PSC 321 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Global Gender Gap Report, Islamic Feminism, Iranian Revolution
18 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Gender and Politics in the MENA
This Week
● Gender and politics in the MENA
● Obstacles to gender equality in the MENA
● The role of the West
Sex v. Gender
● Sex
○ Biological differences
● Gender
○ Socially-constructed
○ Social norms about the proper roles of men and women
Gender and Politics
● Gender as one among many other cleavages
● Other cleavages:
○ Class
○ Ideology
Global Gender Gap Report 2017
● Economic participation and opportunity
● Educational attainment
● Health and survival
● Political empowerment
Gender Inequality in the MENA
● Dimensions
○ Political representation
○ Legal / social (e.g. personal status issues; divorce; citizenship; etc.)
○ Labor force participation
■ Disparity between educational attainment and workforce participation
○ Education (tremendous improvements)
○ Health (improvements)
Saudi Arabia
● Guardianship system
○ Women need permission of male guardian to travel, get married, study abroad
○ April 2017: some changes
Iran
● Significant legal changes after Islamic revolution
○ Reflect “patriarchal understanding of Islamic law”
○ Mandatory veiling
○ Men have more powers in matters of divorce and custody
● “Islamic feminism”
○ Using “women-centered approaches to Islam” to advocate for women’s rights
○ “What successes have Iranian feminists achieved through using Islam as the
basis for reformation?”
Feminism
Document Summary
Obstacles to gender equality in the mena. Social norms about the proper roles of men and women. Gender as one among many other cleavages. Legal / social (e. g. personal status issues; divorce; citizenship; etc. ) Disparity between educational attainment and workforce participation. Women need permission of male guardian to travel, get married, study abroad. Men have more powers in matters of divorce and custody. Using women-centered approaches to islam to advocate for women"s rights. What successes have iranian feminists achieved through using islam as the basis for reformation? . Movement or political ideology that critiques gender inequalities and aims at women"s empowerment. Using the language of feminism to defend colonialism . Using the language of feminism to advance certain development goals or policies. State-led efforts to increase women"s political representation (e. g. quotas) are more about building support rather than women"s empowerment.
