Gender regimes, polities, and the world-system: Comparing Iran and Tunisia

Abstract

This article seeks to connect gender regime theorizing and world-systems analysis. Through the comparative analysis of the evolution of gender regimes in two Global South countries, I underscore the effects of world-systemic processes – in terms of both the world-economy and the inter-state system – on national-level patriarchal relations, institutions, the nature of the public gender regime, and the direction of change. I argue that as the primary source of inequality and hierarchy at the global level, the capitalist world-system affects national-level societal dynamics and the institutional domains that constitute a gender regime. The two country cases demonstrate the salience of supra-national factors that block women's economic agency, preventing the transition to a more egalitarian gender regime (Tunisia), and strengthening domestic patriarchal forces (Iran).