Dominant Male Ideology and Female Options: Three East African Case Studies

Africa ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Obbo
Keyword(s):  
Male Dominance ◽  
African Women ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dominant Male ◽  
East African ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Public ◽  
True State ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThe aim of the essay is to highlight gaps in existing knowledge of African women and bring to light new queries. The argument being presented is that African women assert their individuality by exploring the options available within their respective societies. While it is unsafe to generalize about Africa, the dominance of men in the public, especially the political and ritual spheres, is well illustrated by ethnographies on Africa. Women are on the whole invisible or shadowy figures except in a handful of ethnographies that take a woman's perspective (for example, Leith-Ross, 1939; Kaberry, 1952; and Paulme (ed.), 1963). The ideology of male dominance is taken for granted as representative of the true state of affairs between men and women in Africa. Whereas every researcher probably knows that ideologies are not realities, somehow that knowledge becomes insignificant when dealing with African societies.

scholarly journals The gender gap in political interest revisited

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Ferrín ◽  
Marta Fraile ◽  
Gema M García-Albacete ◽  
Raul Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
The Political ◽  
Dominant Male ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Unique Data ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Specific Interests

To what extent does conventional survey measurement capture the political interest of men and women equally well? We aim to answer this question by relying on unique data from a national online survey in Spain, where we used various questions unpacking the standard indicator of political interest. The findings show that men and women nominate different personal political interests. We also find that the gender gap in political interest vanishes once these specific interests are taken into account. This suggests that at least part of the documented gender gap in general political interest might be due to the fact that, when prompted to think about politics, women disregard their own specific political interests and instead focus on the dominant, male-oriented understanding of politics.

Feminizing Development: The Political Sociology of Female Tokenism in the Nigerian Project

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 410-443
Author(s):  
Sylvanus I. Ebohon
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Women Politicians ◽  
Male Dominance ◽  
The Political ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Public ◽  
Steady Growth ◽  
Global Discourse ◽  
Female Presence ◽  
Women Participation

Abstract This paper interrogates the phenomena of gendered development and gendered opportunity structure in the context of the Nigerian project. On the basis of a body of empirical evidence, male dominance and female tokenism are presented. It is argued that while female participation has recorded steady growth, the emergence of women politicians in the “public face” makes a case for the exceptionality of agendered development in the Nigerian project. It is further argued that the rising profile e of women in the Nigerian ‘public space’ is not only one of the exceptionalities in the global discourse, but that it owes its emergence to post-colonial reform efforts. It is however argued that rising female profile under Goodluck Jonathan in the national executive space marks the rise of top-down approach to feminization of the public space. The paper also points out that the capacity of women to carve autonomous political space within the Nigerian project may be limited by the declining profile of bottom-up approach to female presence in elective offices. The sociological transition from biological femaleness to sociological maleness has engendered the phenomena of ‘female hybridization’ and token radicalism amongst women. The paper concludes with analysis of the sociological roots of de-empowerment located in the growth in women participation.

Kikuyu women and the Harry Thuku disturbances: some uniformities of female militancy

Africa ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey Wipper
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Male Dominance ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Considerable Influence ◽  
The Public ◽  
Formal Systems ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Male Authority ◽  
Male Superiority

Opening ParagraphAfrican men, like men everywhere, have dominated the public sphere, holding the vast majority of official positions of power and authority. In pre-colonial African societies women were formally subordinate to male authority and male dominance was buttressed by an ideology of male superiority and a status system where women showed deference to men. But formal systems, ideologies and codes of etiquette are not realities. In some societies women wielded considerable influence and authority, so much in fact that these systems have been characterised as dual-sex political systems with each sex managing its own affairs (Okonjo, 1976). Women were not so much involved in hierarchical orders of relationships as in complementary, mutually dependent relationships.

ANNUAL SUMMARY OF VITAL STATISTICS—1962

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1963 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 1102-1105
Author(s):  
Myron E. Wegman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Public Health Service ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Health Statistics ◽  
The Public ◽  
True State ◽  
State Of Affairs

FOR A number of years there have been included in the pages of Pediatrics digests of the annual summary of provisional vital statistics published by the National Vital Statistics Division of the National Center for Health Statistics in the Public Health Service. This year the data have been presented in slightly different form, with a more detailed summary than usually available, as Volume 11, No. 13, of the Monthly Vital Statistics Report. The data, although provisional, are considered to reflect very closely the true state of affairs. Methods of making the estimates and the basis for confidence in their reliability have been explained in detail in previous reports.

