The Differential Impact of Women's Pariticipation in the Arab Spring

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The Differential Impact of Women's Pariticipation in the Arab Spring View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Calhoun, Institutional Archive of the Naval Postgraduate School Calhoun: The NPS Institutional Archive Theses and Dissertations Thesis Collection 2013-09 The differential impact of women's pariticipation in the Arab Spring Kuhlow, Sasha J. Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School http://hdl.handle.net/10945/37655 NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA THESIS THE DIFFERENTIAL IMPACT OF WOMEN’S PARITICIPATION IN THE ARAB SPRING by Sasha J. Kuhlow September 2013 Thesis Advisor: Anne Marie Baylouny Second Reader: Tristan J. Mabry Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE Form Approved OMB No. 0704–0188 Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instruction, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202–4302, and to the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reduction Project (0704–0188) Washington DC 20503. 1. AGENCY USE ONLY (Leave blank) 2. REPORT DATE 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED September 2013 Master’s Thesis 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5. FUNDING NUMBERS THE DIFFERENTIAL IMPACT OF WOMEN’S PARITICIPATION IN THE ARAB SPRING 6. AUTHOR(S) Sasha J. Kuhlow 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION Naval Postgraduate School REPORT NUMBER Monterey, CA 93943–5000 9. SPONSORING /MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSORING/MONITORING N/A AGENCY REPORT NUMBER 11. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES The views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. government. IRB protocol number ____N/A____. 12a. DISTRIBUTION / AVAILABILITY STATEMENT 12b. DISTRIBUTION CODE Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited A 13. ABSTRACT (maximum 200 words) The Arab Spring protests in 2011 uprooted regimes, challenged authoritarian leaders, and provided protesters new tools for mobilization. The use of social media and the involvement of women in public protests indicated changing protest repertoires and movement demographics in many countries. When women protested in 2011, they mobilized both physically and virtually. Assessing the influence women exert in social movements through social media can provide insights into factors that make a social movement successful. This thesis asserts that women physically mobilized to participate in the Arab Spring protests in Egypt, Yemen, and Bahrain. In Egypt and Bahrain, women also mobilized virtually using social media, while in Yemen women participated through traditional forms of social mobilization. An assessment of Twitter data in Egypt and Bahrain indicates that women communicated out to others more than their male counterparts, while men received more information from others. Data also indicates that women followed significantly more sources of information than men, thus contributing to the diversity of online protest networks. Notably, women represented nearly fifty percent of the most connected users in the Egyptian Twitter data, communicating to nearly twice as many users and following four times as many information sources, as their male counterparts. 14. SUBJECT TERMS Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Arab Spring, social media, Twitter, social 15. NUMBER OF movements, social networking, protest, revolution, gender participation, non-violent protest. PAGES 123 16. PRICE CODE 17. SECURITY 18. SECURITY 19. SECURITY 20. LIMITATION OF CLASSIFICATION OF CLASSIFICATION OF THIS CLASSIFICATION OF ABSTRACT REPORT PAGE ABSTRACT Unclassified Unclassified Unclassified UU NSN 7540–01–280–5500 Standard Form 298 (Rev. 2–89) Prescribed by ANSI Std. 239–18 i THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK ii Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited THE DIFFERENTIAL IMPACT OF WOMEN’S PARITICIPATION IN THE ARAB SPRING Sasha J. Kuhlow Major, United States Marine Corps B.A., The Pennsylvania State University, 2002 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN SECURITY STUDIES (MIDDLE EAST, SOUTH ASIA, AND SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA) from the NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL September 2013 Author: Sasha J. Kuhlow Approved by: Anne Marie Baylouny Thesis Advisor Tristan J. Mabry Second Reader Mohammed M. Hafez Chair, Department of National Security Affairs iii THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK iv ABSTRACT The Arab Spring protests in 2011 uprooted regimes, challenged authoritarian leaders, and provided protesters new tools for mobilization. The use of social media and the involvement of women in public protests indicated changing protest repertoires and movement demographics in many countries. When women protested in 2011, they mobilized both physically and virtually. Assessing the influence women exert in social movements through social media can provide insights into factors that make a social movement successful. This thesis ascertains that women physically mobilized to participate in the Arab Spring protests in Egypt, Yemen, and Bahrain. In Egypt and Bahrain, women also mobilized virtually using social media, while in Yemen women participated through traditional forms of social mobilization. An assessment of Twitter data in Egypt and Bahrain indicates that women communicated out to others more than their male counterparts, while men received more information from others. Data also indicates that women followed significantly more sources of information than men, thus contributing to the diversity of online protest networks. Notably, women represented nearly fifty percent of the most connected users in the Egyptian Twitter data, communicating to nearly twice as many users and following four times as many information sources, as their male counterparts. v THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK vi TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ...............................................................1 A. RESEARCH PROBLEM AND SIGNIFICANCE ........................................1 1. Women, Information Technology, and Social Media in the Middle East ...........................................................................................2 2. Significance of Women’s Participation in Online Activism .............5 B. LITERATURE REVIEW ...............................................................................7 1. Social Movements.................................................................................8 2. Social Media and Networks...............................................................10 3. Women and Social Movements .........................................................13 4. Intersections Between Social Movements, Social Media, and Gender Participation .........................................................................15 a. Nonviolence .............................................................................16 b. Diversity and Innovation ........................................................17 c. Creation of Group Identities ...................................................19 d. Communications .....................................................................20 e. Lowering Costs and Barriers to Protest .................................21 f. Summary..................................................................................22 C. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................22 D. CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................25 II. GENDERED CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOCIAL MOVEMENT SUCCESS ........27 A. INTRODUCTION: ARE WOMEN ORCHESTRATORS? ......................27 B. WOMEN’S MOBILIZATION AND NONVIOLENCE: PREFERENCES, PRACTICES, AND OUTCOMES ................................29 C. DIVERSITY, INNOVATION, AND WOMEN’S CONTRIBUTIONS ....32 D. GENDER AND THE CREATION OF GROUP IDENTITIES ................35 E. COMMUNICATION AND GENDER .........................................................37 F. LOWERED COSTS AND BARRIERS TO PROTEST .............................39 G. CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................40 III. INTRODUCTION TO THE CASE STUDIES .......................................................43 A. EGYPT ............................................................................................................44 B. YEMEN ...........................................................................................................46 C. BAHRAIN .......................................................................................................49 D. SOCIAL MEDIA: THE REVOLUTIONARY’S MEGAPHONE ............52 1. Years of Practice ................................................................................53 2. #Mobilization ......................................................................................56 3. Repression ...........................................................................................58 E. WOMEN: ON THE STREETS AND ON THE WEB ................................59 1. Gender
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