The NPIC and Trans Resistance

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The NPIC and Trans Resistance Sexuality Research & Social Policy Journal of NSRC http://nsrc.sfsu.edu December 2007 Vol. 4, No. 4 Introduction to Special Issue The State We’re In: Locations of Coercion and Resistance in Trans Policy, Part I Paisley Currah, Dean Spade Over the last 15 years, the transgender rights move- either as being unstable and illegitimate or as frauds. ment has burgeoned in the United States. A handful of Furthermore, in many law and policy contexts, trans- states and dozens of localities in the United States have gender advocates try to steer clear of explicitly referring passed nondiscrimination legislation inclusive of gender to social theories that highlight gender as ungrounded identity; courts have begun to rule that transgender peo- because such social theories inadvertently resonate with ple should be treated equally; educational institutions what most policymakers already believe about trans- and companies are beginning to include gender identity gender people. Because of this sharp contrast between and gender expression in their nondiscrimination policies. theoretical frames being used to understand gender and The term transgender has moved into mainstream dis- the frames employed by policymakers, who often hold the course with increasingly positive representations of trans lives of trans people in their hands, advocates struggle to lives in the media—from countless local newspaper arti- devise policy solutions that improve the lives of trans cles on transgender people and their transitions, to people, are politically viable in gender-binary-reliant respectful mentions in (some) political candidates’ administrative contexts, and still comport with the notion speeches, to the ongoing appearance of trans characters that gender is not grounded in the body. in soap operas. However, with the rise of the new social movement Lagging behind that tremendous upsurge in aware- in the United States that has coalesced around the term ness of transgender issues, however, has been research transgender, the subjects of that data have begun to on transgender lives and practices that centers on the con- revolt (Stone, 1991; Stryker, 1998). So, too, has a new cerns and perspectives of those whose gender identity or generation of researchers and researcher-advocates. But gender expression does not conform to social expecta- before we discuss the newer players and the work that tions. Of course, no shortage of research (Billings & we are delighted to showcase in this special issue of Urban, 1982; Hausman, 1995; Raymond, 1979) has repro- Sexuality Research & Social Policy: Journal of NSRC, duced traditional pathologizing narratives of transgender The State We’re In: Locations of Coercion and Resistance people. Similarly, although work in queer theory (Fausto- in Trans Policy, we want to step back and frame some of Sterling, 2000; Halberstam, 1998) has raised important the tensions inherent in the relationship between questions about gender as a process, as well as the limi- research with transgender people and advocacy for trans- nality of gender, those approaches are not of much util- gender communities. ity to trans advocates. Whereas this work has situated Transgender rights advocacy is almost always gender as something that shifts and that results, ulti- grounded in a human rights framework. This framework mately, from social forces, in legal and policy contexts might be articulated differently depending on the partic- gender tends to be understood as one of the most stable ular viewpoints of the advocates or on the particular social and grounded of all social identifiers. As a result of this and historical context in which such advocacy takes place definition, transgender individuals are often viewed but, in any case, its general gist is that (a) individuals Address correspondence concerning this article to Paisley Currah, Department of Political Science, Brooklyn College, 2900 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11210. E-mail: [email protected]; Dean Spade, Williams Institute, UCLA Law School, Box 951476, Los Angeles, CA 90095. E-mail: [email protected] Sexuality Research and Social Policy: Journal of NSRC, Vol. 4, Issue 4, pp. 1–6, electronic ISSN 1553-6610. © 2007 by the National Sexuality Research Center. