Gender, Ethnicity and Political Ideologies

Book excerpt: First Published in 2004. This volume is a collection of the papers from an annual conference in February 1993 of the women’s sections of the British Sociological Association and the Political Studies Association at the London School of Economics. Its focus was ‘Gender, Sexuality and Identity: Commonalities and Difference’. With the exception of Valerie Bryson’s chapter and the introductory chapter, all the chapters in this volume originated as papers presented to that conference. There have been a number of political issues that have characterised the post-Cold War era such as nationalism, religious fundamentalism, inter-ethnic conflict and the process of democratization. In this ground breaking study the authors develop a feminist perspective on these issues and reveal the way that political ideologies use women as symbols of cultural identity. Included are chapters on inter-ethnic conflict in Yugoslavia, the emergence of a "male democracy" in Chile, women's rights in Israel, the far right and women in France and the experience of immigrants in Britain. Gender, Ethnicity and Political Ideologies is a revealing study of women's involvement with restrictive political ideologies and demonstrates the importance of a feminist politics that enables women to understand and work with each other across the boundaries that divide them.