Türkiye’s Gender Equality Policies: A Case of Europeanization or (De)-Europeanization?

openGender equality policies have been at the basis of the European Union since the Treaty of Rome. It is obvious that the EU gives its attention to gender equality policies and under the Europeanization of countries, gender equality policies have also gone under the process of Europeanization. The thesis analyzes the Europeanization and (de)-Europeanization processes of gender equality policies in Türkiye under the AKP government and the contribution of these processes to the survival of the governing party. Thus, the evolution processes of gender equality policies since AKP’s coming to power and the domestic and external drivers of the change in gender equality policies and their interaction with each other are studied. It employs a qualitative methodology with semi-structured interviews. There are three hypotheses to be investigated. The first one is (de)-Europeanization of gender equality policies employed by AKP in order to please conservative groups and therefore it triggers a process of de-Europeanization. The second hypothesis is EU’s soft law approach reinforces conservative governments’ lack of commitment toward gender equality. And the last one is the AKP contributes to the (de)-Europeanization justifying the non-compliance with some EU gender equality standards, based on their religion [Islam] “has defined a position for women: motherhood” that also helps to ostracise women by portraying them as delicate, weak, and powerless and limiting their role to motherhood. It is expected to show the changes that the country has undergone related to gender equality.Gender equality policies have been at the basis of the European Union since the Treaty of Rome. It is obvious that the EU gives its attention to gender equality policies and under the Europeanization of countries, gender equality policies have also gone under the process of Europeanization. The thesis analyzes the Europeanization and (de)-Europeanization processes of gender equality policies in Türkiye under the AKP government and the contribution of these processes to the survival of the governing party. Thus, the evolution processes of gender equality policies since AKP’s coming to power and the domestic and external drivers of the change in gender equality policies and their interaction with each other are studied. It employs a qualitative methodology with semi-structured interviews. There are three hypotheses to be investigated. The first one is (de)-Europeanization of gender equality policies employed by AKP in order to please conservative groups and therefore it triggers a process of de-Europeanization. The second hypothesis is EU’s soft law approach reinforces conservative governments’ lack of commitment toward gender equality. And the last one is the AKP contributes to the (de)-Europeanization justifying the non-compliance with some EU gender equality standards, based on their religion [Islam] “has defined a position for women: motherhood” that also helps to ostracise women by portraying them as delicate, weak, and powerless and limiting their role to motherhood. It is expected to show the changes that the country has undergone related to gender equality

Proceedings of the sixth international women in leadership conference: vision in leadership: women redefining power

The International Women in Leadership conference attracts internationally renowned speakers as well as a wide audience from across the nation. The Conference is at the forefront of organisational and leadership research and provides a means of personal interaction with preeminent female researchers and leaders in Australia and overseas. Such interaction deepens the understanding of the leadership capacities of women and of leadership in organisations, knowledge which is central to the intellectual work of the Women in Leadership Project

Unmet goals of tracking: within-track heterogeneity of students' expectations for

Educational systems are often characterized by some form(s) of ability grouping, like tracking. Although substantial variation in the implementation of these practices exists, it is always the aim to improve teaching efficiency by creating homogeneous groups of students in terms of capabilities and performances as well as expected pathways. If students’ expected pathways (university, graduate school, or working) are in line with the goals of tracking, one might presume that these expectations are rather homogeneous within tracks and heterogeneous between tracks. In Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), the educational system consists of four tracks. Many students start out in the most prestigious, academic track. If they fail to gain the necessary credentials, they move to the less esteemed technical and vocational tracks. Therefore, the educational system has been called a 'cascade system'. We presume that this cascade system creates homogeneous expectations in the academic track, though heterogeneous expectations in the technical and vocational tracks. We use data from the International Study of City Youth (ISCY), gathered during the 2013-2014 school year from 2354 pupils of the tenth grade across 30 secondary schools in the city of Ghent, Flanders. Preliminary results suggest that the technical and vocational tracks show more heterogeneity in student’s expectations than the academic track. If tracking does not fulfill the desired goals in some tracks, tracking practices should be questioned as tracking occurs along social and ethnic lines, causing social inequality

