gender studies

Cynthia Enloe - feminist analysis

Feminist analysis in international politics

• genuine curiosity of the women

• follow easily missed population

• find out who is being rewarded by ignoring female experiences

transnational movements and resistance

Bell Hooks

Neocolonialism

• Western feminist movements, privileged white women as leaders

• feminism linking women’s equality with imperialism, goal is NO hierarchy

Transnational feminism

• rejection of race/gender borders, recognizes individual diversity and freedom and equality

Feminist history

• “first wave” - Women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, prioritizing formal/masculinized acts

power feminism

NGO Working Group on Women, Peace, and Security

UN Security Council - peacekeeping and military authorization

WPS Agenda

• initiatives to recognize security needs, international legally binding document regarding gender and security

• strengths: addresses women in conflict prevention, peacemaking and peace building, gender and post-conflict policy funding, prompted consideration of women during/after conflict

• weaknesses: womenandchildren categorization, doesn’t address structural violence after conflict/”formal peace”, countries not proportionally represented

Feminization

masculinities vs. femininities

• rational and tough vs. soft and giving, health and education vs. security and economics

implications

• unrealistic understandings, hidden power operations, safety of women’s sexuality, womenandchildren categorization

power

he ability to influence or control

• created and maintained through social categorization and hierarchization

• can enforce how we see race, class, gender, sexuality, etc.

Nancy J. Adler

gender representation

• increased since 1996, men are still overrepresented in politic and cabinet ministries

• unequal representation consequences: women in feminized special issue portfolios, less visibility of female issues, stereotyping, less trust

diverse and challenging paths to power for women

• social, cultural and economic barrier

symbolic essentialism

• successful women in leadership, eg. Bhutto put in power as symbols of femininity, sacrifice and care

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

challenge traits that lead to ineffective leaders

• confidence and charism < competence, humility, and integrity

meritocracy question

• why do incompetent men become leaders

Hillary Clinton Study

symbolic essentialism - leveraged gender essentialism

power feminism

• mobilizes womanhood and feminism in a single axis

tokenism

gender essentialism

Assumptions rooted in masculinity and femininity as fixed/biological

• men are strong women are nurturing, used to continue status quo and abuse power

glass ceiling

• barriers to women accessing top decision-making and managerial positions

class escalator

• men are able to progress faster than women to top roles

glass cliff

• where women are likely to be appointed to leadership positions when facing crisis or high risk of failure (can blame them)

intersectionality

lens to see how multiple social oppression categories simultaneously affect people

tokenism

• symbolic effort to include members of a minority group

Cynthia Enloe - global economy

unsafe working conditions for women

• especially in the garment industry (Rana Plaza collapse)

• low-paid female labour, gender inequality in the workplace

labour has to be made cheap

Neha Misra

push and pull factors for migration

• push: demand for cheap labour, economic activity as unilaterally beneficial

• pull: lack of economically viable option, structural gaps in opportunities

• SAPs (structural adjustment programs): required for developing/in crisis countries in exchange for bank loans

globalization

increasing interdependence of world cultures/economies

• trajectory: western industrialization, labour regulations, more offshore production, degradation of work

neoliberal globalization

• neoliberalism: economic/political pattern enforcing the retreat of state/government for a free market

• advocates for opening national economies

social reproduction

day-to-day work mainly done by women to maintain life and reproduce the next generation

capitalism

• capital accumulation relies on social reproduction BUT capitalist factors destabilize social reproduction

global governance and political economy/trade

global governance and global political economy

• how politics and economics interact to shape national economies

global actors

• promote stability and trade cooperation

• IMF, OECD, UN, World Banks

IGOs (intergovernmental organizations)

• set trade and economic agendas (eg. tariffs)

global trade agreements

• rarely include adequate labour standards (Misra)

Filipina caregivers case

Philippines - top source country for international migration (labour exporting), more women

• migrant labour rooting in WW1, and perpetuated by stereotypes

strategic essentialism

• those leaving for contract work are self-aware about downplaying skills, sexualities, and class identities

Cynthia Enloe - global security

militarization

• preparation and mobilization, may silence women critical of patriarchal practices and attitudes

gender dynamics reinforce traditional gender roles

• sexual violence inside the military and on civilian women around U.S. military bases

• femininities/femininization

military presence impact

L.J. Branicki

traditional crisis management

• feminist ethics of care > military approach (focus on the quantifiable)

