WOMEN, INK. BOOKLINK #67
April 2007
Mollie Van Gordon
1. Gender Instruments in Africa 2. Resistance, Repression, and
Gender Politics in Occupied Palestine and
Jordan 3. Seethings and Seatings 4. Why Women are More Vulnerable
During Disasters 5. Women's Organizations and
Democracy in South Africa Gender Instruments in Africa Published by the Institute for
Global Dialogue, South Africa, this book explores the
idea that 30 years after the first UN conference in
Mexico and 10 years after the UN world conference in
Beijing, there has been little improvement in the
situation of women in Africa, as in all other regions of
the world. Essays from activists, academics and policy
makers from across the continent provide an overview of
existing international gender treaties and examine the
factors influencing their implementation in sub-Saharan
Africa. Building on discussions at a regional workshop
where these studies were first presented, the essays
reveal a complex web of gains, hindrances, and
consequences of these international gender treaties.
Authors also describe an increase in policy and
institutional possibilities at the national, regional and
global level, and the book concludes with pragmatic
suggestions for ending the impasse on women's rights in
the continent. 2005. 172 pages. ISBN
1-91969-781-0. WE781. US$19.95 Resistance, Repression, and
Gender Politics in Occupied Palestine and Jordan Military and political studies of
Palestinian resistance organizations usually overlook
analyses of women's involvement or absence in them, or
fail to address the ways in which gender, including
masculinities, and sexuality shape resistance politics.
Using organizational documents and narratives of men and
women active in the movement, this publication attempts
to fill that gap by examining the ideologies and
strategies of the transnational Palestinian political
movement through these neglected perspectives. In
particular, the author examines the Democratic Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the branches of the
Democratic Front party in the Occupied Territories and
Jordan, and the Palestinian Federation of Women's Action
Committees in the Occupied Territories. The concluding
chapter explores gender and sexual operations in party
politics in Lebanon, Syria, and Kuwait. Through this
book, the author illustrates the extent to which women's
gendered subjectivities were shaped by national
identification and commitment to national frameworks of
thought, bridging the divide in Middle East scholarship
between gender as a 'social' concern and nationalism as a
'political' concern. 2005. 231 pages. ISBN
0-8156-3087-5. WE804. US$24.95 Seethings and Seatings Emerging from a research project
undertaken by the APWLD's Women's Participation in
Political Processes program, this book presents the
experiences of six women who are involved in electoral
and parliamentary politics in Fiji, India, Korea,
Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia and the Philippines. It identifies
factors that make it difficult for women to win
elections, as well as strategies used by women leaders to
win and meet women's objectives in elections or while in
Parliament or other elected positions. Pointers for the
development of future strategies to strengthen women's
participation in political processes throughout the
region are also provided. 2005. 203 pages. ISBN
974-93775-1-6. WE809. US$15.95 Why Women are More Vulnerable
During Disasters When disasters strike, the
marginalization and disempowerment of women is deepened.
They tend to have less access to resources because relief
efforts rely on existing structures of resource
distribution that reflect the disadvantaged position of
women. This report presents testimonies from women's
groups involved in the relief efforts after the 2004
Indian Ocean tsunami and Pakistan earthquake and declares
that women are more deeply at risk during such disasters.
It contains recommendations to governments, aid agencies,
and national and international non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) on addressing women's needs and
preventing violations of women's human rights in
rehabilitation and reconstruction processes. 2005. 60 pages. WE810.
US$7.95 Women's Organizations and
Democracy in South Africa Women activists in South Africa
have proved flexible and remarkably successful in
influencing policy, alternately asserting their political
independence and giving precedence to the democratic
movement as a whole. At the same time, their feminism has
been profoundly shaped by the context of democratic and
nationalist ideologies. Offering a historically informed
discussion of the challenges facing feminist activists
during a time of nationalist struggle and
democratization, this book offers fresh insights into the
interactions between civil society, political parties and
the state. It boldly confronts sensitive issues such as
the tensions between autonomy and political dependency in
feminists' engagement with the African National Congress
(ANC) and other democratic movements, as well as
black/white relations within women's organizations.
2005. 352 pages. ISBN
0-299-21384-6. WE764. US$24.95 ********************************************************************* RESOURCES This section is a compilation of
free resources on Women, Policy and Political Process
that are available on the Internet: 1. Bringing Women into
Governance, 2007 2. International Knowledge
Network of Women in Politics 3. Women in National
Parliaments, 2007 4. Win With Women - Strengthen
Political Parties: Global Action Plan, 2005 5. Gender and Citizenship
Cutting Edge Pack, 2004 6. Women, Nationality &
Citizenship, 2003 All orders need to
be prepaid by credit card (MasterCard/Visa), cheque
(US dollars drawn on a US bank) or direct deposit
into Women, Ink.‚'s bank account (Chase Bank,
New York #152012761). We don't advise e-mailing
your credit card number for security reasons;
instead, fax it to us at 1.212.661.2704 or order
on-line at: http://www.womenink.org.
