Nation And Gender In Contemporary Europe

Building on the growing body of theoretical literature on the gendered nature of nationalism, this book offers a systematic examination of similarities and differences in the construction of gender and national identities in post-communist societies of Eastern and East Central Europe as well as established and the more stable democracies of Western Europe. It points to some of the key sources of inevitable tensions in the future united Europe, which stem from different perceptions of national and gender roles in different parts of the continent.

This book is a systematic consideration of the link between the extreme right and the discourse about developments in regard to gender issues within different national states. The contributors analyze right-wing extremist tendencies in Europe under the specific perspective on gender. The volume brings together the few existing findings concerning the quantitative dimension of activities carried out by men and women in different countries, and illuminates and juxtaposes gender ratios along with the role of women in right-wing extremism. Along with the gender-specific access to right-wing groups, the chapters look at networks, organizational forms, specific strategies of female right-wing extremists, their ideologies (especially regarding femininity and masculinity), hetero normativity, discourses on sexuality, and preventive and counter-strategies. The book will be of use to students and scholars interested in gender and politics, European politics, and political extremism.

Old pilgrimage routes are attracting huge numbers of people. Religious or spiritual meanings are interwoven with socio-cultural and politico-strategic concerns and this book explores three such concerns of hot debate in Europe: religious identity construction in a changing European religious landscape; gender and sexual emancipation; and (trans)national identities in the context of migration and European unification. Through the explorations of such pilgrimages by a multidisciplinary range of international scholars, this book shows how the old routes of Europe are offering inspirational opportunities for making new journeys.

The resilience of nationalism in contemporary Europe may seem paradoxical at a time when the nation state is widely seen as being 'in decline'. The contributors of this book see the resurgence of nationalism as symptomatic of the quest for identity and meaning in the complex modern world. Challenged from above by the supranational imperatives of globalism and from below by the complex pluralism of modern societies, the nation state, in the absence of alternatives to market consumerism, remains a focus for social identity. Nation and Identity in Contemporary Europe takes a fully interdisciplinary and comparative approach to the 'national question'. Individual chapters consider the specifics of national identity in France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Iberia, Russia, the former Yugoslavla and Poland, while looking also at external forces such as economic globalisation, European supranationalism, and the end of the Cold War. Setting current issues and conflicts in their broad historical context, the book reaffirms that 'nations' are not 'natural' phenomena but 'constructed' forms of social identity whose future will be determined in the social arena.

Gender and Political Culture in Early Modern Europe investigates the gendered nature of political culture across early modern Europe by exploring the relationship between gender, power, and political authority and influence. This collection offers a rethinking of what constituted ‘politics’ and a reconsideration of how men and women operated as part of political culture. It demonstrates how underlying structures could enable or constrain political action, and how political power and influence could be exercised through social and cultural practices. The book is divided into four parts - diplomacy, gifts and the politics of exchange; socio-economic structures; gendered politics at court; and voting and political representations – each of which looks at a series of interrelated themes exploring the ways in which political culture is inflected by questions of gender. In addition to examples drawn from across Europe, including Austria, the Dutch Republic, the Italian States and Scandinavia, the volume also takes a transnational comparative approach, crossing national borders, while the concluding chapter, by Merry Wiesner-Hanks, offers a global perspective on the field and encourages comparative analysis both chronologically and geographically. As the first collection to draw together early modern gender and political culture, this book is the perfect starting point for students exploring this fascinating topic.

Introduction : gender and the reconstruction of European working-class history / Laura L. Frader and Sonya O. Rose -- Gender and uneven working-class formation in the Irish linen industry / Jane Gray -- What price a weaver's dignity? Gender inequality and the survival of home-based production in industrial France / Tessie P. Liu -- The gendering of skill as historical process : the case of French knitters in industrial Troyes, 1880-1939 / Helen Harden Chenut -- Consumption, production, and gender : the sewing machine in nineteenth-century France / Judith G. Coffin -- Engendering work and wages : the French labor movement and the family wage / Laura L. Frader -- Women "of a very low type" : crossing racial boundaries in imperial Britain / Laura Tabili -- Protective labor legislation in nineteenth-century Britain : gender, class, and the liberal state / Sonya O. Rose -- Social policy, body politics : recasting the social question in Germany, 1875-1900 / Kathleen Canning -- Republican ideology, gender, and class : France, 1860s-1914 / Judith F. Stone -- Manhood, womanhood, and the politics of class in Britain, 1790-1845 / Anna Clark -- Rational and respectable men : gender, the working class, and citizenship in Britain, 1850-1867 / Keith McClelland -- Class and gender at loggerheads in the early Soviet state : who should organize the female proletariat and how? / Elizabeth A. Wood -- The heroic man and the ever-changing woman : gender and politics in European communism, 1917-1950 / Eric D. Weitz.

The legal regulation of gender and sexuality has undergone dramatic changes throughout Europe in the last 40 years and this has shaped what it means to be a European citizen. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary research, this book uses the discourses around current European sexual politics as an entry point to interrogate how, and with what effect, the EU and its Member States harness issues of gender and sexuality to support issues of higher political importance. It takes recent and ongoing political debates and legislative changes around prostitution and sexual assault as a focus. Using four national case studies: Poland, Germany, Sweden and Italy it illuminates how the EU’s desire for increased harmonisation across the Union around gender and sexuality norms and values operates differently and with specific effects across Member States. The book’s structure provides a detailed map of how and why contemporary European sexual politics is changing, and how this contributes to establishing European norms and values in developments in law and policy around prostitution and sexual assault. By examining how and why the EU and its Member States implement their policies in these two policy areas we can begin to illuminate how contemporary European sexual politics serve some groups’ interests while marginalizing ‘Others’.