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permissions to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, http://www.ucpressjournals.com/ reprintInfo.asp 1 SEXUALITY RESEARCH & SOCIAL POLICY Journal of NSRC whose gender identity or gender expression is not tradi- researchers, as advocates, and as researcher-advocates tionally associated with their birth sex should not be to understand this conflict between expert discourses and denied any rights or resources because of that difference, human rights claims. For advocates, research is abso- and (b) one’s gender identity (not one’s birth sex) deter- lutely essential, but only for the pragmatic necessity of nar- mines one’s legal gender. These principles were first enun- rating trans identities and practices in the most intelligible ciated in early versions of the International Bill of Gender and legitimating discourse possible. For example, advo- Rights in 1991 (Frye, 2006) and have since been included cates have reached the point where they are invoking the in the Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of authority of medical experts to demedicalize regulations International Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual governing trans identities (Currah & Moore, 2007)—but Orientation and Gender Identity (2007), the new inter- in the process, for strategic effect, litigators and policy advo- national standard for discourse on sexual orientation and cates often cite data and research based on assumptions gender identity rights. with which they fundamentally disagree (Levi, 2006; From the perspective of transgender rights advo- Spade, 2003). cates who are challenging unjust laws or policies—in Perhaps the most basic difference between the goals meetings with legislators; in litigation before the courts; of advocates and researchers centers on disagreements in policy discussions with government officials; in nego- over theories of gender. In a system governed by the logic tiations with insurers, employers, and social service of universality (with repeatable, verifiable results), providers—merely enunciating these principles should researchers in the natural and social sciences seek to dis- be sufficient. Ideally, regarding transgender issues, meet- cover a unified totalizing truth, one that fits all the many ings should be no more than 5 minutes long, lawyers’ pieces—body parts, normalizing ideologies, medical tech- briefs should be limited to two or three pages, and the nologies, the role of socialization, and biological ety- validation of experts should never be called for. But, of mologies—into the grand jigsaw puzzle that will course, we do not find ourselves in this world of shoulds: ultimately reveal the answer to the riddle of gender. The Simply articulating a human rights claim based on gen- aggregate approach of trans activists, however, centers on der identity or gender expression will have little, if any, the idea of an agnostic gender pluralism and does not seek short-term impact. In challenging the commonsense to discover the perfect theory (Currah, 2003). In fact, any knowledge and social and legal systems that currently unified theory purporting to describe the so-called right structure gender arrangements, transgender rights advo- relationship between body parts, gender identities, and cates are in desperate need of expert knowledge to back gender expressions would entail the imposition of a new up trans people’s demands. The transgender community hegemonic norm—one that would not be true to many needs valid, reliable social science research to provide people’s experience of gender and that would exclude evidence, as well as experts who will testify, legitimate many from the opportunities that legal gender recogni- advocates’ claims, or submit affidavits. Without these tion brings. For the trans movement in the United States, supports, it becomes impossible to topple the existing there is no overarching desire to make the many com- supposed expertise of bureaucrats who can stand beside munities, practices, and identities fit under any unified the fact that discriminatory policies must be right sim- theory: All of the constituent (and often discordant) ele- ply because of their ubiquity. ments of this movement add up to nothing greater than The fundamental goal of researchers distanced from the sum of the parts. their subjects, however, is not to advance the rights claims To be specific, transgender rights advocates and pol- of any particular group but to determine observable, mea- icy reformers must insist that social scientific research surable truths about what they are studying—in this case, overcome assumptions about sex and gender that, for the sexed body; gender identity, expression, and role; and example, assign transgender people to the wrong legal the (inter)relationships of these factors. Moreover, always sex, suggest that transgender people cannot be good par- lurking in the background is the distinct possibility that ents, categorize gender nonconforming youth only as the research will generate results that undermine claims problems to be solved, and provide rationales for denying for transgender rights. transgender people access to health care. In short, trans- In fact, a real incommensurability
Recommended publications
  • The Flourishing of Transgender Studies