Professional and managerial black African women: Johannesburg and London’s emerging and transnational elites

The number of women entering professional and managerial jobs globally has increased over the past thirty years. However, only a small percentage of texts within feminist and organisational theory specifically address the lives and experiences of professional and managerial Black African women within the workplace and family life. As such, many organisational and social research questions in this area remain unanswered. This thesis examines the work and family lives of professional and managerial Black African women living and working in Johannesburg and London. It explores how such women with relatively similar colonial histories, cultures, career and professional backgrounds handle their complex social positioning. This complexity, as discussed in the thesis, is created mainly through the way in which identity characteristics such as gender, race/ethnicity and class intersect and impact on these women when working in an environment where they are in a minority and viewed in some instances as ‘space invaders’. The impact that these complex social categories, combined with the influences of culture and history, have on their identities as career women, mothers, wives, partners and daughters is also examined. As Black African women with careers in major cities on opposite sides of the globe, these emerging and transnational elite Black African women remain a rarity and hidden gem to most – making them unique both in the workplace and in communities. In London, they are not only minorities within the UK population but minorities in their role as professional and managerial women within the corporate private sector. In Johannesburg, although part of the majority population in the country, they still remain minorities within the professional and managerial circles of that country’s corporate private sector. The method I use to gather data is the Life History approach which allows me, the researcher, to reveal my participants’ individual views and interpretation of their own work and family life experiences. I do this by conducting semi-structured interviews as a means of collecting their ‘life stories’. These stories told by Black African professional and managerial women reflect their views of reality. Through a form of Life History analysis, this mode of enquiry further reveals the importance of acknowledging difference when implementing government and organisational policies that combat barriers brought about by corporate practices and cultural attitudes within the workplace and society as a whole

Better lives for all? : prospects for empowerment through marine wildlife tourism in Gansbaai, South Africa : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Manawatū, Aotearoa New Zealand

Little is known about the consequences of burgeoning commercial marine wildlife tourism (MWT) for communities in the Global South. Gansbaai, the location for this research, has a concentration of twelve MWT operators; it also faces the triple challenge of unemployment, poverty, and inequality. Given their privileged access to marine common resources, empowerment and tourism policies position MWT permit holders as key agents of development. This research examines how MWT contributes to development for less advantaged residents of Gansbaai. Here, development means better lives and sustained empowerment for residents and rebalanced power relationships between social actors. A novel Tourism-Empowerment Framework guided observation and analysis of empowerment interfaces, expressions of power, and empowerment processes and outcomes in MWT. A mixed methods approach drew on administrative data, participant observation, and interviews with civil society, private sector, and government actors. Crucially, the results revealed government actions, persistent societal power imbalances, and structural constraints circumscribed prospects for empowerment through MWT operators. Therefore, the ability of private firms to advance empowerment was restricted. Nevertheless, the results show how business processes advanced empowerment in several dimensions for most residents linked to operators. Substantial investment in human and local economic development by some MWT operators meant benefits extended beyond business owners and employees. Empowerment manifested as strengthened ability and agency to attain personal goals through decent work, increased household resources, enhanced skills and self-confidence, expanded social capital, strengthened collective power, and greater influence over decisions that affect their lives. Further, most less advantaged residents of Gansbaai were marginalised from the multidimensional benefits of MWT, and some people experienced disempowerment. Many interventions were operator-defined, charity-based, prioritised business benefits, and maintained power imbalances. Altogether, the findings suggest unequal empowerment, uneven impact on the six dimensions of empowerment, simultaneous empowerment and disempowerment, and a muted effect on structural transformation. In the final analysis, while MWT appears to have progressed multi-dimensional empowerment for some residents, claiming that MWT has led to rebalanced power relations and better lives for all less advantaged residents of Gansbaai would be disingenuous

