E-book of Gender Case Studies Launched!

 

The Global Network of UNESCO Chairs on Gender celebrates the release of their first e-book of gender case studies: Gender Perspectives in Case Studies Across Continents, co-edited by Gloria Bonder, Coordinator of the Global Network, and Brenda Gael McSweeney, Initiator of the UNESCO/UNITWIN Network on Gender, Culture, & Development.

This volume also features a Foreword authored by Saniye Gülser Corat, Director of the UNESCO Division for Gender Equality.  She is “convinced that the case studies included in this E-Book will help us understand different realities and challenges better and provide us with the possibility to formulate reality based policies and initiatives.” Promoting Gender Equality is an overarching priority of the Organization through 2021.

The full text of this publication can be found at:  http://goo.gl/31btQ

The volume's eight essays illustrate the breadth and diversity of the issues that affect the lives and status of women in communities across the world. These chapters are:

1.     Decentralization and women’s rights in Latin America, Gloria Bonder
Analyzes the local impact of public policy decentralization processes in Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador/Honduras,

Rights & Gender in Bolivia

and Paraguay, on women’s participation and health. Examines the political, institutional, and cultural factors that influenced the contrasts in effects between these different areas, and emphasizes the importance of gathering women’s testimonies in the context of their own voices and perspectives. (also available in Spanish)

2.     Discourses emerging from the experiences of the women-mothers victims of violence, Mary  Koutselini and Floria Valanidou

Explores the prevailing and often coexistent discourses of denial, self-blame, powerlessness, tolerance, compassion, and dependency, and the influence of these narratives on female victims of violence. Illustrated through seventeen in-depth interviews with mothers in Cyprus who were or had been victims.

3.     Women’s organizations in Madrid: Socialization for empowerment in the Spanish democratic post-transition, Virginia  Maquieira D'Angelo

Follows the rise of women workers and housewives’ organizations in the 1980s and their emergent feminist awareness. Explores the context of these organizations, the meanings assigned to them by their participants, the obstacles they faced, and the evolution of the organizations into a larger women’s movement in Spain. (also available in Spanish)

4.     The violation of family spaces in some Moroccan women writers’ fiction, Fouzia Rhissassi

Analyzes Moroccan women’s literature as an outlet through which female authors reappraise traditional spaces, rejection of silence and exclusion, and break taboos to give visibility to women’s experiences. Illuminates the themes of tackling persistent gender inequalities worldwide in education, livelihoods, and political voice, plus gender-based violence.

Photo: Brenda McSweeney

 

5.     Another View of Africa: A photo essay on female education and empowerment in Burkina Faso, Scholastique Kompaoré and Brenda Gael McSweeney with Cassandra Fox

Demonstrates the positive, time-saving effects of technology on women’s domestic workloads, thus thus freeing up time for women and girls to pursue educational and lucrative activities. Presents a hopeful contrast to the typical global media depiction of life in Africa. (also available in French)

6.     God First, Second the Market: A Case Study, Sirleaf Market Women’s Fund of Liberia

Explores the organization’s ongoing efforts to aid Liberian women through the revitalization of markets, boosting literacy, and providing access to credit. Highlights the candid profiles of market women and depicts their courageous struggle to overcome adversity and their role in the reconstruction of Liberia, its communities, and its economy.

7.     Srihaswani or Creative Manual Skills for Self Reliant Development: A gender case study, 1996-2012, Krishno Dey, Chandana Dey, and Brenda Gael McSweeney

 Photo: Brenda McSweeney

Examines the evolution of a grassroots development initiative in West Bengal, India, into an opportunity through which village women claimed greater participation and voice in community leadership and development. Provides a first-hand glimpse spanning fifteen years of the economic, societal, and individual benefits of local female leadership in bolstering the subsistence economy and solidarity in Indian villages.

8.     Strengthening Networks for Women in Science and Engineering, Deborah Belle and Sheryl Grace

Illustrates systematic approaches implemented at Boston University to increasing representation and advancement of women faculty in science and engineering careers, namely through strengthening professional networks. Identifies the enduring barriers women face in professional arenas traditionally dominated by men.