    BOOK REVIEW The Flourishing of Transgender Studies REGINA KUNZEL Transfeminist Perspectives in and beyond Transgender and Gender Studies Edited by A. Finn Enke Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2012. 260 pp. ‘‘Transgender France’’ Edited by Todd W. Reeser Special issue, L’Espirit Createur 53, no. 1 (2013). 172 pp. ‘‘Race and Transgender’’ Edited by Matt Richardson and Leisa Meyer Special issue, Feminist Studies 37, no. 2 (2011). 147 pp. The Transgender Studies Reader 2 Edited by Susan Stryker and Aren Z. Aizura New York: Routledge, 2013. 694 pp. For the past decade or so, ‘‘emergent’’ has often appeared alongside ‘‘transgender studies’’ to describe a growing scholarly field. As of 2014, transgender studies can boast several conferences, a number of edited collections and thematic journal issues, courses in some college curricula, and—with this inaugural issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly—an academic journal with a premier university press. But while the scholarly trope of emergence conjures the cutting edge, it can also be an infantilizing temporality that communicates (and con- tributes to) perpetual marginalization. An emergent field is always on the verge of becoming, but it may never arrive. The recent publication of several new edited collections and special issues of journals dedicated to transgender studies makes manifest the arrival of a vibrant, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly * Volume 1, Numbers 1–2 * May 2014 285 DOI 10.1215/23289252-2399461 ª 2014 Duke University Press Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/tsq/article-pdf/1/1-2/285/485795/285.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 286 TSQ * Transgender Studies Quarterly diverse, and flourishing interdisciplinary field.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Commonwealth
    Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in The Commonwealth Struggles for Decriminalisation and Change Edited by Corinne Lennox and Matthew Waites Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in The Commonwealth: Struggles for Decriminalisation and Change Edited by Corinne Lennox and Matthew Waites © Human Rights Consortium, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, 2013 This book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NCND 4.0) license. More information regarding CC licenses is available at https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ Available to download free at http://www.humanities-digital-library.org ISBN 978-1-912250-13-4 (2018 PDF edition) DOI 10.14296/518.9781912250134 Institute of Commonwealth Studies School of Advanced Study University of London Senate House Malet Street London WC1E 7HU Cover image: Activists at Pride in Entebbe, Uganda, August 2012. Photo © D. David Robinson 2013. Photo originally published in The Advocate (8 August 2012) with approval of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) and Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG). Approval renewed here from SMUG and FARUG, and PRIDE founder Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera. Published with direct informed consent of the main pictured activist. Contents Abbreviations vii Contributors xi 1 Human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity in the Commonwealth: from history and law to developing activism and transnational dialogues 1 Corinne Lennox and Matthew Waites 2
    [Show full text]
  • Transgender Representation on American Narrative Television from 2004-2014
    TRANSJACKING TELEVISION: TRANSGENDER REPRESENTATION ON AMERICAN NARRATIVE TELEVISION FROM 2004-2014 A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Kelly K. Ryan May 2021 Examining Committee Members: Jan Fernback, Advisory Chair, Media and Communication Nancy Morris, Media and Communication Fabienne Darling-Wolf, Media and Communication Ron Becker, External Member, Miami University ABSTRACT This study considers the case of representation of transgender people and issues on American fictional television from 2004 to 2014, a period which represents a steady surge in transgender television characters relative to what came before, and prefigures a more recent burgeoning of transgender characters since 2014. The study thus positions the period of analysis as an historical period in the changing representation of transgender characters. A discourse analysis is employed that not only assesses the way that transgender characters have been represented, but contextualizes American fictional television depictions of transgender people within the broader sociopolitical landscape in which those depictions have emerged and which they likely inform. Television representations and the social milieu in which they are situated are considered as parallel, mutually informing discourses, including the ways in which those representations have been engaged discursively through reviews, news coverage and, in some cases, blogs. ii To Desmond, Oonagh and Eamonn For everything. And to my mother, Elaine Keisling, Who would have read the whole thing. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Throughout the research and writing of this dissertation, I have received a great deal of support and assistance, and therefore offer many thanks. To my Dissertation Chair, Jan Fernback, whose feedback on my writing and continued support and encouragement were invaluable to the completion of this project.
