Women and Politics

1
Women and Politics

• International Humanitarian University
• Dushanbe, Tajikistan
• Aziza Baimatova

2
Challenging Observations

• In 2002-2004, thirteen terrorist acts in Russia
  involved women (officially)
• In Tajikistan women are not filling even 10 of
  quota in Parliament
• About 80 of Tajik women do not know about their
  rights and are victims of different oppressions

3
Challenging Observations

• Women hold about six and a half percent of the
  seats in Arab state Parliaments, and fourteen and
  a half percent of the seats in sub-Saharan
  African nations Parliaments.
• Women hold about seventeen and a half percent of
  the seats in national Parliaments in Europe, and
  about eighteen and a half percent in the
  Americas.

4
Challenging Observations

• These problems relate to all of us.
• These problems are gender-based.
• Their solutions are political.

5
Course Description

• The course Women and Politics is an investigation
  of contemporary womens issues in politics, with
  particular emphasis on equality, cultural
  politics, women and development, women and war.
• This course is particularly interested in rooting
  out assumptions and perspectives on reality by
  highlighting the gender viewpoint. The
  perspectives and assumptions we hold profoundly
  shape what questions we ask, if any, about social
  problems, the explanations and conclusions we
  reach about them, and, ultimately, the actions we
  might propose or take by way of solution.
• We cannot overemphasize the urgency in continuing
  to ask questions, to reshape and mold the
  questions, to accurately reflect an active and
  participatory approach when engaging social
  reality.

6
Course Goal

• The goal of the course is to create an
  understanding and deepen the awareness of what we
  consider political a matter of power
  relations - by using women as the context for
  rethinking the nature of "politics", traditional
  analyses of governing institutions, political
  processes, theories of politics and what
  constitutes political activity.
• We particularly want you to understand women as
  emerging political players in society, their
  history as outsiders, strategies for gaining
  political power, the evolution of public policies
  that affect the lives and opportunities of women,
  and the present political status of women in
  Tajikistan and globally.

7
Course Objectives

• Taking Gender Seriously as a Social Construction
• Accepting Women as Political Participants
• Reevaluating Political Institutions and Processes
  from a Gender Perspective Whose Interests are
  Served?
• Student Involvement Beyond the Sanctuary of the
  Classroom

8
Course Method

• The course material will be presented through a
  series of lectures giving contextual information,
  background and analyses.
• The lectures will be complemented by seminars
  which will apply the concepts presented during
  the lectures. The seminars will use readings as
  a basis for discussion.

9
Introduction Overview

• Bases for Politics, political identities,
  institutions, processes
• Background concepts, vocabulary and history to
  establish / build context
• Women's Emancipation
• What is politics?
• What is Social Policy?
• How are social policies constructed?

10
Intro to Gender and Related Structural Hierarchies

• How is social / state policy gendered?
• Feminist political theory and the transformation
  of politics
• Ideas
• Illustrations

11
Explanations of Inequalities

• Biological?
• Psychological?
• Social Constructions

12
Gendered Identities and Institutions

• Family
• Learning Gender and Education
• Work and Economics
• Government
• Illustrations

13
Gendered Culture and Images

• Culture as context
• Role of the media
• Ideas
• Illustrations

14
Gendered Interactions Violence

• Gender-based Violence
• Women in Terrorism
• Sexual Harassment
• Ideas
• Illustrations

15
Gendered Political Power

• Womens Status in Politics
• Womens Rights
• Reproductive Rights
• Women and Justice

16
Participation From Representation to Presence

• Access to political power
• Citizenship, civic responsibility, and
  participation
• Electoral system and its impact on womens
  chances to be elected
• Party Systems and Women's Presence in Politics

17
Gendered Political Power IV Future Directions

• UN Womens Conferences in a Global Age

18
Course Summary and Conclusions

• Gender and Power
• The Politics of Feminist Discourse
• Understanding Women and Politics is a source for
  the transformation of politics and as movements
  for emancipation, tolerance and recognition,
  connected to the idea of active citizenship

19
Assessment Objective

• Being Informed Mastery of basic vocabulary of
  concepts, values, methods, and contextual basis
  for understanding consequences and meaning from
  basic Gender and Political Theory
• An actual stock of background knowledge and
  foreground information indicating the likelihood
  of effective participation in dialogue.

20
Assessment Objective

• Being Conversant Generate EVIDENCE of
  thinking, or problem-solving, in achieving a
  working understanding of the concepts presented
  during / through the class.
• Questioning and awareness of conventional
  knowledge of women and politics, emerging themes,
  and fundamental roles.

21
Assessment Objective

• Being Responsible Ideally, the consequence of
  active participation in coursework would lead to
  bringing a gender perspective where one can gain
  leverage on the situations that make a
  difference.

22
Assessment Objective

• Establishing a preliminary baseline Learning
  begins with the careful evaluation of what one
  knows and what one needs to learn.
• Students will be asked questions at the beginning
  of the course to determine their knowledge base.
• The course objective and description spells out
  what needs to be learned, how it is to be
  learned, and how it is to be evaluated as having
  been learned.

23
The Tajik Assessment EnvironmentDifficulties

• Unqualified students. The nature of the
  university is to generate cashflow and student
  qualification is limited only to the ability to
  pay.
• Unprepared students. They lack intellectual
  foundation for critical thinking. (Stupid
  students).
• Unmotivated students
• Blend / Mix of Tajik / Soviet / Islamic cultures
  Heavy influence of tradition and reluctance to
  change
• Entrenched, undemocratic nature of Tajik politics
• Culture of corruption
• Culture of doing as little as possible
• Lack of resources (books, internet, periodicals,
  journals, cultural/academic events)

24
The Tajik Assessment EnvironmentDilemmas

• Those that can benefit from instruction are least
  likely to be available to receive it (i.e. women
  in Tajik society).
• Linking actual performance to accepted cultural
  norms within the Tajik educational system, and
  allowing for failure as an option, an
  unacceptable option but one that will get a
  students attention. ltOr breaking the link
  between non-performance and getting through the
  systemgt

25
The Tajik Assessment EnvironmentControversies

• Women as second among equals subordinate
  status
• Soviet pedagogical heritage
• Soviet educational administration
• Entrenched, undemocratic, and relatively
  unenlightened university administration and
  hierarchy

26
The Tajik Assessment EnvironmentChallenges

• Motivating students
• Engaging the students
• Providing resources and connections for those
  students who want to take some initiative and
  accept responsibility for doing more than the
  minimum
• Looking beyond local cultural constraints