Nira Yuval-DavisNira Yuval-Davis

Theorising Gender and

Nation

Main IdeasMain Ideas

Gender relations: Impact on national creatons (projects) Positions and positioning of women in national projects How national projects are gendered both by the notions of man and

womanhood

Epistemological framework: Knowledge drawn from one standpoint cannot be ‘finished’ i.e. finally

defined Though it does not mean invalidity or irrelevance to any particular

context

Theorizations - nation and Theorizations - nation and nationalismnationalism

Dissmissed the importance of gender relations (even women)

Primordialists – a school of nationalists Nations – natural, universal extention of kinship relations

Materialists Stress state bureaucracy, institutional apparatuses and the maintenance

of national-ethnic ideologies and boundraries

Others claim Intellectuals are important in creating nationalist ideologies

• esp. in opressed nations, e.g. bards, philosophers –either allowed or banned show golden age of anation from the mythical perspective.

Women usually excluded from these neatly constructed theories !!!!!!!!!!!

Why theories exclude Why theories exclude women?women?

Patterman’s (1988) and Grant’s (1991) explanations (social contract) Public and private spheres family and politics women within the

family domain, separated from politics as irrelevant. Exclusion from public discourse was a consequence Imagined state of nature vs civilised society women on the sideof

nature, as those incapable of agression and reason (male features in Rosseau and Hobbes)

Women were always in the national arena regardless of discourse – their inclusion – recent amd partial.

Nationalist ProjectsNationalist Projects

Deconstructivist approach is taken. Nation-states can be:

• Sub-

• Super-

• Cross-states – physical boundraries rarely seem convergent here.

Pre-modern perspective is not dismissed altogether:• Growing fundamentalist movements esp. religious – produce new forms

of nationalist hegemony.

Nation has its context:• History

• National discourses of different groupings

• Fight or competition for hegemony

• Gendered character is contextualized

Women and Gender Women and Gender RelationsRelations

3 main questions for inquiry: How women are opressed – gendered relations of power, patriarchy Sex and gender debate – biologically and culturally defined differences Generalized notions of gender relations - how men and women see

themselves within those relations

Nature and culture in gender relations: Culture aimed at controlling women’s positioning Nature inferior to culture – western thread of thought In some cultures NATURE is not taimed – women in tribal hierachy

Patriarchy and FraternityPatriarchy and Fraternity

Patriarchy Typical of pre-modern historical period – king as father figure Can be located in the specific geographical area – Africa and Middle

East – family in the centre, woman’s ‘virtue’ important.

Fraternity Typical of modern, liberal period Agree ment on social contract – both equal in private and political

spheres Woman is not a passive non-participant – has a say in determining

gender relations

Sex and Gender DebateSex and Gender Debate

Sex (biological), gender (culturally constructed)

Enabled feminists of various schools to show the neccessity to strive for social and sexual equality

Constructing discourses around those notions led to deculturization of both notions

The meaningfulness of both is blurred – they intertwine nowadays

Theorising Nations and Theorising Nations and StatesStates

The concept of nation-state: Nation boundrary ≠ state boundrary Not considered a members of a hegemonic nation

• Immigrants

• Refugees

• Without a state – diasporas e.g. Palestinians

National hegemony is an artifitial construct: Creates minorities Can lead to eventual ethnic cleansing

State and SocietyState and Society

No universal definition for a state is possible to be devised

A variety of state types: Democratic Welfare state Bolshevist and fascist With collective or liberal tendencies

State may be understood as: Individual identities – in international relations An all-encompassing creature – in relations with society

Foucauldian paradigm: No unitary state whatsoever Instead focus on social policies, the law and institutional arrangements

State and SocietyState and Society

Civil society Institutions, collectivitie and groupings outside the scope of state’s

defined agenda They complement and are complemented by the state’s projects

• Voluntary associations

• Controlling institutions (production of signs and symbols)

• Economic market

The family domain:• Social

• Economic

• Political networks

• Households

all organized around kinship and frendship relations.

