Gender Equality Movement Research Articles

Gender Analysis On Islamic Texts: A Study On Its Accuracy

Gender equality movement is spreading all over the world, including in Indonesia where Muslim gender activists have made hard efforts to ensure gender fairness and equality among people. One of their efforts is emphasizing the urgency of reinterpreting Islamic texts. They insist on the reinterpretation of Islamic texts based on gender perspective and analysis due to the existence of many Islamic texts that trespass the principles of gender equality and fairness they have been fighting for. This paper aims at assuring and examining the accuracy of using gender perspective as a tool for analyzing the Islamic text. It is found that using gender perspective and analysis for reinterpreting Islamic texts is not in line with the Islamic principles and will only produce laws and points of views which deviate from Islamic teachings. To reach the goals of this study, a descriptive-analytical approach is employed.

Advancing Women in Leadership: Multi-Level Targets and Mandatory Quotas Impact on Cultural Change

The developing worldwide movement for gender equality has focused in recent years on the participation of women at the pinnacle of organisations, in boards of directors and senior executive ranks. A recurring question is whether this will fundamentally change the position of women in work, or simply enhance the career structure of a few fortunate women? This paper contributes to the literature by taking the analysis beyond the form of regulation used by governments, to the behavioural changes they hope to effect. The paper informs regulatory theory by exploring the potential effects of voluntary self regulation compared to mandatory regulation. Following an analysis of the case for and against quotas and targets, we argue that if the regulatory objective is to stimulate cultural change within corporations, a flexible, voluntary regime could in some circumstances be more effective than a mandatory quota system. Yet no approach is likely to be effective unless there is in place a solid platform of provision...

S.J.RES30: The Equal Representation Act of 2011

We have reached a new age in gender equality. Our grandmothers recall times of discrimination and submission while their granddaughters have become world leaders in business, science and most importantly politics. But are the incredible achievements of women like Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, undermined by the lack of women coming up the political ranks? As a nation, fiercely proud of their stand on human rights, America is lagging behind on political gender equality. Enfranchisement is more than a right to vote and with women making up only 17% of Congress, America is placed 69 th in the world for percentage of women in the national legislature. Women offer vital perspectives and experiences that are crucial in law making and governance. Yet despite years of grassroots gender equality work, they continue to be underrepresented in decision making bodies. As the momentum of grassroots organizing arguable fades, our current law makers must take more responsibility for ensuring women’s political significance in the future. This paper proposes a legislative answer to the political gender divide. Positioned as a legislative to proposal to California Senator Barbara Boxer, this paper suggests political parties adopt a voluntary quota, to motivate, mentor and financially support potential female candidates in order to address the dismal representation of women in federal government. This paper looks at the political and social implications of this legislation, works from existing legislative structures both American and abroad and foresees the opposition and passage of legislation through the current Congress. The movement for gender equality needs a jump start, could that catalyst come from legislation itself?

Campaigning against the Cuts: Gender Equality Movements in Tough Times

The Coalition's economic strategy poses a significant threat to gender equality in the UK. In the absence of committed gender equality advocates in the government, campaigning is, again, from the outside. This article presents some of the new strategies developed by individuals and organisations such as the Women's Budget Group and the Fawcett Society to fight against the cuts and considers the effectiveness of their approaches.

From the Heyang Model to the Shaanxi Model: Action Research on Women's Participation in Village Governance

AbstractIn the fifth village elections in 2003 in Shaanxi province only 184 women were elected as village heads, a mere 0.6 per cent of the total. By the sixth elections in 2006 the number had almost doubled, and by the seventh elections in 2009 it had increased to 544. Together with the women on village Party committees, there were now 1,193 women village officials throughout the province, 4.5 per cent of the total. In contrast to leading women cadres within the formal structures of the political system, these village heads owed their positions not to nomination by upper levels of Party and government leadership but to success in fiercely competitive elections. Their success was the result of a grass-roots movement launched by a civil organization, the Shaanxi Research Association for Women and Family, to mobilize women's political participation. Their activities and trajectories had an impact on the local gender division of labour and entrenched gender attitudes that far surpassed the numbers alone. This article examines the collaboration between the Shaanxi Research Association for Women and Family and the All-China Women's Federation to mobilize women's political participation in Heyang county, Shaanxi province. It particularly focuses on the role of the Research Association in drawing on international feminist practices of women's empowerment to provide participatory based gender training courses as the key to persuading women to confront local and institutional resistance. Collaboration between the Research Association and the Women's Federation opened up access to significant resources both within and outside the system, creating new spaces for the articulation and protection of women's rights. Originating in a grass-roots movement, this collaboration can be seen as an instance of China's contemporary movement for gender equality.

Gender equality, Pan-Africanism and the diaspora

ABSTRACT In 2003, the same year that the African Union (AU) officially recognised a role for the African diaspora in the future of continental Africa, it also adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, a document which seeks to enhance women's human rights across the Union. These official actions by this body, representing the vision of a more unified Africa, marks a new stage in a history of interactions, conversations and collaborations between Africa and its diaspora, as well as a renewed commitment to gender equity on the continent. This paper examines the feminist tradition within Pan-Africanism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the developments in relation to gender equality with the emergence of the new women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The United Nations’ Declaration of the Decade for Women heralded a new phase in the movement for gender equality in the world. These developments, however, are taking place within a context of neo-liberal globalisation, which has had many negative impacts on the peoples of the African diaspora. While it has contributed to the creation of some new millionaires of colour, it has also ruined the agricultural base of many economies, destroyed manufacturing (including indigenous crafts and production systems) and reduced the economic options open to most of our countries – unless they are oil and mineral-producing states. This article concludes with recommendations for greater South – South collaboration on issues of gender equality, including the production and dissemination of audio-visual materials to challenge the power of the globalised US media and its gendered images.

2LS-E 男女参画シンポジウム : より良い研究活動支援へむけて

2LS-E 男女参画シンポジウム : より良い研究活動支援へむけて

The disappearance of polarized altruism

This paper uses a model of assortative mating and occupational choice to explain the 1976 distribution of family income with respect to the husband's personality. Data are from the 1976 survey of Americans' mental health. The occupational polarization of altruism, observed in the 1957 distribution of family income, is absent. It is hypothesized that the disappearance of polarized altruism is attributable to personality and occupational differences in responses to the decline in the real wage rate and the movement for gender equality.