Politics of Gender in the Developing World

Question 1

“sex”

Answer 1

essentialise women, “tending to depict women as sharing a distinctive, and to some degree biologically determined nature” (Randall)

Question 2

gender

Answer 2

differences between male and female are “socially constructed,’ and are thus also historically and culturally variable, rather than innate and constant”

Question 3

civil rights

Answer 3

property ownership, doing business, joining the workforce

Question 4

political rights

Answer 4

participating in government (by voting or running for office); freedom of speech; freedom of assembly

Question 5

social rights

Answer 5

housing, health care, education, food and water

Question 6

impact of Women’s lack of rights

Answer 6

deprives them of autonomy, power to earn, power to make decisions which deepens poverty and social inequality
access to rights such as: divorce, abortion, land ownership, employment, have
a strong impact on their social and political power
Extreme examples:
No right to drive (Saudi Arabia)
Leave the home unaccompanied by a male relative (Afghanistan)

Question 7

Women from diverse backgrounds experience very different life outcomes even within the same country example:

Answer 7

white, urban-dwelling women in South Africa will have a very different experience of key indicators such as employment, health care, education, and childbirth compared to their rural-dwelling, black fellow citizens
shapes opportunity and relative equality between different segments of the population

Question 8

impact of Colonial powers

Answer 8

disrupted social orders, codifying gender inequality
Women dispossessed of claims to land, as ownership laws were codified to favour men, turning women into dependents.
Colonial authorities also sometimes codified custom into law: ex - India, customary marriage laws were made into law, granting legal authority over women to male elders.
Discriminatory laws favouring men undermined women’s participation in agriculture and other aspects of the economy

Question 9

women in political leadership

Answer 9

Growing number of female heads of state
Variation in the number of women in legislature

Question 10

Feminist scholars have distinguished between:

Answer 10

Descriptive Representation: the number of women in positions of power and the extent to which this mirrors their share of the population at large
Substantive Representation: the promotion of women’s interests, women’s presence in politics does not necessarily translate into greater advocacy on behalf of women’s rights

Question 11

Women role as members of insurgent groups fighting against colonial or authoritarian regimes (e.g., in: Zimbabwe, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala)

Answer 11

key roles in logistics and healthcare, but also on the frontlines in combat roles
Their struggle was dual: fighting against an oppressive regime, and struggling against gender discrimination within their own movement

Question 12

Women’s Mobilization into the Salvadoran Guerrilla Army

Answer 12

Even in revolutionary contexts, many people do not revolt
30-35% of combatants in FMLN were women; similar percentages among leftist rebels in Nicaragua, Guatemala

Question 13

What factors caused women to join rebel armies?
(Viterna)

Answer 13

Activists are heterogenous and “can follow strikingly different paths to the same mobilization outcome” (viterna)
Network ties prior to mobilization: previous organizational involvement; family ties with guerrillas; living in a refugee camp or repopulated community
Biographical availability: motherhood; family completeness; age at mobilization
Experiences of repression: where the government had committed human rights violations and atrocities against local communities, women felt compelled to fight back