricultural labourers. In both of the latter categories household labour strategies centred on men's activities, with women's work representing an important supplement, whereas in the small-farm category household labour strategies centred on a strategic balance between men's and women's labour input. Amongst households engaged in linen weaving the ratio of women to men was lower across all landholding categories. Differences in gender composition resulted from a complex interplay amongst household labour and inheritance strategies in a changing socio-economic environment.     

GENDER,SOCIAL NETWORKS,AND RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY*

Criminological researchers have devoted substantial attention to the nature and dynamics of residential burglary, but the role played by gender in shaping this offense remains largely unexplored. Feminist ethnographers have documented the fact that streetlife is highly gendered, and that this typically serves to marginalize women's participation in criminal networks and activities. Therefore, it appears likely that residential burglary—a prototypically social offense that requires good network connections—will be strongly influenced by gender dynamics. In this study, we analyze in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with 18 female and 36 male active residential burglars to examine the ways in which gender structures access to, participation in, and potential desistance from, residential burglary. In doing so, we aim to provide an insider's view of how gender stereotypes are expressed, reinforced, and exploited within streetlife social networks, and how these networks shape the lived experience of men and women engaged in residential burglary.     

Perspectives on Therapeutic Jurisprudence in Dependency Court in Cases Involving Battered Mothers

A qualitative study was conducted involving clients, victim advocates, and judges participating in one of Miami‐Dade County's (Florida) “therapeutic” juvenile court based programs, the Dependency Court Intervention Program for Family Violence (DCIPFV). The primary objective of this study was to assess how battered mothers’ perceptions of the dependency court judges’ actions impacted the women's motivation to take appropriate actions to promote their own, and their child(ren)'s safety.     

Abortion and gender relationships in Ukraine, 1955–1970

This article examines the sociocultural conditions underpinning the so-called ‘abortion culture’ in Soviet Ukraine. Unlike previous studies on abortion in the Soviet Union which have primarily used country-level data, this study employs original sources – in-depth biographical interviews and archival materials – to investigate local conditions and the manner in which decisions regarding abortion were made. The author studied couples whose reproductive years comprise the period from 1955 to 1970, when modern contraceptives were not readily available but abortion was legal. Two localities in Ukraine – the cities of Lviv and Kharkiv – are included in the investigation. The findings suggest that local patriarchal gender regimes and their associated spousal dynamics defined when and how women exercised their agency in birth control and abortion decisions. In couples where spouses communicated about birth control and abortion decisions, the women sought less abortions. These women did not feel a need to exercise their agency, as the husband took over both responsibilities. When abortion was practised as a routine family-size-limitation method, spouses did not communicate about birth control and abortion, and the two were practised solely as a husband's and wife's responsibility, respectively. These women sought abortions to fulfil their own goals and, at the same time, to maintain the dominant patriarchal order in marital relationships as they understood it. Additionally, peer networks seemed to be the crucial element reinforcing women's agency in these processes.     

Testing the Universality of the Gender Equality–Peace Thesis: The Influence of Increased Gender Equality on Terrorism in Turkey

Gender inequality has been empirically linked to the incidence of terrorism, as a motivator for women’s involvement in terrorism, and political and social violence more generally. Although these studies demonstrate that advances in gender equality on average decrease terrorism, it is unclear how these influences translate to individual nations or conflicts. Because Turkey has witnessed consistent but unequal regional advances in gender equality, it provides an ideal setting to examine how these developments have influenced terrorist violence. Analyzing data from Turkey’s 81 provinces from 2000–2013, this study finds important regional differences in the influence of gender equality on terrorism.     

Gender Equality in China’s Overseas Investment: Case Studies on Chinese Textile and Apparel Enterprises in Vietnam,Myanmar, and Bangladesh

With the progressive implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese textile and apparel sector has extended investments in many Southeast Asian countries, of which Vietnam, Myanmar, and Bangladesh are the most prominent examples. Furthermore, the impacts of Chinese-invested textile and apparel companies on local female workers have become more important and pervasive. This paper uses data accumulated in a survey project conducted in 20 Chinese-invested textile and apparel enterprises to present the on-site situation of gender equality performance in Chinese textile and apparel investment in these three countries. It finds that, despite quick progress and sporadic good practice, Chinese textile and apparel enterprises face challenges in gender equality at both the policy and practice levels. It concludes that gender equality is critical for China’s responsible overseas investment and local social development, and Chinese enterprises must go beyond legal compliance in dealing with gender equality. In so doing, they must realize that awareness raising and gender-sensitive management mechanisms must be the core and long-term measures to address gender equality challenges.     

UP IT UP: GENDER AND THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF STREET ROBBERY*

Attempts to understand women's participation in violence have been plagued by a tendency either to overemphasize gender differences or to downplay the significance of gender. The goal of this research is to reconcile these approaches through an examination of the experiences of female and male street robbers in an urban setting. Based on in-depth interviews with active offenders, the study compares women's and men's accounts of why they commit robbery, as well as how gender organizes the commission of the crime. The research suggests that while women and men articulate similar motives for robbery, their enactment of the crime is strikingly different—a reflection, in part, of practical choices women make in the context of a gender-stratified street setting.     

Women and the judiciary in Syria: appointments process,training and career paths

This article describes the recruitment, training and career paths of women judges and public prosecutors in Syria over a period of 30 years (1975–2005). It analyses both quantitative and qualitative data drawn from official statistics and interviews conducted with 67 women judges and public prosecutors in Syria's largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo. The paper focuses on how training of the judiciary has changed since the founding of the new Institute of Judicial Studies and the effect this change has had on women's career paths. The entry of women to the judiciary in 1975 and the restructuring of the training system in 2002 are the two most important events in the recent history of the judiciary in Syria.     

Managing a large household. The gender division of work in orphanages in Dutch towns in the early modern period, 1580–1800

Early modern social institutions were modelled analogous to the family, and work within these institutions strongly depended upon the co-operation of women and men. This type of organization seems to be contradictory to processes of professionalization and bureaucratization. This article investigates to what extent professionalization and bureaucratization took place in early modern orphanages and how this influenced the gender division of work. By analyzing various occupations, remuneration and access to work in three Dutch orphanages it becomes clear that the frequently mentioned characteristics that made ‘typical’ women's work combinable with women's reproductive tasks, were not all applicable and cannot wholly explain female access to these occupations. Work was characterized by an increasing differentiation, hierarchy and, to a certain extent, bureaucratization tendencies. At the same time, the gender division sharpened. However, the late eighteenth century ideology of women as nurturers and the strong analogy to the role women were supposed to play within the household prevented exclusion from this domain.     

Habermas,Feminism, and Law: Beyond Equality and Difference?*

In this paper, I argue that Habermas' proceduralist model of law can be put to feminist ends in at least two significant ways. First, in presenting an alternative to the liberal and welfare models of laws, the proceduralist model offers feminism a way out of the equality/difference dilemma. Both these attempts to secure women's equality by emphasising women's sameness to men or their difference from men have placed the onus on women to either find a way of integrating themselves into existing institutions or to confront the so‐called question of women's difference. The proceduralist model renders this dilemma irrelevant. Instead, it proceeds from the fact of sexual difference; a fact that produces competing and conflicting needs and interests that require interpretation by both men and women. This, I argue, marks a change in the very way we conceptualise the so‐called problem of women's difference, insofar as the question is no longer framed in these terms. Second, I argue that this deliberative process over the interpretation of conflicting interests affects a fundamental shift in the nature of legal institutions themselves, insofar as law is no longer a vehicle for promoting male interests.