The eight essays in this volume reflect the commitment of the Global Network to understanding and contributing to overcome obstacles that prevent the achievement of women’s well being, their active participation in the development of their communities and their struggles for greater equality, empowerment, citizenship and gender justice.  ~by Lucia Hsiao, Student-Scholar Partner to Resident Scholar Brenda Gael McSweeney, Women's Studies Research Center/Brandeis University

E-book at: http://goo.gl/31btQ

Breaking News: Savyasaachi now Professor & Head of the Department of Sociology, JMI!

Jamia Millia Islamia recently announced that Savyasaachi, a founding member of our UNESCO/UNITWIN Network, is now Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology at JMI  (a Central University in New Delhi). Savyasaachi teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses. He started his explorations of different ways of life with long years of fieldwork with the Koitor forest dwellers in Chattisgarh in Central India and with forest people (Hill Kharias and Kutia Khonds) in Orissa in eastern India. He has worked with conservation architects as well, notably with the Delhi-based Cultural Resource Conservation Initiative, a founding partner organization of the UNESCO/UNITWIN (University Twinning) Network on Gender, Culture and People-Centered Development. Experience in these fields prompted him to engage with issues of social life and culture, community-oriented cultural heritage preservation, decolonization, and method. In the course of teaching at Jamia Millia Islamia he has worked on issues related to learning as distinct from teaching. He has been traveling faculty for the Re-thinking Globalization program coordinated by the International Honors Program at Boston University. He has several publications; the most recent one, the Penguin book of forest writings, is titled 'Between the Earth and the Sky'.

A Snapshot of Success in Cuba

We recently received news of an exciting success story that we'd like to share with you! Margaret (Peg) Snyder, the Founding Director of UNIFEM, and Vice President of The Sirleaf Market Women's Fund International - our newest UNESCO/UNITWIN affiliate - has submitted an illuminating piece on a UNIFEM-assisted project in Cuba. Co-authored by Aase Smedler, Former UN Resident Coordinator, this feature tells the story of Quitrin, a shop that was established 28 years ago as a way for Cuban Women to earn income through making and selling clothing. To learn more about this successful "multidimensional development activity", please continue reading!

Quitrin: A Cuban Success Story, 1985-2013

In charming Old Havana, a UNESCO World Heritage site, modern shop windows at the corner of Calle Obispo and Calle San Ignacio attract passers-by with women's dresses, children's clothing, and shirts for all the family. The shop is Quitrin, established 28 years ago by the Federation of Cuban Women to give their members a chance to earn income by making and selling clothing. When serving as a delegate to the UN General Assembly Vilma Espin, then President of the Federation, had met with staff of UNIFEM (then known as the Voluntary Fund for the UN Decade for Women) and their discussions led to a Cuban proposal to enhance women's incomes. Back then, not much of the renovation work one admires in Old Havana today had started. That the UNIFEM-assisted project began with remodeling the building it occupies contributed to Cuba's nascent urban renewal program and made Quitrin a truly multidimensional development activity. UNIFEM's board approved a grant of USS 59, 000 in 1983 and the activity was launched in 1985. 

Aase Smedler (Former UN Resident Coordinator), Margaret (Peg) Snyder (Founding Director, UNIFEM), and Nadia Gonzales Alvarez (GM of Quitrin) at the original shop in Old Havana

Quitrin - named for the ubiquitous two-wheeled carriage with a collapsible top - didn't just survive. No longer just the one original outlet for women's handwork, today it has production plants in Havana and Santiago de Cuba, and a total of 5 shops selling its products in Old Havana, Santiago de Cuba, and the tourist resort of Varadero where hotels sell Quitrin's clothing.                                                                  

Quitrin strives to maintain Cuban traditions in style and cut of the tailored, traditional guayabera shirts with their intricate embroidery and crochet details. The guayabera is a man's shirt with short or long sleeves, four pockets and decorations on the front. Quitrin also produces dresses, shirts, and pants in light cotton and linen for women. Though colors are mainly white or off-white, pastel colors are also used. 