Exploring the Impact of Gender Integrationist Policy in the Nigerian Military

Gender integration in state militaries is of current focus based on the arguments for the institution of equal gender opportunities in the profession. Yet, debate remains regarding the impact of policies aimed at this in militaries. The existing literature is, however, mainly Western focused with no reflections of the Nigerian context. This research explores the implementation of a gender integration policy in the Nigerian military to show how its particular historical and social context differentiates its experiences and impact from those of other militaries. It examines how the emerging changes with the policy adoption in 2011 are coming to bear on the Nigerian military’s gendered culture. The central question is: ‘how are the evolving changes in the Nigerian military impacting the institution and shaping its gender culture?’ I used semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions in generating primary data in addition to the existing literature for exploring this question and four sub-questions. From a feminist sociological institutionalist perspective, I argue that the Nigerian military is a gendered institution with overt sexist norms and practices which are shaped by the particular patriarchal culture of the Nigerian society. Also, that the adoption of the Gender Integration Policy, a liberal policy, by the Nigerian government is an emulation of Western militaries to show conformity with international norms of gender equality and portray a liberal image of the Nigerian state and its military. The policy has, however, encountered internal resistance against its liberal principles and a decoupling has occurred between its principles and the gender culture of the Nigerian military. A closer look, though, I argue, identifies some micro-level structural changes which are impacting the career opportunities and status of servicewomen, which have the potential to instigate further shifts in gender relations pattern in the Nigerian military, and society, in the long run

Mentoring of early career academics in South African higher education : a transformation strategy

Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 2004Early career academics in South Africa enter a higher education system with a historical legacy of division along lines of past discrimination and apartheid. The higher education system has been undergoing profound transformation in the last decade through the promulgation of the SAQA Act (No 58 of 1995) and the Higher Education Act No 101 of 1997. Although numbers of black students at historically advantaged, predominantly white higher education institutions have increased dramatically in the past decade to over 50% in some cases, the change in the academic staff at these institutions has not been nearly as rapid. Less than 30% of the academic staff is black, even at institutions which consider themselves to be progressive. The argument in this research is that the professional socialisation and development of early career academics in all South Africa universities is generally neglected or receives scanty attention and that the professional development in teaching which they receive at entry-level, is minimal. Although mentoring as a professional development strategy has been shown in many studies to have a positive impact in careers at entrylevel, South African universities are not doing enough to support and develop early career academics and consequently the transformation of higher education is being retarded by institutional lack of support. The case of the University of the Witwatersrand illustrates the situation common in many higher education institutions. The purpose of the study is to investigate mentoring as a transformation strategy for the professional development and socialisation in the career development and management of the early careers of entry-level academics to higher education in South Africa where transformation of higher education is a critical issue on the national agenda. In this study there are 28 early career academics in formal mentoring relationships as a result of specially designed mentoring programmes or academic internships which have been established since 1999. They were interviewed in-depth for their interpretations of their experiences in formal mentoring programmes where almost all the mentors are white and the majority of mentees belong to different cultural groups. The findings in the study show how necessary it is for early career academics to be paired with mentors who are aware of the functions and roles of mentors in higher education and who are seriously committed to fulfilling those roles themselves or in conjunction with others in their networks. One new career development function and one new psychosocial function of mentors were added to a model of existing functions derived from the literature. Transformation is an important new function of mentors and their function as role models is emphasised by the context of this mentoring research. Mentoring may be lauded as the panacea for transformation in higher education but unless mentors are adequately trained, supported and monitored, and are committed to transformation, the strategy is not likely to meet with success. Mentoring in cross-cultural contexts in higher education in South Africa is also likely to be only partially successful because too little is being done to address the effects of institutional and covert racism which lingers on. A wide spectrum of recommendations is made for making mentoring work in higher education institutions. These range from broadly based macro interventions at national and institutional levels, to quite detailed micro interventions at the individual level. Without a systematic and committed thrust throughout the sector to accelerate transformation, the whole sector is likely to languish and busy itself with meeting legislative demands for equity compliance and quality assurance drives without addressing the fundamental issues of developing those young academics who are instrumental in transforming the system.WS201