"Feminist Mobilization & Financial Inclusion: Lessons from Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania"
Abstract: Women’s rights organizations and activists around the world engage in campaigns to improve the economic status of women. This paper endeavors to bring these experiences into analyses of women’s movements and economic empowerment, emphasizing the grounded realities of women’s rights practitioners and feminist activists. The research presented in this paper endeavors to show why feminist movements matter for one aspect of economic empowerment, financial inclusion, in a subset of countries in East Africa: Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Drawing on primary data collected in May 2019, I conclude that financial inclusion, when informed with feminist principles of justice, equality, and the radical reconfiguration of unjust systems, has the potential to emancipate women.
"Making Feminist Sense of National Myths and Militarism in Jordan"
Abstract: This paper provides a feminist analysis of the ways that militarized national myths and celebrations underscore national security discourses and shape identity politics in Jordan. Focusing on a pair of Jordanian national holidays, Army Day and the anniversary of the Great Arab Revolt, I analyze how the glorification of military institutions and modern interpretations of historical events memorialize and reinforce gendered and ethnic hierarchies. These holidays, with their parades, tanks and fighter jetdisplays, carnivals, and battle reenactments, purportedly celebrate Jordan’s emergence as a regionalpower player. However, I show how these moments of collective pride reify a nationalistic and exclusionary myth rooted in the primacy of the Jordanian Armed Forces, which has historically marginalized women, Jordanians from Palestinian descent, and others. I also explore how political elites frame these celebrations as emblematic of a secure nation, while labeling other demonstrations that callfor greater citizenship rights or women’s rights as threats to the stability of the state. Drawing onextensive fieldwork and archival data, this paper endeavors to make feminist sense of the ways that casual acts of militarism can engender greater insecurity while masquerading as patriotism and national pride.
“We’ve Got This Policy, Now What?” Implementing the Domestic Violence Law in Jordan
Abstract: A growing body of literature documents the critical factors that affect state action on violence against women. Other research considers the degree to which violence against women policies are successfully implemented once policies are on the books. This paper brings these two bodies of literature together and seeks to understand how the policymaking process affects the implementation of violence against women policies. Using primary fieldwork data from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, I explain the events and interactions that produced the 2008 Family Protection Law. I argue that the regime used its violence against women policy to signal democracy and modernity to international audiences. Domestically, however, the regime did not take a progressive stance, but instead used women’s rights as a bartering chip for support from conservative factions. Activists advocating for full implementation of the law have struggled with governmental apathy and resignation because the monarchy emphasized the importance of adopting the law, not enacting the law. This study explains how the process whereby violence against women policies are adopted—not merely the final product—has a lasting impact on the utility and quality of these policies.
"CEDAW, Citizenship, and Family Law: Judging the Efficacy of International Treaties on State Level Policies"
Abstract: The way in which international treaties influence state level policies has been widely debated in both the policy and international relations fields. I weigh in on this subject by examining the effects of ratifying the Convention to End Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on women’s domestic citizenship status. Specifically, I evaluate the relationship between CEDAW ratification and family law policies—a proxy for women’s citizenship status, to show the mechanisms whereby the international treaty elicits state level policy change. I use a large-N analysis to determine the generalizability of my theory, and juxtapose this with a case study of Jordan to illustrate the mechanisms involved in the policy change process. I argue that international treaties instigate domestic policy change by influencing domestic legal processes, altering national policy agendas, and legitimizing political mobilization. This project, by closely examining these mechanisms, sheds new light on the rarely acknowledged issue of CEDAW ratification on women’s civil, political, and social citizenship status.
Abstract: Women’s rights organizations and activists around the world engage in campaigns to improve the economic status of women. This paper endeavors to bring these experiences into analyses of women’s movements and economic empowerment, emphasizing the grounded realities of women’s rights practitioners and feminist activists. The research presented in this paper endeavors to show why feminist movements matter for one aspect of economic empowerment, financial inclusion, in a subset of countries in East Africa: Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Drawing on primary data collected in May 2019, I conclude that financial inclusion, when informed with feminist principles of justice, equality, and the radical reconfiguration of unjust systems, has the potential to emancipate women.
"Making Feminist Sense of National Myths and Militarism in Jordan"
Abstract: This paper provides a feminist analysis of the ways that militarized national myths and celebrations underscore national security discourses and shape identity politics in Jordan. Focusing on a pair of Jordanian national holidays, Army Day and the anniversary of the Great Arab Revolt, I analyze how the glorification of military institutions and modern interpretations of historical events memorialize and reinforce gendered and ethnic hierarchies. These holidays, with their parades, tanks and fighter jetdisplays, carnivals, and battle reenactments, purportedly celebrate Jordan’s emergence as a regionalpower player. However, I show how these moments of collective pride reify a nationalistic and exclusionary myth rooted in the primacy of the Jordanian Armed Forces, which has historically marginalized women, Jordanians from Palestinian descent, and others. I also explore how political elites frame these celebrations as emblematic of a secure nation, while labeling other demonstrations that callfor greater citizenship rights or women’s rights as threats to the stability of the state. Drawing onextensive fieldwork and archival data, this paper endeavors to make feminist sense of the ways that casual acts of militarism can engender greater insecurity while masquerading as patriotism and national pride.
“We’ve Got This Policy, Now What?” Implementing the Domestic Violence Law in Jordan
Abstract: A growing body of literature documents the critical factors that affect state action on violence against women. Other research considers the degree to which violence against women policies are successfully implemented once policies are on the books. This paper brings these two bodies of literature together and seeks to understand how the policymaking process affects the implementation of violence against women policies. Using primary fieldwork data from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, I explain the events and interactions that produced the 2008 Family Protection Law. I argue that the regime used its violence against women policy to signal democracy and modernity to international audiences. Domestically, however, the regime did not take a progressive stance, but instead used women’s rights as a bartering chip for support from conservative factions. Activists advocating for full implementation of the law have struggled with governmental apathy and resignation because the monarchy emphasized the importance of adopting the law, not enacting the law. This study explains how the process whereby violence against women policies are adopted—not merely the final product—has a lasting impact on the utility and quality of these policies.
"CEDAW, Citizenship, and Family Law: Judging the Efficacy of International Treaties on State Level Policies"
Abstract: The way in which international treaties influence state level policies has been widely debated in both the policy and international relations fields. I weigh in on this subject by examining the effects of ratifying the Convention to End Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on women’s domestic citizenship status. Specifically, I evaluate the relationship between CEDAW ratification and family law policies—a proxy for women’s citizenship status, to show the mechanisms whereby the international treaty elicits state level policy change. I use a large-N analysis to determine the generalizability of my theory, and juxtapose this with a case study of Jordan to illustrate the mechanisms involved in the policy change process. I argue that international treaties instigate domestic policy change by influencing domestic legal processes, altering national policy agendas, and legitimizing political mobilization. This project, by closely examining these mechanisms, sheds new light on the rarely acknowledged issue of CEDAW ratification on women’s civil, political, and social citizenship status.