Global Gender Research
Edited by Christine Bose, Minjeong Kim
Routledge – 2009 – 370 pages
Series: Perspectives on Gender
Readers of Global Gender Research will learn to compare and contrast feminist concerns globally, gain familiarity with the breadth of gender research, and understand the national contexts that produced it.
This volume provides an in-depth comparative picture of the current state of feminist sociological gender and women's studies research in four regions of the world—Africa, Asia, Latin America/the Caribbean, and Europe—as represented by many countries. The introductory essay to each region explains how social science research on women and/or gender issues has been shaped by economics, politics, and culture, and by trends that are simultaneously local, regional, and global. It familiarizes readers with the wide range of salient issues, research methods, writing styles, and leading authors from around the globe.
Each regional section includes several chapters on gender research in specific countries that represent the region's diversity and cover the major theoretical and empirical trends that have emerged over time, as well as the relationship of key research questions to feminist activism and women’s or gender studies. Next, the editors illustrate this new wave of gender scholarship with translated/reprinted samples of research articles from additional countries in the region, that cover a wide range of important global topics—such as work, sexuality, masculinities, childcare and family issues, religion, violence, law and gender policies. Finally, this volume provides scholars with extensive bibliographies and a listing of web sites for women’s and gender research centers in 85 countries.
"Global Gender Research offers an extraordinary and wide-ranging collection of feminist sociological inquiries around the world. A great choice for undergraduate classrooms and a useful reference for any feminist academic."
–Rhacel Parreñas, American Civilization, Brown University
"Bose and Kim have skillfully woven together a collection of essays of breathtaking scope to provide an overview of contemporary cutting edge gender research in the social sciences from around the globe. The volume is certain to be of interest to a wide range of social scientists, women’s rights activists, students, and others engaged with women’s rights concerns."
—Aili Mari Tripp, Political Science and Gender & Women's Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"This excellent edited collection captures the vibrancy and range of contemporary gender research by foregrounding the diversity of women’s lives, the complexity of gendered struggles, and collective accomplishments of women activists fighting for social, economic, and political justice in very different contexts."
—Nancy A. Naples, Sociology and Women’s Studies, University of Connecticut
"…the resulting complexity provides richness and depth that many other books on research and gender studies lack. …The editors hoped to produce a volume that would 'help transform the social science disciplines and women's studies by truly bringing international native/indigenous gender scholarship to the United States, as well as other countries' (p. xiii). There is doubt that their goal has been met in this book's comprehensive and unique examination of social science research and its relation to women's and gender studies on a global level."
—Kelly Barrick, Feminist Collections Volume 31, Number 3, Summer 2010
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
Christine E. Bose and Minjeong Kim
The major commonalities and differences in gender research across the globe are described, while also examining the social structures that help shape research questions
Mary Johnson Osirim, Christine E. Bose and Minjeong Kim
An overview on how political, social, and economic trends shape gender research across the African continent
A Review of Research in the Social Sciences
Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Josephine Beoku-Betts, Wairimũ Ngarũiya Njambi, and Mary Johnson Osirim
Health, education, gender-based violence, sexuality, globalization and work, and politics, the state, and NGOs are important themes in English speaking Africa’s gender research.
Akosua K. Darkwah
As formal sector occupations disappear under structural adjustment plans, educated women become transnational traders in the informal economy.
Conceição Osório and Eulália Temba
Women who experience family violence do not find justice in the courts of Mozambique, but a return to older consensual tribal methods does not work either.
The practice of Islam shapes family law even in a secular state like Senegal.
ASIA & THE MIDDLE EAST
Minjeong Kim and Christine E. Bose
An overview on how political, social, and economic trends shape gender research across Asia and the Middle East
Esther Ngan-ling Chow, Naihua Zhang and Jinling Wang
The underlying themes of local-global interaction and "discipline building" link the growth of both women’s studies and the sociology of women/gender.
Bandana Purkayastha, Mangala Subramaniam,
Manisha Desai, and Sunita Bose
Focusing on theory, methods, social movements and domestic violence, the authors review dynamics of doing research in a diverse country.
Women’s Studies was recently established by a decree of the Ministry of Higher Education, but activists and NGOs are more likely to be in touch with new global gender research.
Elite Korean soldiers’ ideas on masculinity are shaped through their interactions with U.S. counterparts and by masculinity models found among regular Korean military conscripts.
Van Huy Nguyen, Udoy Sankar Saikia and Thi Minh An Dao
Addressing gender and development issues adequately is key to combating the spread of HIV/AIDS in Vietnam, especially among sex workers.
Thinking About Women’s Resistance and Subjectivity
Women who want to keep their own family names at marriage are having an impact on revising family law, even though they do not organize like a traditional social movement.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
An overview on how political, social, and economic trends shape gender research across Latin America and the Caribbean
Montserrat Sagot and Ana C. Escalante
Academic-activist linkages are key to understanding the themes in Central American gender research on topics including human rights, violence against women, citizenship, political participation, economic inequality, gendered identities, masculinities, and migration.
Alice E. Colón Warren
Common gender research themes include women’s employment, poverty, family violence, and sexual and reproductive rights, with growing interest in the intersectionalities of gender, race, nation, class and sexuality.
Marta Núñez Sarmiento
Gender studies began only in the late 1980s, but researchers learned from the mistakes of others; various methodological approaches are described for a sample of researchers.
Early emphasis on finding the local roots of feminism and describing women’s realities shifted to a more recent focus on cultural studies.
Graciela Di Marco
Unionized workers in traditional and progressive unions are trying to move from a "specific structures" to a "main structure" model with the help of a union female quota law.
Maria Luiza Heilborn
Survey research on youth reveals gender differences and myths about liberal sexual attitudes.
Feminists and nationalists created different discourses about citizenship, as illustrated in organizing around abortion and sterilization abuse.
Christine E. Bose and Minjeong Kim
An overview on how political, social, and economic trends shape gender research across Europe
Feminist scholars in German-speaking Europe have developed a strong focus on feminist socio-historical theory, with a trajectory influenced by National Socialism, the unification of East and West Germany, and by broader European Union events; currently they are shifting from gender-class axes to a focus on the intersectionality of gender, class, race, sexuality and nation.
In the post-Franco era, gender studies has been shaped by feminist activism and state funding for research; and important themes include families, education, work, politics, sexuality, and men.
Eva Fodor and Eszter Varsa
Gender studies has many similarities with other former state socialist countries, but there are also differences in disciplines, institutionalization, the power of feminist NGOs, and other features.
Polish nationalistic discourse avoids the question of homosexuality and makes it invisible, largely due to the Church’s role in the decline of communism, as shown in analyses of the Catechism and the new Polish Constitution.
Nordic countries use a combination of insider and outsider strategies to achieve child care support, but they vary in their usage of home care vs. institutional support, and in how they support paternity leave.
Competing frames, norm-setting, and male-dominated institutions are reasons for resistance to adopting gender norms in the EU constitution-making process, thus shifting to an agenda setting approach.
A1. Websites of International Women’s Research Centers
A3. Reprint Permission List