• military process: detect, prepare, contain, record

• eg. COVID-19 border securitization implicated in racism and xenophobia

S. Biskupski-Mujanovic

sexual misconduct in the CAF

• sexual misconduct undermines trust, contradicts CF values and ethical principles

• deeply rooted in hyper-masculine cultures and a lack of accountability

• sexualized culture: hostility to women and LGBTQ people, women are marginalized in priorities

• abuse of gendered power

H. King et al.

land back movement

• return land to Indigenous people - vital for governance and culture/identity

L.B. Simpson

sovereignty over indigenous bodies

• broader implications: struggle for land, self-determination

• required resisting colonial structures

gendered colonization

• stereotyping to control and criminalize Indigenous women’s sexuality and bodies

• “white moral family” imposed

connection between Indigenous women’s bodies and land

• western view of land = property ownership, extractivism, pursuit of capital

• indigenous view of land = values, relationship, community

CBC land back podcast

more goals of Land Back movement

• explores a specific healing resistance camp

colonialism

formal manifestation

• Indian Act - laws controlling Indigenous identity, land, and governance

• residential schools, Indian day programs, 60s scoop

• overrepresentation in foster care

• Land dispossession - government seizure

informal manifestation

• stereotyping

• criminalization based on vague markers

• direct and structural violence

political order

indigenous women, queer, and two-spirit people represent a “political order” that challenges colonial legitimacy - threat that must be eliminated

• recognizing the presence of first people and their societies/cultures is antithetical to the Doctrine of Discovery

crown land

majority of canada is government managed, owned by no one.

• use: recreation and tourism, resources, indigenous reserves, federal bases

• implication: indigenous communities are limited in access

free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC)

principle to ensures indigenous peoples role in decision-making about resources and lands.

Canada does not meet the 4 standards (eg. Indian act)

• restorative: central to indigenous governance

• epistemic: acceptance of indigenous knowledge and land relationship understanding

• reciprocal: both parties have consent power

• legitimate: representation perceived by the community

S. Sadaf - violence in South Asia

4 thematic sections

• structural violence: ideologies, hierarchies, symbolic acts

• gendered violence: rape, misogyny, feminist discourse

• outsources violence: mobs, insurgents, private armies

• cultures of violence: fractured histories, fissured communities

complexities of state vs. non-state violence

• insurgency vs. counterinsurgency, ethono-nationalist violence, extractivism, neoliberalism, dispossession

S. Sadaf - Malala memoir critique

western reception

• celebration of girls’ rights to education and human rights

national reception

• role of post-9/11 world and the war on terror

• western media appropriating for their own political gains (nationalists and suspicious of western media)

• reinforces Bush’s “us and them” binary of terrorists and the west

• white saviour complex - malala serving colonial/neo-imperialist agenda, western educated

guest lecture - Sadif

Laura Bush

• connecting fighting terrorism to fighting for female rights

• oppression is truly an outcome of terrorism but the west makes it the goal of terrorism

3 key angles to discuss book

• authorship, politics of publication/marketing, polarity of reader response

3 main critiques

• frame highlights Pakistan’s most negative aspect, Malala’s education echos western agendas, western admiration is hypocritical (casualties of drone strikes?)

framing

• selection and salience of chosen aspects

• ethical concern: choosing what is believed to be the truth

• eg. TIME magazine border, Afghan girl (burqa = islamic oppression)

S. Eckert and L. Steiner

feminist uses of social media

optimism

• increased access and discourse, hashtag activism

negatives

• clicktivism/slacktivism: lack of real impact

• toxic environment for feminists - sexism, online abuse/violence, controversy

• structure reflective of patriarchal interests

fluid public clusters

• allows feminists to connect in diverse forms on situational needs

Iranian digital activism case - Paria Rahimi lecture

manuel castells networked social movement

• digital communication technologies enable real-time interaction and social reach

• leaderless organization collective activism driven by shared narratives

• occupying urban and digital spaces as a form of protest

4 waves of feminism

• 1st (early 20th century): legal rights -suffrage and property rights

• 2nd (1960s-1980s): workplace discrimination, reproductive rights, gender roles and systemic patriarchy

• 3rd (1990s-2000s): response to 2nd wave limitations (creating a universal experience of how to be a feminist)