    [Show full text]
  • University LGBT Centers and the Professional Roles Attached to Such Spaces Are Roughly
    INTRODUCTION University LGBT Centers and the professional roles attached to such spaces are roughly 45-years old. Cultural and political evolution has been tremendous in that time and yet researchers have yielded a relatively small field of literature focusing on university LGBT centers. As a scholar-activist practitioner struggling daily to engage in a critically conscious life and professional role, I launched an interrogation of the foundational theorizing of university LGBT centers. In this article, I critically examine the discursive framing, theorization, and practice of LGBT campus centers as represented in the only three texts specifically written about center development and practice. These three texts are considered by center directors/coordinators, per my conversations with colleagues and search of the literature, to be the canon in terms of how centers have been conceptualized and implemented. The purpose of this work was three-fold. Through a queer feminist lens focused through interlocking systems of oppression and the use of critical discourse analysis (CDA) 1, I first examined the methodological frameworks through which the canonical literature on centers has been produced. The second purpose was to identify if and/or how identity and multicultural frameworks reaffirmed whiteness as a norm for LGBT center directors. Finally, I critically discussed and raised questions as to how to interrupt and resist heteronormativity and homonormativity in the theoretical framing of center purpose and practice. Hired to develop and direct the University of Washington’s first lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT2) campus center in 2004, I had the rare opportunity to set and implement with the collaboration of queerly minded students, faculty, and staff, a critically theorized and reflexive space.
    [Show full text]
  • LGBTQ Notion Evaluation: a Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Review
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal) Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln Summer 6-15-2021 LGBTQ Notion Evaluation: A Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Review Poonam Gautam University School of Management, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, HARYANA INDIA, [email protected] Dr. Ajay Solkhe University School of Management, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, HARYANA INDIA, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac Part of the Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Human Resources Management Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons, and the Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons Gautam, Poonam and Solkhe, Dr. Ajay, "LGBTQ Notion Evaluation: A Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Review" (2021). Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal). 5886. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/5886 1 LGBTQ Notion Evaluation: A Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Review Poonam (Main Author) Junior Research Fellow University School of Management, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra-136118, Haryana, INDIA [email protected] Dr. Ajay Solkhe, (Corresponding Author) Sr. Assistant Professor University School of Management, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra-136118, Haryana, INDIA [email protected] Mobile: 9896544852 Abstract Several conservative sectors and employers are embracing equality objectives, including financial institutions, for example, more importantly, there has been a change in attitude and support towards the LGBT+ issues, which has been noticed in other professions and companies, including law and accountancy. The LGBT group includes Lesbians, Gay, Bisexuals and Transgender sexual orientation. Gay men and heterosexuals have also been observed to be in these groups.
    [Show full text]
  • Transgender, and Queer History Is a Publication of the National Park Foundation and the National Park Service
    Published online 2016 www.nps.gov/subjects/tellingallamericansstories/lgbtqthemestudy.htm LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History is a publication of the National Park Foundation and the National Park Service. We are very grateful for the generous support of the Gill Foundation, which has made this publication possible. The views and conclusions contained in the essays are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the U.S. Government. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. Government. © 2016 National Park Foundation Washington, DC All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced without permission from the publishers. Links (URLs) to websites referenced in this document were accurate at the time of publication. INCLUSIVE STORIES Although scholars of LGBTQ history have generally been inclusive of women, the working classes, and gender-nonconforming people, the narrative that is found in mainstream media and that many people think of when they think of LGBTQ history is overwhelmingly white, middle-class, male, and has been focused on urban communities. While these are important histories, they do not present a full picture of LGBTQ history. To include other communities, we asked the authors to look beyond the more well-known stories. Inclusion within each chapter, however, isn’t enough to describe the geographic, economic, legal, and other cultural factors that shaped these diverse histories. Therefore, we commissioned chapters providing broad historical contexts for two spirit, transgender, Latino/a, African American Pacific Islander, and bisexual communities.
