What Does Our Country Mean to Us? Gender Justice and the Greek Nation-State

What Does Our Country Mean to Us? Gender Justice and the Greek Nation-State by Athanasia Vouloukos A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Political Science Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © Copyright Athanasia Vouloukos 2005 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be includedBien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. i * i Canada Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 11 Abstract Women have been ignored in studies of nations and nationalism and gender continues to be marginalized by mainstream theorists. Early Euro-American feminists did not account for the variability of women’s relationships with nationalisms and assumed one universal relationship. I seek to explain the nature of the relationship between Greek women and Greek national movements and the results attained through women’s interaction with national projects. The Greek case is marginal both to mainstream accounts of nationalism and mainstream feminist accounts; nationalism has not always affected women negatively. I map the gender and nation relationship in Greece into three periods which represent greater or lesser gender justice. Each period is linked to specific national projects that result either in a substantive increase or decrease in gender justice. Gender justice involves achieving concrete conditions: physical security; economic security and access to the means to gain it, including property ownership and education; reproductive/sexual self-determination; and social adulthood or the right to be equal decision-makers politically and in civil society. I hypothesize that the type of participation by Greek women and the degree of openness of national projects to their participation may restructure the sex/gender regime and so affect the extent to which women can achieve gender justice. I argue that Greek women’s participation in nation-making and nationalism, as autonomous, self organized women’s groups, often resulted in greater gender justice and joined national and feminist projects at times. Greek women have had the most affect on the sex/gender regime when they have participated in nationalism movements, both civic and ethnic, as allies. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my great aunt, Ksiakousti Vouloukos, who as a young woman in early twentieth century rural Greece, was not afforded the right to determine her course in life. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements I am grateful to my supervisor Professor Jill Vickers who introduced me to the various dimensions of the gendered nature of nationalisms. I would also like to thank Professor Vickers for her encouragement, patience and unrelenting support without which, I could not have completed this thesis. I would like to thank Professor Micheline de Seve for her insights on feminism and nationalism which has contributed to my understanding of the variability of relationships between both ‘isms’. I am also grateful for the time she has taken out of her schedule to be part of my thesis committee. I would also like to thank Professor Elliot Tepper for taking time out of his busy schedule to be part of my thesis committee. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their support and encouragement which has made the labor of this thesis bearable. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv Key Dates ix Map of the development of the Kingdom of Greece xiii Introduction Opening Remarks 1 Why Greece? 2 Statement of Thesis 3 Mapping Gender and Nation Relationships 4 Mapping Periods 4 Mapping the Sex/Gender Regime 5 Mapping Gender Justice 6 Women’s Types of Relationships with Nationalist Movements 7 Approach and Method 8 Outline of Chapters 9 Chapter One In Search of a Conceptual Framework Introduction 13 Mainstream Models of Nationalism 15 Mainstream Modernist Nationalism 17 Models of Marginal Nationalisms: West versus East 19 Gender and Nationalism 23 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. vi Euro-American Feminist Accounts 24 Nationalism as Bad for Women 30 Marginal Anti/Post-Colonial Feminist: Nationalism May Be Good for Women 32 Greek Scholarship on Nations and Nationalisms 35 Gender and Greek Nationalism 38 Greek Women and the Resistance/Civil War 40 Framework for Analysis 41 A Functionalist Approach to Understanding Gender and the Greek Nation-State 41 The Variability of Gender Relations: Rounds of Restructuring 42 Post-Colonial Approaches to Understanding Gender 45 Gender, Militarism and Nationalism 47 Gender and the Transition to Democracy 50 Engaging with the Political System 51 Chapter Two Gender Justice in a Post-Independent Greece (1840-1936) Introduction 54 Founding the Nation-State: Restoring Greece 55 The Citizen-Mother 60 Identity Crisis 61 Greek Women and the Spiritual Domain 64 Women as Transmitters of Culture in the Public Sphere 66 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Making Women Markers of History 68 First Wave Feminists 70 Gender and the Demotic Movement 74 Early Twentieth Century Women’s Movement 76 Maternal Secularism 81 Minority Women 83 Conclusion 85 Chapter Three Fascism and Ephemeral Gender Justice (1936-1974) Introduction 88 Phase I Metaxas Dictatorship 89 Phase II Greek Resistance to the Triple-led Alliance 93 Civil War (1946-1949) 100 Phase III Pseudo-Democracy 104 The Military Dictatorship (1967-1974) 106 Conclusion 108 Chapter Four Transition to Democracy and the Women’s Movement (1974-Present) Introduction 110 Transition to Democracy 111 Revisions to the Gender Script 112 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. viii The Re-establishment of the Women’s Movement in Greece 115 Women Allied with Political Parties Movement of Democratic Women 117 The Federation of Greek Women 118 The Women’s Movement of Greece 118 Autonomous Women Not Allied with Political Parties 120 Autonomous Women’s Movement 120 Coordinating Committee of Representatives of Women’s Organizations 121 Movement for the Liberation of Women 122 Other Campaigns by Autonomous Women’s Organizations 123 Quiet Revolution and Autonomous Women’s Organizations 124 PASOK and Gender-Related Policies 124 A New “Battle of the Cradle” 126 Conclusion 130 Conclusion Concluding Remarks 132 The Results of Being Allies 132 Women and the Resistance 134 Transition to Democracy 135 My Contribution 135 Bibliography 137 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. i x Key Dates 1453 Ottoman domination of Greek world begins with the fall of Constantinople. 1814 Failed Greek uprising by the Philiki Eteria (Friendly Society). 1821 Outbreak of the War of Independence. Women participate. 1829 Treaty of Adrianople, declares peace between Russia and the Ottoman Empire and grants autonomy to Greece. 1830 Falm erayer’s Slavic Theory emerges arguing that contemporary Greeks were descendants of Slavs. 1831 A new and independent Greek state is established. 1832 Convention of London confirms offer of ‘hereditary sovereignty’ of Greece to King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and the nation-state is placed under British, French and Russian guarantee.

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