Final Activity Report Summary - GLOBAL GENDER (Whiter gender and ethnicity - Destabilisation and cultural identity in a globalised world)
This research project is concerned with the presumed link between cultural identity and patriarchy in a globalising world. More specifically, this project wants to assess and think very carefully about the claims equating "the West" with gender equality and "the Rest" with male oppression of women. This link between culture and patriarchy has made it into the core of political science. The significant political scientists Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris (2003) call gender equality the source of "the true clash of civilisations" and proclaim that the world consists of large cultural units - civilisations - divided by these values. Even influential Harvard scholar Samuel Huntington mentions gender equality as one set of values that presumably distinguishes the so-called West from other cultures.
These claims exist within a larger body of research on globalisation and gender. Some scholars claim that a world culture is spreading around the globe which dissipates patriarchy by individualising men and women. Others claim that the loss of male authority may rejuvenate patriarchy in the form of fundamentalist movements, as men try to regain their power over women. This project finds the claims about how cultures presumably clash around the question of proper gender relations most thought-provoking. My starting premise is that we cannot think of cultures as intact value units that meet and come in conflict with one another through globalisation. Huntington, Inglehart and Norris are simply wrong in how they conceive of "cultures." Instead, the distinction between "the West" and other alleged cultures should be thought of as an ongoing process of differentiation. It takes work to maintain these as differentiated, and particularly in an era of globalisation.
The overarching question that animates this research project is: How are cultural differences constructed and maintained around the status of women, given the constant challenges of globalisation? Starting with the presumption that cultures do not exist as given taxonomical categories (historically constant, mutually exclusive and internally consistent), how are such differences constructed and maintained around the status of women, in practice?
My research has generated a number of interesting findings, and I will summarise a few of the most important ones here. First, the status of women was used as a way to differentiate between cultures in second half of the nineteenth century, also a period of globalisation. Interestingly, in the nineteenth century, the exclusion of women from the political sphere was seen as a sign of European culture - European scholars and politicians contended that only "savage" non-European societies ceded political power to women. Today, the argument is reverse. Now, the inclusion of women in politics is championed as a marker of Western civilisation and advancement. Today, denying women but not men the right to vote, hold office or participate in politics is characterised as culturally retrograde. Through apparent historical amnesia, the underrepresentation of women in politics is now explained as an effect of "tradition" not yet having given way to "modern" ideas and values allegedly of European origin.
Second, there was a period between the 1960s to 1980s when the status of women was not linked very strongly to culture. During this period, the status of women was understood primarily as an economic issue, as something which differed between capitalist and communist societies on the one hand, and developing and developed societies on the other. What is more, capitalism and the colonial practices of developed countries were widely identified as problems for women, whereas communism and the traditional gender relations of developing countries were seen as empowering for women. This is in stark contrast to the prevalent views of today. The link between culture and gender equality seems to have reappeared again in the 1990s, and the capitalist and developed "West" is now widely linked with gender equality.
ethal violence against women (1) by male perpetrators; (2) by police interrogators; and (3) in court rulings. A comparison is made between two periods, one during the Cold War era and before globalisation intensified (1981-1982) and one after the Cold War and during a period of intensified globalisation (2001-2002).
The book project has generated a number of interesting findings. The Swedish media focuses strongly on violence against women by foreign men, and the presumption that lethal violence to women is particularly characteristic of immigrant men is widespread in Sweden. A first finding of this project is that foreign men are not overrepresented in the data - they do not murder women to a higher degree than do Swedish men. "Non-western culture" is thus not a very good explanation for why some men murder their spouse or girlfriend.
The book project secondly shows that cultural explanations for why men sometimes murder women was present in the Swedish legal system in 2001-2002 (even though there was no overrepresentation of foreign men). Interestingly, however, culture was not mentioned once as an explanatory factor in the 1981-1982 period. This is particularly interesting since there were more foreign perpetrators in 1981-1982 than in 2001-2002 - it would certainly have been possible to use cultural explanations in the 1980s, in other words. This shows that the ideas about why certain men murder women have changed in ways not tied to some independent and objective reality.
The book also shows that it was the Swedish police rather than the male defendants that would bring up culture as an explanatory factor during the interrogation. The police would only ask suspects of non-European origin about culture, however. Swedish suspects were not once asked about their values or views of women. There is nothing that would preclude asking Swedish men about culture - many of the Swedish defendants expressed patriarchal values and denigrating views of women. The police nevertheless never pursued this as cultural or about these men's value systems. Instead, the police presumed that only men of non-European origin had patriarchal values and that Swedish men did not. These findings are being presented in a number of publications. This is a three-year research and reintegration project carried out at Goteborg university, and the European Commission provides funding for two years. At the end of the project, the aim is to have a completed book manuscript and a number of book chapters and articles.
In the two years of EC funding, the project has been productive beyond expectation. I have completed three chapters for publication in edited volumes - one Swedish and two American volumes. I have published one journal article in a Swedish international relations publication. I have also co-authored an article manuscript with Prof Marie Demker, which has been submitted for publication, and we have another co-authored manuscript is in progress. I have simultaneously gathered the data for the book project on the link between gender and culture in the Swedish legal system and produced a draft book manuscript. The book manuscript only needs a few more months of work before it can be submitted to a press. The research has furthermore been presented in the form of papers at seven conferences and workshops, thus reaching a wide audience within political science in Sweden and not least abroad.