You can also write
to us at: Booklinks are made
possible by funding from the
Once again, welcome to the
Women, Ink. Booklink, the monthly e-mail bulletin on
what's new in our collection this April. If you have
friends or colleagues whom you think would find Booklink
useful, please let us know. To subscribe to Booklink,
send an e-mail to joey@womenink.org
and type the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
OR CONCERNS, WRITE TO joey@womenink.orgThis month, we are featuring
an exciting array of titles and additional resources,
from different regional perspectives, in the area of
women, policy and political process. The new titles for
this month are:
Critical Perspectives, Future Strategies
Strategies for Women's Political Participation in Asia
Pacific
Violations of Women's Human Rights in the Tsunami
Aftermath
Contesting Authority
Visit our website at www.womenink.org
for further information and to buy any of the featured
titles.
Critical Perspectives, Future Strategies
Christi van der Westhuizen (Ed.)
Frances S. Hasso
Strategies for Women's Political Participation in Asia
Pacific
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development
(APWLD)
Violations of Women's Human Rights in the Tsunami
Aftermath
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development
(APWLD)
Contesting Authority
Shireen Hassim
The Centre for Development and Population Activities
(CEDPA)
Focused on the efforts to bring women into governance,
this publication illustrates ways in which organizations
and activists around the world can foster greater gender
equity in civic engagement, advocacy, voting and
governance efforts. It includes six chapters that
highlight key approaches to supporting women's leadership
so that governments worldwide can be more responsive to
the needs of women.
Get your own copy at: http://www.cedpa.org
(iKNOW-Politics), 2007
This resource is an online workspace designed to serve
the needs of elected officials, candidates, political
party leaders and members, researchers, students and
other practitioners interested in advancing women in
politics. Created with the goal of increasing the
effectiveness and participation of women through the
innovative use of technology, iKNOW-Politics includes an
online library that provides access to academic papers,
case studies, training materials, data and statistics,
editorials and newspaper articles and government
documents on the issue of women and political process; a
discussion board that enables users to exchange
information and participate in discussions; and a space
where best practices on topics ranging from campaign
techniques to political parties to post-conflict and
transitional participation can be shared.
Read more at: http://www.iknowpolitics.org/
International Parliamentary Union (IPU)
The International Parliamentary Union (IPU) maintains
up-to-date statistics, as submitted by national
parliaments, on the participation rates of women in
national parliaments around the world. It provides world
and regional averages, broken down by total number of
Members of Parliament for Upper and Lower Houses, further
broken down by gender. Links are available from this web
page to comparative data by country, as well as data on
regional parliamentary assemblies, with a further link to
the PARLINE database to view detailed results of
parliamentary elections by country.
Learn more at: http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm
National Democratic Institute
This global action plan, developed by the National
Democratic Institute and Win with Women, to increase the
number of women seeking and obtaining elected office.
Available in 14 languages, it includes recommendations
for supporting the involvement of women in politics and
focuses on the following issues: removal of restrictions
on women's political participation, including
restrictions on suffrage and candidacy; increasing the
number of women elected to national, provincial, and
local levels; and ensuring that political parties include
women in leadership positions; and advocating for
legislation that enshrines the full equality of women and
men.
Find out more at: http://www.iknowpolitics.org/files/
Win%20With%20Women%20Act%20plan%20Armenia%20combined.pdf
BRIDGE, Institute for Development Studies UK
An accessible overview about the importance of
citizenship and gender to development theory and
practice, this pack of information discusses key debates
in the literature on gender and citizenship and attempts
to illustrate how reframing citizenship from a gender
perspective can introduce broader rights and political
participation as development goals. It also highlights
how understanding the ways in which different groups
define and experience citizenship can enable development
actors and the citizens they work with to make such
rights and participation a reality. Available in English,
French and Spanish, the pack comprises of a comprehensive
report,supporting resources and a brief about this
topic.
Take a look at: http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports_gend_CEP.html
United Nations Division for the Advancement of
Women
This report, published to promote the goals of the
Beijing Platform for Action, outlines provisions in
international instruments and human rights treaties that
address discriminatory nationality laws and provides
examples of where such instruments have been used. In
many states, a wife's nationality is dependent on that of
her husband and this can leave women vulnerable in
cross-national marriages and situations where a husband
changes nationality. Women can also be vulnerable in
cases where they retain their own nationality, when
moving to another country renders them unable to access
citizen rights in the new environment. The fact that
women are often not allowed to pass nationality on to
their children has significant implications for the
custody and security of children. Recommendations focus
on how actions at the international and national levels
can work with international instruments and amend
national laws. They also include gender training for the
judiciary and immigration officers and removal of the
barriers to dual nationality. Recommendations for NGOs
include initiating test cases, disseminating national and
international case law and the production of 'shadow'
reports to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Further information at: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/public/jun03e.pdf
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