Gendering the Nation-State
Gendering the Nation-State
Canadian and Comparative Perspectives
Serious study of scoial and political life must attend to gender as a category of analysis. Gendering the Nation-State explores the gendered dimensions of a fundamental organizational unit in social and political science: the nation-state. Yasmeen Abu-Laban has drawn together work by both high-profile and emerging scholars to rescue gender from the margins of theoretical discussions on the nation, the state, public policy, and citizenship. Contributors bring the insights of feminist analysis to bear on three relationships central to popular and policy discussions in contemporary Canada and beyond: gender and nation, gender and state processes, and gender and citizenship.
Gendering the Nation-State employs a comparative framework and builds on three decades of multidisciplinary work. Nuanced and wide-ranging, the collection crosses and challenges physical, theoretical, and disciplinary borders. It will appeal to scholars in political science, gender studies, and sociology.
The 14 essayists in this book have brilliantly analyzed gender and nation, gender and state processes and gender and citizenship. This is a scholarly book showing the way to justice, equality and understanding for the role of women in the state.
…political scientists and other social scientists will benefit from reading Gendering the Nation-State. It contributes to the breaking down of boundaries in political science and clearly connects theories to both empirical knowledge and the political outcomes that affect women directly.
This is an excellent collection. While its main focus is clearly on gender and the state, the book makes important contributions to our understanding of nationalism, comparative politics, neoliberalism, postcolonialism, risk society and the role of transnational actors and NGOs. The collection clearly establishes that analyzing gender is not just a matter of ‘adding’ insights to existing analyses but that gendered perspectives often fundamentally challenge the way in which traditional categories and analyses are constructed. As Yasmeen Abu-Laban makes clear in her introduction, the collection ‘is a response to a disciplinary incompleteness in political science.
Yasmeen Abu-Laban is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. Widely published in the areas of difference and citizenship, she is co-author of Selling Diversity: Immigration, Multiculturalism, Employment Equity, and Globalization.
Contributors: Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Caroline Andrew, Janine Brodie, Louise Chappell, Maya Eichler, Jane Jenson, Paul Kershaw, Judy Rebick, Marian Sawer, Francesca Scala, Jackie F. Steele, Linda Trimble, Jill Vickers, and Shauna Wilton
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Gendering the Nation State: An Introduction / Yasmeen Abu-Laban
Part 1: Gender and Nation
1 Gendering the Hyphen: Gender Dimensions of Modern Nation-State Formation in Euro-American and Anti- and Post-Colonial Contexts / Jill Vickers
2 Gender and Nation in the Soviet/Russian Transformation / Maya Eichler
3 Projecting Gender and Nation: Literature for Immigrants in Canada and Sweden / Shauna Wilton
Part 2: Gender and State Processes
4 Assembling Women, Gendering Assemblies / Linda Trimble
5 Feminist Ideals versus Bureaucratic Norms: The Case of Feminist Researchers and the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies / Francesca Scala
6 Framing Feminists: Market Populism and Its Impact on Public Policy in Australia and Canada / Marian Sawer
7 Women’s Rights and Religious Opposition: the Politics of Gender at the International Criminal Court / Louise Chappell
Part 3: Gender and Citizenship
8 Putting Gender Back In: Women and Social Policy Reform in Canada / Janine Brodie
9 Citizenship in the Era of New Social Risks. What Happened to Gender Inequalities? / Jane Jenson
10 Carefair: Gendering Citizenship “Neoliberal” Style / Paul Kershaw
11 Republican Liberty, Naming Laws, and the Role of Patronymy in Constituting Women’s Citizenship in Canada and Quebec / Jackie F. Steele
12 Gendering Nation States and/or Gendering City-States: Debates about the Nature of Citizenship / Caroline Andrew
Afterword: The Future of Feminism / Judy Rebick
Notes
Bibliography
Index