In terms of the aim of reintegrating me into Swedish academia, the project has been very successful! During the past two years, I have established myself as a colleague in the Department of Political Science at Goteborg university. I have submitted research proposals together with other scholars in the department, and I have a work relationship with the department that extends beyond the two years funded by this reintegration grant.
These claims exist within a larger body of research on globalisation and gender. Some scholars claim that a world culture is spreading around the globe which dissipates patriarchy by individualising men and women. Others claim that the loss of male authority may rejuvenate patriarchy in the form of fundamentalist movements, as men try to regain their power over women. This project finds the claims about how cultures presumably clash around the question of proper gender relations most thought-provoking. My starting premise is that we cannot think of cultures as intact value units that meet and come in conflict with one another through globalisation. Huntington, Inglehart and Norris are simply wrong in how they conceive of "cultures." Instead, the distinction between "the West" and other alleged cultures should be thought of as an ongoing process of differentiation. It takes work to maintain these as differentiated, and particularly in an era of globalisation.
The overarching question that animates this research project is: How are cultural differences constructed and maintained around the status of women, given the constant challenges of globalisation? Starting with the presumption that cultures do not exist as given taxonomical categories (historically constant, mutually exclusive and internally consistent), how are such differences constructed and maintained around the status of women, in practice?
My research has generated a number of interesting findings, and I will summarise a few of the most important ones here. First, the status of women was used as a way to differentiate between cultures in second half of the nineteenth century, also a period of globalisation. Interestingly, in the nineteenth century, the exclusion of women from the political sphere was seen as a sign of European culture - European scholars and politicians contended that only "savage" non-European societies ceded political power to women. Today, the argument is reverse. Now, the inclusion of women in politics is championed as a marker of Western civilisation and advancement. Today, denying women but not men the right to vote, hold office or participate in politics is characterised as culturally retrograde. Through apparent historical amnesia, the underrepresentation of women in politics is now explained as an effect of "tradition" not yet having given way to "modern" ideas and values allegedly of European origin.
Second, there was a period between the 1960s to 1980s when the status of women was not linked very strongly to culture. During this period, the status of women was understood primarily as an economic issue, as something which differed between capitalist and communist societies on the one hand, and developing and developed societies on the other. What is more, capitalism and the colonial practices of developed countries were widely identified as problems for women, whereas communism and the traditional gender relations of developing countries were seen as empowering for women. This is in stark contrast to the prevalent views of today. The link between culture and gender equality seems to have reappeared again in the 1990s, and the capitalist and developed "West" is now widely linked with gender equality.
ethal violence against women (1) by male perpetrators; (2) by police interrogators; and (3) in court rulings. A comparison is made between two periods, one during the Cold War era and before globalisation intensified (1981-1982) and one after the Cold War and during a period of intensified globalisation (2001-2002).
The book project has generated a number of interesting findings. The Swedish media focuses strongly on violence against women by foreign men, and the presumption that lethal violence to women is particularly characteristic of immigrant men is widespread in Sweden. A first finding of this project is that foreign men are not overrepresented in the data - they do not murder women to a higher degree than do Swedish men. "Non-western culture" is thus not a very good explanation for why some men murder their spouse or girlfriend.
The book project secondly shows that cultural explanations for why men sometimes murder women was present in the Swedish legal system in 2001-2002 (even though there was no overrepresentation of foreign men). Interestingly, however, culture was not mentioned once as an explanatory factor in the 1981-1982 period. This is particularly interesting since there were more foreign perpetrators in 1981-1982 than in 2001-2002 - it would certainly have been possible to use cultural explanations in the 1980s, in other words. This shows that the ideas about why certain men murder women have changed in ways not tied to some independent and objective reality.
The book also shows that it was the Swedish police rather than the male defendants that would bring up culture as an explanatory factor during the interrogation. The police would only ask suspects of non-European origin about culture, however. Swedish suspects were not once asked about their values or views of women. There is nothing that would preclude asking Swedish men about culture - many of the Swedish defendants expressed patriarchal values and denigrating views of women. The police nevertheless never pursued this as cultural or about these men's value systems. Instead, the police presumed that only men of non-European origin had patriarchal values and that Swedish men did not. These findings are being presented in a number of publications. This is a three-year research and reintegration project carried out at Goteborg university, and the European Commission provides funding for two years. At the end of the project, the aim is to have a completed book manuscript and a number of book chapters and articles.
In the two years of EC funding, the project has been productive beyond expectation. I have completed three chapters for publication in edited volumes - one Swedish and two American volumes. I have published one journal article in a Swedish international relations publication. I have also co-authored an article manuscript with Prof Marie Demker, which has been submitted for publication, and we have another co-authored manuscript is in progress. I have simultaneously gathered the data for the book project on the link between gender and culture in the Swedish legal system and produced a draft book manuscript. The book manuscript only needs a few more months of work before it can be submitted to a press. The research has furthermore been presented in the form of papers at seven conferences and workshops, thus reaching a wide audience within political science in Sweden and not least abroad.
In terms of the aim of reintegrating me into Swedish academia, the project has been very successful! During the past two years, I have established myself as a colleague in the Department of Political Science at Goteborg university. I have submitted research proposals together with other scholars in the department, and I have a work relationship with the department that extends beyond the two years funded by this reintegration grant.