The recently appointed general manager of Quitrin, Nadia Gonzales Alvarez, previously worked many years in the organization as seamstress and as designer. She told us that the cotton and linen they use is produced in Cuba, but that crochet thread must be imported. She explained that Havana alone employs 60 to 80 seamstresses who work either in the production plants or from home and are paid for the item produced. Shop attendants such as Kerenia Valdares and Marta Gonzales whom we met at the Old Havana shop earn some CUC 300 a month which corresponds to USD 300, a relatively good salary in Cuba. Pressed for time during our visit, we did not learn how much foreign exchange is allocated by the government to Quitrin for its imports or whether scarcity of material ever impacts the output and the possibility of renewing designs. 

Thelma Awori, President of Sirleaf Market Women's Fund International, at the shop window in Old Havana

Established in 1988, Quitrin in Varadero has occupied a whole house since 1995, with the shop on the ground floor while language and other courses are offered by the Federation of Cuban Women on the upper floors. Local manager Tony Fontado, himself a designer who teaches crochet, employs 12 workers and organizes weekly fashion shows at the many tourist hotels on the northern coast; he introduced us to Dayana and Rosio, two of the shops 10 attractive models he trained a few years back. He told us that the shop and hotels in Varadero sell goods valued at about CUC 3,500 a month.

Quitrin in Varadero

Tony has a certificate in management from the Cuban Association of Artists and Artisans. He hopes to produce a special Varadero line of women's clothing in a local workshop, and to travel internationally to learn more about contemporary styles while preserving the Cuban roots in the design as it is rendered more creative and modern. His personal designs, which he proudly showed in photo-books, are quite extravagant, and very creative. Tony expressed his hope and expectation that Nadia would be able to modernize the enterprise. 

Manager Tony Fontado at Quitrin with two of his models 

We also believe that the traditional design could be updated, especially for a more elegant fit and trims. The knowledge and vision of people like Tony on renewing the production line could make Tony Cuba's fashion icon, with Nadia at the helm of Quitrin. 

The Federation of Cuban Women continues today, and every Cuban woman becomes a member at age 14. It assists women and families in need, and works to stem violence against women. And it takes pride in its three decades of Quitrin. 

-Margaret (Peg) Snyder, Founding Director - UNIFEM, and Vice President of The Sirleaf Market Women's Fund International - the newest affiliate of our UNESCO/UNITWIN Network on Gender, Culture, & People-Centered Development

-Aase Smedler, Former UN Resident Coordinator

BU's WGS Cosponsoring an Upcoming Speaker Event: Women Peacemakers on the Ethnic Borders of Bosnia Herzegovina

We are pleased to inform you of an upcoming visit by Zilka Spahic Siljak (University of Sarajevo) to the Women's Studies Research Center (WSRC) at Brandeis University, hosted by the Gender & International Development Initiatives (GaIDI). Zilka has agreed to give a talk on the lives of women peace activists in her home country, Bosnia Herzegovina. She will be speaking about specific local Bosnian concepts of compassion (merhamet) and neighborliness (komsiluk) employed for peace-building on the borders between Muslim, Catholic and orthodox Christian villages.

Please save the date: Tuesday, March 12th at 4pm in the WSRC Lecture Hall, 515 South Street, Waltham. WSRC Director Shulamit Reinharz will be welcoming Zilka and participants!                    

Zilka Spahic Siljak

Zilka's bio from the Harvard Divinity School website (where she's a 'Visiting Lecturer on Women's Studies and Islamic Studies, and Women's Studies in Religion Program Research Associate') can be found at: www.hds.harvard.edu/people/faculty/zilka-spahic-siljak

This event is sponsored by the Gender & International Development Initiatives (GaIDI) of the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis, and cosponsored by Boston University's Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program (WGS), and by other Brandeis University entities including the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, the Gender Working Group (GWG) at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, and the Coexistence and Conflict Program.