Penn Calendar Penn A-Z School of Arts and Sciences University of Pennsylvania

GENDER REGIMES AND INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE IN NORTH AFRICA: Toward Women's Citizenship? (Valentine Moghadam)

Thursday, December 8, 2016 - 4:30pm

Silverstein Forum, Stiteler Hall First Floor (Accessibility) / Free and open to the public

Attendees are encouraged the read Prof. Moghadam's paper, available here.

Discussant: Eve Troutt Powell (UPenn History)

RESISTANCE TO WOMEN’S EQUALITY AND EMPOWERMENT is widely assumed to be an intrinsic part of the politics and culture of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, as with other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. And yet, the region has experienced significant changes in women’s legal status, political participation, and social positions, along with continued contention over Muslim family law and women’s full and equal citizenship. Do the institutional and normative changes signal a shift in the “gender regime” from patriarchal to modern? To what extent have women’s rights organizations contributed to such changes?  While mapping the changes that have occurred, the paper will also identify the persistent constraints – endogenous and exogenous alike – that prevent both the empowerment of all women and broader socio-political transformation. 

VALENTINE MOGHADAM is Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Northeastern University. Her areas of research include globalization; revolutions and social movements; transnational feminist networks; and gender, development, and democratization in the Middle East and North Africa. Among her many publications are Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East (1993, 2003, 2013), Globalizing Women: Transnational Feminist Networks (2005), and Globalization and Social Movements: Islamism, Feminism, and the Global Justice Movement (2009, 2013). Her current research is on prospects for a women-friendly democratization after the Arab Spring.

AttachmentSize
PDF icon Moghadam Paper.pdf1013.24 KB