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Women's Issues (women + issues)
Selected AbstractsThe International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as a tool for combating discrimination against women: general observations and a case study on Algeria*INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 184 2005Karima Bennoune The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is vital to protecting the human rights of women. This is reflected in the substantive rights which the treaty guarantees and its procedural emphasis on non-discrimination. The ICESCR now has 151 State Parties, as compared with 180 states that have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). While the latter is a lightning rod for opposition to the advancement of women's rights, the former is not. It may, therefore, be a particularly useful tool for combating discrimination against women, especially in the Muslim world where resistance to CEDAW in conservative quarters is strong. Still, some argue that the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which monitors implementation of the ICESCR, needs to further elaborate its jurisprudence on women's issues. Against such a complex backdrop, this study will explore the utility of the ICESCR in combating discrimination against women, looking in particular at the example of Algeria, which became a State Party in 1989. [source] Critical Mass, Deliberation and the Substantive Representation of Women: Evidence from the UK's Devolution ProgrammePOLITICAL STUDIES, Issue 4 2006Paul Chaney This article provides empirical evidence to support recent assertions that the substantive representation of women depends not only on the numbers of women elected representatives in national legislatures, but also who they are. In this case study of one of the UK's devolved legislatures, analysis was undertaken of the transcripts of 327 plenary debates held during the first term of the National Assembly for Wales, where women constituted 42 percent of elected members (1999,2003). The gender dynamics of political debate around key equality topics reveal that the link between descriptive and substantive representation of women is complex. When a ,critical mass' of women is achieved the substantive representation of women is affirmed as ,probabilistic' rather than ,deterministic' for it is shaped by the institutional context, the gender dynamics of debate and, importantly, the actions of individual ,equality champions'. While women representatives exhibited a greater propensity to advance gender equality in debate than their male colleagues, the present findings also show the disproportionate influence of ,equality champions': women who are able to draw upon earlier feminist activism and act as ,strategic insiders' who make a difference to women's issues in a parliamentary context. [source] Real Women or Objects of Discourse?RELIGION COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2009The Search for Early Christian Women Scholarly interest in gender and sexuality in early Christianity, which has typically been tied to an interest in women and women's roles, experiences, and influences, is a relatively new addition to the study of early church history. Women and women's issues entered the academy through the women's movement of the 1970s. Early on this scholarship was driven, in part, by a political or theological agenda that sought to empower women of the twentieth century by reconstructing the lives of their foremothers. Often the early studies of women in the church were optimistic that real, historical women could be found within our sources. Soon, however, scholars became more suspicious of the male-authored texts and turned, instead, to study the social effect of discourses about women. Many scholars, however, are not yet ready to give up investigations of ancient women's lives. Thus the field of early Christian studies is developing a variety of methodologies that offer sophisticated readings of ancient male-authored texts while still acknowledging the inherent difficulties involved in reconstructing women's lives in early Christian history. [source] Women on the Sidelines: Women's Representation on Committees in Latin American LegislaturesAMERICAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2005Roseanna Michelle Heath This article explores how new groups can be marginalized after they gain representation in the legislature. We use data from six Latin American legislatures to examine the effect of institutional and political factors on how traditionally dominant male political leaders distribute scarce political resources,committee assignments,to female newcomers. In general, we find that women tend to be isolated on women's issues and social issues committees and kept off of power and economics/foreign affairs committees as the percentage of legislators who are women increases, when party leaders or chamber presidents control committee assignments, and when the structure of the committee system provides a specific committee to deal with women's issues. Thus, to achieve full incorporation into the legislative arena, newcomers must do more than just win seats. They must change the institutions that allow the traditionally dominant group to hoard scarce political resources. [source] | ||||||||||