    [Show full text]
  • BCRW-Annualreport-20
    ANNUAL REPORT 2017-2019 BARNARD CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON WOMEN STUDY-COLLABORATION-REFLECTION-ACTION CONTENTS From Our Director 2 Mission 3 A Quick Look at 2017–2019 5 Programming 7 Co-Sponsored Events 18 Research and Collaboration 21 Poverty and Housing 22 Harlem Semester 23 Practicing Refusal Collective 24 Transnational Feminisms 25 Social Justice Institute 27 Publications 43 S&F Online 44 New Feminist Solutions 46 Video Productions 47 Archives 50 Co-Sponsors 53 Staff 55 Support the Center 56 1 FROM OUR DIRECTOR The last two years have been busy, transformative, and inspiring for the Barnard Center for Research on Women. In spring 2018, Professor Tina Campt passed the directorship baton to me, after three exceptionally creative and productive years at the helm. Later that summer, BCRW moved out of Barnard Hall, our home for forty years, into our expanded offices on the sixth floor of the newly opened Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning at the heart of the Barnard campus. And then, in the fall, we welcomed the second cohort of the newly formed Social Justice Institute. Amidst these changes, what has remained constant is our commitment to fostering collaborations between critical feminist scholarship and activism. We have also been proud of long-term relationships we have built with academic departments and other centers in the college and university, as well as with international colleagues, community organizations and activists working in New York City and beyond. These collaborations have manifested in conferences, convenings, scholarship, collaborations, and more. Of course, none of our work would be possible without the generosity of our supporters.
    [Show full text]
  • Police Department Model Policy on Interactions with Transgender People
    POLICE DEPARTMENT MODEL POLICY ON INTERACTIONS WITH TRANSGENDER PEOPLE National Center for TRANSGENDER EQUALITY This model policy document reflects national best policies and practices for police officers’ interactions with transgender people. The majority of these policies were originally developed by the National LGBT/HIV Criminal Justice Working Group along with a broader set of model policies addressing issues including police sexual misconduct and issues faced by people living with HIV. Specific areas of the original model policy were updated and modified for use as the foundation for NCTE’s publication “Failing to Protect and Serve: Police Department Policies Towards Transgender People,” which also evaluates the policies of the largest 25 police departments in the U.S. This publication contains model language for police department policies, as well as other criteria about policies that should be met for police departments that seek to implement best practices. The larger Working Group’s model policies developed by Andrea J. Ritchie and the National LGBTQ/HIV Criminal Justice Working Group, a coalition of nearly 40 organizations including NCTE, can be found in the appendices of the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) “Gender, Sexuality, and 21st Century Policing” report. While these are presented as model policies, they should be adapted by police departments in collaboration with local transgender leaders to better serve their community. For assistance in policy development and review, please contact Racial and Economic Justice Policy Advocate, Mateo De La Torre, at [email protected] or 202-804-6045, or [email protected] or 202-642-4542. NCTE does not charge for these services.
    [Show full text]
  • Sylvia Rivera 7/2/1951 – 2/19/2002
    SYLVIA RIVERA 7/2/1951 – 2/19/2002 Gay civil rights pioneer Sylvia Rivera was one of the instigators of the Sylvia Rivera, then a 17-year-old drag queen, was among the crowd that gathered outside the Stonewall Inn the night of June 27, 1969, when the New York police raided Stonewall uprising, an the popular Greenwich Village gay bar. Rivera reportedly shouted, “I’m not missing a event that helped launch minute of this, it’s the revolution!” As the police escorted patrons from the bar, Rivera the modern gay rights was one of the first bystanders to throw a bottle. movement. After Stonewall, Rivera joined the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) and worked energetically on its campaign to pass the New York City Gay Rights Bill. She was famously arrested for climbing the walls of City Hall in a dress and high heels to crash a closed-door meeting on the bill. In time, the GAA eliminated drag and transvestite concerns from their agenda as they sought to broaden their political base. Years later, Rivera told an interviewer, “When things started getting more mainstream, it was like, ‘We don’t need you no more.’ ” She added, “Hell hath no fury like a drag queen scorned.” Born Ray Rivera Mendosa, Sylvia Rivera was a persistent and vocal advocate for transgender rights. Her activist zeal was fueled by her own struggles to find food, shelter and safety in the urban streets from the time she left home at age 10. In 1970, Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson co-founded STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) to help homeless youth.