From village autonomy to modern village administration among the Kulere of central Nigeria

Africa ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Frank
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
Institutional History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Early Colonial ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
The Impact

Opening ParagraphIn studies of change in indigenous political organisations under the impact of colonial administration, the precolonial situation in Africa is often depicted as essentially static. Anthropologists tend to project a relatively ‘uninfluenced’ state of affairs from the early colonial period into the past. Change seems to occur under European influence. This picture is the result less of the conviction of the authors that conditions were static than of a lack of information on precolonial development. This is especially true for ‘acephalous’ societies; centralised societies often possess detailed traditions concerning their institutional history. In the following case, of the political development of a village in the Nigerian Middle Belt, it has been possible to record precolonial changes of organisation in an acephalous society.

scholarly journals Plato On The Unity of the Political Arts (Statesman 258 D–259D)

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Eric Brown
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Essential Difference ◽  
Household Management ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Public ◽  
Know How ◽  
Political Expertise ◽  
Dividing Line

Plato argues that four political arts—politics, kingship, slaveholding, and household-management—are the same. His argument, which prompted Aristotle’s reply in Politics I, has been universally panned. I consider and reject three ways of saving the argument, and argue for a fourth. On my view, Plato assumes that politics is identical with kingship, just as he does elsewhere, but he begs no questions because the point of his argument is to identify the public arts of politics and kingship with the private arts of household-management and slaveholding. He does this successfully by addressing three reasons why one might distinguish the private from the public arts. His argument leaves room for Aristotle to propose other reasons. One of them—involving differences among men and women and slaves—is unfortunate, but another is more promising. The Aristotelian can assume that political expertise is a matter of know-how gathered by experience of the particular actions which differ in the public and private arts. But Plato might well be right to reject this, and to insist that the essential difference between the expert and non-expert—the dividing line between good and bad rule—is not in experience but in their grasp of their goals.

China's Industrial Performance Since 1978

1992 ◽  
Vol 131 ◽  
pp. 577-607 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Michael Field
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
True State ◽  
Chinese Industry ◽  
Industrial Performance ◽  
State Statistical Bureau ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Political Turmoil ◽  
Very High

In the late 1970s, Chinese industry was on the verge of collapse. Its high but erratic rate of growth since 1949 had been achieved by using ever-increasing amounts of labour and capital. Not only was industry operating inefficiently, but the output mix was inappropriate and inventories had accumulated to very high levels. However, the true state of affairs had been obscured by the political turmoil of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and the virtual disbanding of the State Statistical Bureau (SSB).

Democrazy—Dem Go Craze, O: Monitoring the 1999 Nigerian Elections

1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Darren Kew
Keyword(s):  
Transition Program ◽  
The Political ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Political Class ◽  
Soccer Match ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Military

In many respects, the least important part of the 1999 elections were the elections themselves. From the beginning of General Abdusalam Abubakar’s transition program in mid-1998, most Nigerians who were not part of the wealthy “political class” of elites—which is to say, most Nigerians— adopted their usual politically savvy perspective of siddon look (sit and look). They waited with cautious optimism to see what sort of new arrangement the military would allow the civilian politicians to struggle over, and what in turn the civilians would offer the public. No one had any illusions that anything but high-stakes bargaining within the military and the political class would determine the structures of power in the civilian government. Elections would influence this process to the extent that the crowd influences a soccer match.

Heritage

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Shaikh ◽  
Stefano Bonino
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Online Video ◽  
The South ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Public ◽  
Video Footage ◽  
Community Heritage ◽  
Personal Accounts ◽  
The Way

The Colourful Heritage Project (CHP) is the first community heritage focused charitable initiative in Scotland aiming to preserve and to celebrate the contributions of early South Asian and Muslim migrants to Scotland. It has successfully collated a considerable number of oral stories to create an online video archive, providing first-hand accounts of the personal journeys and emotions of the arrival of the earliest generation of these migrants in Scotland and highlighting the inspiring lessons that can be learnt from them. The CHP’s aims are first to capture these stories, second to celebrate the community’s achievements, and third to inspire present and future South Asian, Muslim and Scottish generations. It is a community-led charitable project that has been actively documenting a collection of inspirational stories and personal accounts, uniquely told by the protagonists themselves, describing at first hand their stories and adventures. These range all the way from the time of partition itself to resettling in Pakistan, and then to their final accounts of arriving in Scotland. The video footage enables the public to see their facial expressions, feel their emotions and hear their voices, creating poignant memories of these great men and women, and helping to gain a better understanding of the South Asian and Muslim community’s earliest days in Scotland.

Facing the Challenge of Democracy

2011 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Thinking ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Party Polarization

Citizens are political simpletons—that is only a modest exaggeration of a common characterization of voters. Certainly, there is no shortage of evidence of citizens' limited political knowledge, even about matters of the highest importance, along with inconsistencies in their thinking, some glaring by any standard. But this picture of citizens all too often approaches caricature. This book brings together leading political scientists who offer new insights into the political thinking of the public, the causes of party polarization, the motivations for political participation, and the paradoxical relationship between turnout and democratic representation. These studies propel a foundational argument about democracy. Voters can only do as well as the alternatives on offer. These alternatives are constrained by third players, in particular activists, interest groups, and financial contributors. The result: voters often appear to be shortsighted, extreme, and inconsistent because the alternatives they must choose between are shortsighted, extreme, and inconsistent.

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