• 4th (2010s): building, digital activism, gbv, systemic inequality

R. Tisseen

gender mainstreaming

• strategy for institutionalizing and integrating gender concerns into the mainstream - goal is gender equality

• potential: promote empowerment and visibility, structural address

• limitations: masculinist organizational cultures and pervasive attitudes towards women constrain, lack of accountability once mainstreamed, gap between intentions and reality, resistance

• feminist analysis: problematic term (if mainstream development is the reason for inequalities), rests on assumptions (NGOs are gender neutral, actual politicized), technical solutions don’t necessarily translate into practice (tokenism)

everywhere/nowhere concept

androcentrism

• mainstreaming gender requires attention to male-centredness of existing systems/structures

approaches

• integrationist: integrate gender concerns into existing practice (preferred, less change)

• agenda-setting: transform existing norms to promote gender equality

G. Terry

climate justice inextricably linked to gender justice

• gender analysis: hardly considered in international climate change discourse, technical and economic solutions prioritized over social dimensions

• specific inequalities and vulnerabilites, eg. dependance of poor women on natural resources makes them vulnerable

• carbon emissions: gender blindness, reliance on traditional fuels, women collect in developing countries

• loop between social reproduction and capital accumulation

mitigation

• efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

adaptation

• preparing for and adjusting to impacts of climate change to reduce vulnerabilites

• gender-equitable sustainable development is best for poor countries

international climate protection regime (UN framework and Kyoto Protocol)

• gender-equity of market-based mechanisms (women’s restricted access to resources)

Heintz, Staab, and Turquet

COVID-19 and a feminist economic paradigm shift

• dependence of globalized market-based economies on nonmarket goods, services, and activities

3 interlocking crises

• care crises: paid and unpaid work, role in economics yet devalued by government and markets

• environmental crises: stems from unsustainable production and consumption = resource exploitation (linked to macro, but neglected)

• macroeconomic crises: contradictions of current capitalist systems implicate nonmarket care and the environment

feminist paradigm

• centralization of non market processes - policy implications

• social provisioning: shift economic focus from market production to processes and practices vital for life

• GDP inadequate measure of macro-progress (suggests GPI)

development

engaging with economically disadvantaged regions of the world

• actors: other nations, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), International organizations (World Bank, IMF), non governmental orgs

• bretton woods-style assistance: financial aid led by IMF/World Bank to stabilize economies, includes conditions

• power in setting agenda and terms

gender and development

gender inequality considered a special issue

• open-pit fires in TZ, Africa: get rid of coal bc its bad = rural women can’t cook, warm, feed = use of open pit fires = children fall and die, women leave communities for wood = sexual violence and deforestation

Sustainable development goals (SDP) case

17 goals of the UN to achieve by 2030

• not close but some progress, must pursue action policies

• some contradiction, no form of measurement, fueled by institutional pressure

B. Baruah

underrepresentation of women in the global energy industry (renewable energy)

• women in lower-paid/non-technical and less influential roles

• OECD countries have more women in sales and admin

• developing countries have more women in unstable low paid RE jobs

factors influencing women involvement in the RE sector

• misperceptions about technical abilities, discouraging

• self-employment promoted as a solution but is unstable/unreliable

• part-time work: more women work part-time, more employers want full-time workers

• travel, mobility, and skill shortages disproportionately affect women

• public sector involvement: government interventions needed

J. Buolamwini

gender and racial bias in AI

• higher error rate classifying faces

• amplifies existing inequalities - sexist hiring and racist justice

• women and people of colour underrepresented in all stages of AI

coded gaze

• inherent AI bias resulting in discriminatory/exclusionary practice

• exclusion overhead: burden felt when tech systems don’t account for diversity, requiring alterations to fit the “norm”

founded the Algorithmic Justice League (bias in facial analysis) and Safe Face Pledge (prevent lethal use/abuse of this tech)

C. McNicholas et al.

importance of unions for workers, especially in crisis (eg. COVID)

• secures benefits, eg. union wage premium

• declining union density entering the pandemic due to badly governed collective bargaining and weak labour laws

Protecting the Right to Organize (PROP) Act

• to strengthen worker bargaining rights by addressing obstacles

• override right to work laws: laws banning fair share agreements (which allow worker benefits without contributing to union costs)

• health and safety as essential terms of employment

• joint employer status: employers often evade responsibility for worker terms of employment

• ban captive audience meetings: mandatory meetings, employers deliver anti-union messages