scholarly journals Palestinian Women’s Organization’s: Their Challenging Journey towards Women’s Empowerment

Author(s):  
Dr. Reem Abuiyada

Palestinian Women’s organizations have a very important role in Palestine's civil society. The development of these organizations is well recognized and they reached their peak at the beginning of the INTIFADA. Until the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA), women’s organizations formed part of the national struggle against the Israeli occupation, and their agenda was subordinate to that of the national movement. In the late 1980s, however, a process of transformation was initiated that provided women’s organizations with the opportunity to focus on women’s issues. Indeed, since the creation of the PA, women’s organizations have focused almost exclusively on women’s issues. The PA, in contrast, has attempted to marginalize women, as reflected in the process of its consolidation. As a result, women’s organizations have attempted to influence PA policy to improve the position of women in Palestinian society. This paper examines the means and strategies that the Palestinian Women’s Organizations have adopted to influence Palestinian Authority (PA) policy.

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-142
Author(s):  
Tatyana E. Lomova ◽  

The article analyses women’s organizations of modern Russia as a component of civil society. The study is based on the gender approach and materials analyzed include statistical data, results of opinion polls, websites of women’s organizations, interviews and other documents. The women’s movement is considered as one of the social practices in the context of the theory of practices proposed by Pierre Bourdie, Robert Connell and others. The author notes that the peak of women’s activity in Russia was in the 1990s, when women were uniting to solve social problems, such as women’s unemployment, human trafficking, etc. During that time, the women’s movement in Russia was developing with the support of international women’s organizations and foreign charity funds, but after the adoption of the so-called law on “foreign agents” many funds suspended or limited their activities in Russia. As a result, nowadays, many Russian NGOs including women’s organizations are facing financial problems. NGOs recognized as a “foreign agent” experience the most difficulties while organizations with the status of socially oriented NGOs can receive government’s support and funding. Using the method of content analysis, the author revealed that names of Russian women’s organizations often include such words as “family”, “childhood”, and “motherhood”, whereas the words “woman”/“women” and ‘women’s’ are rarely used. This is due to the fact that in Russian society there are still widespread views that the range of women’s interests should be limited to the private sphere. At the same time, the gender theory and feminism are often presented as attempts to undermine national traditions. As a result, a woman is considered as an object of social policy rather than a subject of social processes. The majority of Russian women’s organizations focus on charity work, but specific women’s interests and problems are often ignored or undervalued. However, domestic violence, labour market discrimination, and other gender problems can be solved only through the close interaction of the “third sector”, business, and government.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 2349
Author(s):  
Seda Topgül

The main objective of this study is to investigate the approach to women’s issues and recent efforts of unions to include women in unions in the light of interviews conducted with Turk-İs and Hak-İs Confederations.  The study reveals how women are considered in unions and the place given to women in unions’ policies. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with six women in unions under these two confederations after a literature review. According to the results of the study, the number of women at both membership and executive levels is low in unions under both confederations. There are differences between the ideas of male and female unionists at senior level. Thus, efforts to increase the participation of women in unions are not sufficient. ÖzetBu araştırmanın temel amacı Türk-İş ve Hak-İş Konfederasyonlarında mülakatlar ışığında kadın sorununa nasıl yaklaşıldığının ve son dönemlerde sendikaların kadınları sendikaya dâhil etmek için ne tür farklı çalışmalar yaptığının araştırılmasıdır.  Kadınların sendikalarda nasıl değerlendirildikleri ve sendikaların politikalarında kadına verdikleri yer açığa çıkarılmaktadır. Bu amaçla literatür taraması sonrası iki konfederasyona bağlı sendikalardaki altı kadın ile görüşme yapılmıştır. Araştırmanın sonucuna göre, her iki konfederasyona bağlı sendikalarda hem üyelik hem de yönetim kademelerindeki kadın sayısı azdır. Üst pozisyondaki erkekler ile kadın sendikacıların düşünceleri arasında farklılıklar bulunmaktadır. Bu yüzden sendikalarda kadınların katılımının arttırılması yönündeki çabalar yeterli olmamaktadır.


Author(s):  
Dana El Kurd

The Introduction gives an overview of the state of Palestinian politics before and after the Oslo Accords. It sets up the argument of the remainder of the book that international, and particularly American, intervention following the creation of the Palestinian Authority has increased authoritarian conditions in the Palestinian territories, as well as had a divisive effect on Palestinian society and inhibited their ability to mobilize according to their shared interests.


Author(s):  
Laura J. Shepherd

Chapter 6 reflects on the dominant configurations of civil society, women, gender, and peacebuilding in UN peacebuilding discourse and why the author thinks these arguments are significant. It is notable that the foundational resolution that brought forth the UN PBC specifically identifies “women’s organizations”—and only women’s organizations—as a part of “civil society” with which the Commission is encouraged to consult, as noted earlier. This articulation, as discussed earlier, not only feminizes civil society organizations but also reproduces the association between women and civil society. Further, the discursive construction of civil society as a feminized subject in peacebuilding discourse relies on assumptions about women’s capacity to engage meaningfully in peacebuilding-related activities by virtue of their femininity and the concomitant assumption of pacifism and peacebuilding potential. Both of these constructions are problematic in the ways in which they make sense of women’s lived experiences in conflict and post-conflict situations.


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