Global Gender

1
Global Gender

• What it means to be female or male differs
  depending on what society a person finds
  themselves in.
• Macro-level analysis finds differences in economy
  (kind and level of economic development),
  politics (kind of system), culture (majoritys
  core values and traditions), and history (key
  events, like environmentalhurricanes,
  colonization, as well as social history)
• Micro-level analysis finds differences in
  meanings of male/female, social roles, cultural
  rituals/traditions, access to resources
• Values of freedom? Human rights?

2
Economic Differences

• Countries differ by their level of economic
  development
• Some countries have more agriculture and less
  industry some have less industrial jobs and more
  service jobs
• Distinctions are made between the developed North
  and the developing Southricher and poorer
  countries
• Sociologyworld systems theory provides one
  theory for these differences and how countries
  get linked together in newer globalization
  processes.
• Economic globalizationthe increased flow of
  goods and services, capital and people across
  national borders (WEDO fact sheet, p. 1.)
• Women/men not same economically majority of
  worlds poor are women and women work 2/3 of
  worlds working hours.
• Major economic inequalities between women/men and
  countries

3
Political Differences

• Countries differ by the kind of formal and
  informal political structures they have
• Country as nation (see Woolfs quote in West p.
  1includes cultural group definitions) and
  country as stateformal political structures
  and processes
• Nations are not always in states (see West)
• What difference does kind of formal political
  structures make to equality between men and
  women?
• Example democracy vs. authoritarianism
• Example differences in voting systems--parliamenta
  ry systems with proportional representation vs.
  two-party plurality--majority vote

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5
Social and Cultural Differences

• Cultures language, food, rituals, religion,
  cultural traditions differ
• Social social roles, values/norms, structures
  differ
• Universal male dominance? Female subordination?
  How are societies the same? How are they
  different?
• Examples differences in how societies define
  beauty? (thinness/fatness) differences in how
  societies value sons/daughters? Differences in
  sex segregation/integration?

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Formal International Institutions

• United Nations
• International NGOsnon-governmental organizations

7
United Nations Year for Women

• Concern with status of women led to first U.N.
  conference on women in 1975 in Mexico City with
  mainly men or wives of leaders heading country
  delegations133 governments attending
• NGO Forumnon-governmental organization
  conference running parallel to govt meetings with
  grass-roots representation6,000 women attending
• Platform of Actiona U.N. document that
  articulated female inequalities and plans of
  action to remedy these
• 1979CEDAWtreaty U.S. has not signed

8
A Decade for Women

• 1980 Copenhagen conference145 governments still
  western dominated. Concern with cultural
  practices like fgm. West did first workshop on
  family violence with Center for Women Policy
  Studies at NGO Forum8,000 women
• 1985 Nairobi conference157 governments put
  Africa and South into conference. Concern with
  western (feminist) domination and definitions
  (colonial histories) with 15,000 women at Forum
• 1995 Beijing conference189 govts. NGO 30,000
  women AND men--control by Chinese communist
  government failed. Defining womens rights as
  human rights
• See Seager p.11

9
1995 Gender Issue

• The word gender was bracketed in the early
  drafts of Platform of Actionwhy?
• Coalition of Holy See (Vatican) with Latin
  American Catholic-dominated and Middle
  Eastern/Muslim representations saw the use of
  gender as an attack on their traditions because
  it emphasized the social construction of sex.
• Opened the door to sex issues advocating
  homosexuality, abortion and teen age
  contraception use where sex not linked to
  marriage and motherhood. Pope John Paul
  IIproblem of radical individualism.
• American conservatives agreed with this
  interpretation
• Brokered a deal and unbracketed gender avoiding
  issues of abortion and homosexuality

10
A Decade Later

• 2005 Progress Report continuing gender
  inequalities with limits on womens access to
  income, authority and power.
• Global fertility declinesin some countries
  artificially high ratios of males to females
• Feminization of work force with more womens
  education
• Effects of neoliberal macroeconomic policies
  (liberalization, deregulation of markets)
• Cross-border worker migration
• Increasing conflicts and peace building (UNRISD)

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Comparative Masculinities and Femininities

• Emphasis on women ignores role of men as men with
  differences to each other as much as to women
• Comparative study of what it means to be
  male/female delineates ideal types/kinds of
  masculinities and femininities that derive from
  different social contexts.
• Exampleseffects of colonialism on social
  construction of Indian masculinity role of
  sports in defining masculinity in Latin America
  vs. UK how does masculinity come to define
  femininity in drinking cultures?
• Can we move beyond the power paradigm?

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References

• Joni Seager, Penguin Atlas Women in the World
• United Nations Research Institute for Social
  Development, Gender Equality Striving for
  Justice in an Unequal World 2005.
• WEDO Womens Environment and Development
  Organization, Fact Sheet Shortchanging Women
  How U.S. Economic Policy Impacts Women Worldwide
  get from www.wedo.org)
• Beijing Betrayed Women Worldwide Report that
  Governments Have Failed to Turn the Platform into
  Action (WEDO, March 2005)
• Lois West, Feminist Nationalism also The
  Womens United Nations Conferences and Feminist
  Politics in Prugl/Meyer, Gender in International
  Organizations 1998.