    [Show full text]
  • Queer Censorship in US LGBTQ+ Movements Since World War II
    History in the Making Volume 13 Article 6 January 2020 A Different Kind of Closet: Queer Censorship in U.S. LGBTQ+ Movements since World War II James Martin CSUSB Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/history-in-the-making Part of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons Recommended Citation Martin, James (2020) "A Different Kind of Closet: Queer Censorship in U.S. LGBTQ+ Movements since World War II," History in the Making: Vol. 13 , Article 6. Available at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/history-in-the-making/vol13/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History at CSUSB ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in History in the Making by an authorized editor of CSUSB ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Different Kind of Closet: Queer Censorship in U.S. LGBTQ+ Movements since World War II By James Martin Abstract: Since World War II, there has been an increased visibility of LGBTQ+ communities in the United States; however, this visibility has noticeably focused on “types” of queer people – mainly white, middle class, cisgender gays and lesbians. History remembers the 1969 Stonewall Inn riots as the catalyst that launched the movement for gay rights and brought forth a new fight for civil and social justice. This paper analyzes the restrictions, within LGBTQ+ communities, that have been placed on transpersons and gender nonconforming people before and after Stonewall. While the riots at the Stonewall Inn were demonstrative of a fight ready to be fought, there were many factors that contributed to the push for gay rights.
    [Show full text]
  • Transgender and Intersex People in New York's State Prisons
    “It’s war in here”: A Report on the Treatment of Transgender and Intersex People in New York State Men’s Prisons First published in 2007 by The Sylvia Rivera Law Project 322 8th Avenue, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10001 www.srlp.org The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) works to guarantee that all people are free to self- determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence. SRLP is a 501c-3 nonprofit organization. © Copyright 2007 SRLP. Some Rights Reserved. SRLP encourages and grants permission to non-commerically reproduce and distribute this report in whole or in part, and to further grants permission to use this work in whole or in part in the creation of derivative works, provided credit is given author and publisher, and such works are licensed under the same terms. (For more information, see the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/> or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.) Contents i Introduction 3 ii Scope & Methodology 5 iii Background: Discrimination, Poverty, & Imprisonment 7 iv Daily Realities: Conditions of Confinement for Transgender & Intersex People 15 v Recommendations 32 Appendix A Frequently Asked Questions: Gender Identity & Expression 36 Appendix B Organizations 40 Appendix C Selected Bibliography 41 Appendix D Flow Charts 41 Notes 44 Acknowledgements 49 I INTRODUCTION Since opening in 2002, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) has provided free legal services to over 700 intersex, transgender, and gender non-conforming people.* Our clients are low-income people and people of color who face discrimination in the areas of employment, housing, education, healthcare, and social services.
    [Show full text]
  • © 2013 Daniela Jauk All Rights Reserved Global Gender Policy Development in the Un: a Sociological
    © 2013 DANIELA JAUK ALL RIGHTS RESERVED GLOBAL GENDER POLICY DEVELOPMENT IN THE UN: A SOCIOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF THE POLITICS, PROCESSES, AND LANGUAGE A Dissertation Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Daniela Jauk August, 2013 GLOBAL GENDER POLICY DEVELOPMENT IN THE UN: A SOCIOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF THE POLITICS, PROCESSES, AND LANGUAGE Daniela Jauk Dissertation Approved: Accepted: ________________________ ________________________ Advisor Department Chair Dr. Kathryn Feltey Dr. Matthew Lee ________________________ _______________________ Committee Member Dean of the College Dr. Matthew Lee Dr. Chand Midha ________________________ ________________________ Committee Member Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Sandra Spickard Prettyman Dr. George R. Newkome ________________________ ________________________ Committee Member Date Dr. Clare Stacey ________________________ Committee Member Dr. Sarah Swider ________________________ Committee Member Dr. Robert Peralta ii ABSTRACT The United Nations (UN) provided a stage for the evolution of a global women’s movement and global gender equality policy in the 20th century. My dissertation adds a unique perspective to the sociological literature on the global gender equality regime in that it focuses on the social construction of gender equality policy in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) of the UN. The guiding research question for my project is ″How is gender equality policy socially constructed in UN’s CSW?″ My goal is to unpack some of the processes and politics of knowledge and norm-production in the CSW in order to explore ways in which women and men around the world may be better able to shape and influence global gender equality policy and utilize it in their national contexts.
    [Show full text]