Brand focuses on three countries--Jordan, Tunisia, and Morocco--with special attention to issues such as access to contraception and abortion, labor, pension, criminal legislation, protection against harassment and violence, and the degree of women's participation in government.

This book reflects the most current scholarship on states, socioeconomic development, and feminist theory to emerge this decade. Addressed are issues such as the role of state policies and ideologies in defining gender differences, state influence over the boundaries between public and domestic spheres, state control over women's productive and reproductive lives, and the efforts of women to influence state policy. Women, the State, and Development shows that state elites promote male domination as one way of maintaining social order when nation-states are created and strengthened, and that issues defined as male by the sexual division of labor are given priority in state policies that promote security and economic development such as foreign policy, international trade, agricultural development, and resource extraction. It analyzes these policies in terms of their impact on gender relations and also identifies ways in which women have responded.

The Arab world is experiencing a variety of factors - internal and external - that are leading to change. This work examines such factors that are shaping political liberalisation and democratisation in the Arab context, as well as the role played by particular social groups.

Women and the State: International Perspectives explores the historical and structural boundaries within which women act, relate to each other and deal with the state in the Third World. It is conscious of the fact that 'much Western feminist state theory has largely ignored the experience of Third World women'. This is true both in terms of knowledge of the diverse forms of activities women undertake and in the application of theoretical constructs about gender relations and the status of women which may be of little relevance to Third World women. This book aims to redress this imbalance through the presentation of a wide-ranging selection of case studies, describing and evaluating women's political, social and economic involvement in Third World countries. It examines how women interact with the state and what problems, obstacles and opportunities these dealings produce. It explores both the specific experiences of women (for example, the legal status of women in South Eastern Africa, the role of women in the informal economy in China, and their influence over legislation in Chile) and also certain common themes such as identity, empowerment and the conflict between tradition and modernity.

A rich set of feminist perspectives on the varied and often contradictory nature of state practices, structures, and ideologies Growing socio-economic inequality and exclusion are defining features of the twenty-first century. While debates on globalization, free trade, and economic development have been linked to the paradigm of “neo-liberalism,” it does not explain all the forms of social change that have been unfolding in comparative contexts. Feminists Rethink the Neoliberal State provides a timely intervention into discussions about the boundaries, practices, and nature of the post-liberalization state, suggesting that an understanding of economic policies, the corresponding rise of socio-economic inequality, and the possibilities for change requires an in-depth reconceptualization. Drawing on original field research both globally and within the United States, this volume brings together a rich set of perspectives on the varied and often contradictory nature of state practices, structures and ideologies in the post-liberalization era. The essays develop an interdisciplinary approach that treats an understanding of historically-specific forms of inequality—such as gender, race, caste, sexuality and class—as integral to, rather than as after-effects of, the policies and ideologies associated with the “neoliberal project.” The volume also tackles central questions on the restructuring of the state, the state’s power operations, the relationship between capital and the state, and its interactions with the institutions and organizational forms of civil society in the post-liberalization era. As such, Feminists Rethink the Neoliberal State examines both what is distinctive about this post-liberalization state and what must be contextualized as long-standing features of modern state power. A truly international and interdisciplinary volume, Feminists Rethink the Neoliberal State deepens our understanding of how policies of economic liberalization shape and produce various forms of inequality.

This book is about power. The power wielded over others – by absolute monarchs, tyrannical totalitarian regimes and military occupiers – and the power of the people who resist and deny their rulers' claims to that authority by whatever means. The extraordinary events in the Middle East in 2011 offered a vivid example of how non-violent demonstration can topple seemingly invincible rulers. This book considers the ways in which the people have united to unseat their oppressors and fight against the status quo and probes the relationship between power and forms of resistance. It also examines how common experiences of violence and repression create new collective identities. This brilliant, yet unsettling book affords a panoramic view of the twentieth and twenty-first century Middle East through occupation, oppression and political resistance.