Civil SocietyCivil Society

Factors shaping civil society: Heterogenity Ideologies Historical circumstances Ethnicity, class, gender, social groupings in general Form of governement Flexibility towards different national ans state projects

Nation of nationsNation of nationsPrimordialist theories on nation Eternal and universal Natural extention of family and kinship

• Man protecting the woman and children

• Established sexual roles

Imagined comunities (Anderson,1983) Direct results of developements of European history Print capitalism and technological advancement neccessary for their

rise Literacy is widespread, native tongue is the tool for all classes to read

mass publications Membership is still considered natural rather than chosen Membership involves sacrifice –fighting, killing or being killed Passions rather than pure interests, homogeneity = smooth functioning

Nation of NationsNation of NationsDurability: based on myth-symbol complexity Ethnic origin of the nation (Smith, 1986) Long history of centralized governements that created a sense of unity Political proceses influencing centralization(Zubaida, 1989) Common destiny crucial for construction and durability of nations

Structure: Bi or multinational Supra-state EU Regional autonomy Scotland Separatist or rebublican (reunion) movements Zionist movements Liberia, or Israel Immigrant communities, exiles or committed diasporas (ex post-facto

homeland) support

Dynamic Structure of NationDynamic Structure of Nation

Boundraries reconstruction

Immigration

Naturalization

Conversion

Social and political processes

Nation Projects - taxonomiesNation Projects - taxonomies

Historical taxonomies• Focus on Europe

Sociological taxonomies• Focus on various locations

• Specific goals like secession, pan-national liberation

Kultunation (symbolic heritage) and Staatnation (Neuberger, 1986)

Civic nationalism (Ignatieff, 1993) Strive for the rights within the community A sense of belonging one has

Gendered Nation - Biological Gendered Nation - Biological Reproduction Reproduction

Biological reproduction – rights to either have families or not In some national projects women are forced to increase or decrease

thenumber of offspring• Malthusian discourse (the decrease to prevent future national disaster)

• Eugenical discourse: improving the quality of the national stock: classifying women: suitability to have children

Genealogy • By being born one is a member of a given collective

• Controlling marrige patterns, procreation and sexuality

• Fear of miscegenation

Cultural reproductionCultural reproduction

Gender symbols can be translated into gender roles

Women attempt to challenge traditionally established roles or follow them: Emancipaton

• Veilling

• Voting

• Education

• Employment campaigns

Following the tradition

Citizenship,Military,WarsCitizenship,Military,WarsImmigration, nationality and refugees legislation Expected to be dependent on family ties and live together On the multi-layered level of citizenship:

• Civil

• Political

• Social

rights and responsibilities women are often subjected to specific laws.

Military and wars: Profesionalization of the military Woman participation as soldiers War victims – raped, interned and refugees

Benedict AndersonBenedict Anderson

Imagined comunities

Imagined communitties Imagined communitties

Nation can only be imagined when Universal language script (medeival Latin) New history and cosmology patterns Old organiational patterns vanished gradually

• Monarchy – divine rulers

• Hierarchy

That happened in Western Europe and elswhere due to: Economic change Social and scientific discoveries Devolopement of new, rapid comunication A search of the link between power, fraternity and time (history)

Imagined communittiesImagined communitties

Devolopement of print as commodity A range of new ideas could be transmitted or smuggled if neccessary Manuscripts replaced by reproductable knowlege Early print capitalism emerged – branches of printing bussinesses and

publishing houses – national boundraries ignored An early market search – literate Europe First – Latin readers – the others will quickly follow Cheap editions in vernaculars - mass readership developement

Latin TransformationLatin Transformation

Latin removed from the educational and eccleciastical contexts

Latin – entered as a language of print – unification needed

Impact of Reformation and the popularisation of ‘non-Latin’ languages (Luther – writing in German, popular by his name, first ever bests-selling author)

Protestantism as an advocaate of print-capitalism

Index Librarium Prohibitium – Vatican on the other pole (decrease of power)

New masses of readers – non-Latin speakers enter

New languagesNew languages

Europe was not as universalistic in political systems as in linguistic domain New vernaculars for administration – Anglo-Saxon in England for

courts After the Norman conquest French mixing with Anglo-Saxon resulted

in new English (Early English) Choice of new language as dominant is pragmatic, unselfconcious, and

a gradual process – contributed to the decline of imagined European, Christendom- dominated communitty.

Languages fatalityLanguages fatality

Can be positive- generates language diversity

Unifies many ‘little nations’ Unique fields of exchange printproducing language varieties and opening the geographical

boundraries

Interplay between fatality, technology and capitalism

Print- capitalism decided wchich langages were to extinct or deteriorate (closer to print vernacular = succesfull)

Imagined communitties Imagined communitties conclusionconclusion

Modern nation was preconditioned by; Convergence of capitalism and print technology Fatal created diversity of human languages Imagined community concept appeared

Contemporary naton-states are bound together by the existance of those unifying print- languages and emerging new nation projects are the evidence.