Understanding Americans' abortion attitudes: The role of the local religious context

Author(s): Amy Adamczyk, and Margrét Valdimarsdóttirb

In: Social Science Research, Vol 71, 2018, pp. 129-144

Although abortion became legal in the USA over 40 years ago, the population remains bitterly divided over its acceptability. Personal religious beliefs and life style have emerged as pivotal in shaping disapproval. However, very little attention has been given to how the local religious context may shape views and abortion access. Using data from the General Social Survey (6922) that has geographical identifiers, the authors examine how the local religious context influences social attitudes. They also examine the different impact of a higher rate of Catholicism or of Conservative Protestantism within the country, both on the attitudes of other residents and on acceptance of abortion clinics.

Measuring Women’s Political Empowerment across the Globe

Editor(s): Amy Alexander

Author(s): Catherine Bolzendahl, and Farida Jalalzai

Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, Switzerland, 2017, pp. 320

The authors assess how women’s empowerment in the political sphere on a global scale can best be conceptualized and measured. This work argues that women’s political empowerment is a fundamental process of transformation and provides a benchmark for understanding all gains in political empowerment across the globe.

"We Did It!” A Milestone for Women as Abortion is Legalised

Author(s): Tom Phillips, Amy Booth, and Uki Goni

In: Guardian Weekly, 2021, pp. 15-16

Reports the jubilation of pro-choice demonstrators in Buenos Aires after the Senate (which had voted down legalization of abortion in 2018) passed a law allowing termination in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy for any reason.  Argentina became then third South American country (after Uruguay and Guyana) to decriminalize abortion, and there are likely to b repercussions across the region. The authors summarize the five years of mass campaigning by the women’s movement in Argentina that led to this result.

See also: ‘Green Wave, Blue Water: Abortion in Latin America’, Economist, 9 Jan. 2021, pp.41-2.

This article discusses the significance of and probable repercussions of the legalization of abortion in Argentina, in the context of the generally very restrictive position in many other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.  The article notes the possible positive repercussions in Peru and Mexico and that legalizing abortion may be raised in proposed constitutional change in Chile.  But the article also warns that the Argentinian law will mobilize forces strongly opposed to abortion.

Thailand's First Elections Since Its 2014 Coup

Author(s): Amy Searight

In: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2019

An analysis by a bipartisan US policy research institute of the forthcoming March 24 2019 elections, including the junta's rules governing them and the parties participating.

See also: Hannah Ellis Petersen, 'Junta Finds New Ways to Win an Old Game', Guardian Weekly, 21 December 2018, p.21.

See also: 'Final Election Results Leave Thailand  Divided', The Diplomat, May 2019, pp.5.

https://thediplomat.com/2019/05/thai-final-election-results-leave-thaila...

Available online at:

https://www.csis.org/analysis/thailands-first-elections-its-2014-coup

Transgender Movement

Author(s): Amy Stone

In: Donatella Della Porta, Doug McAdam, David A Snow, Bert Klandermans, The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements (1.a. Transnational and Continent-wide Movements and Networks)

Examines evolution of US transgender movement from 1960s as it challenged violence, demanded legal recognition and resisted employment discrimination, poverty and media misrepresentation.

Available online at:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470674871.wbespm494/full

State Feminism and Women’s Movements in Brazil. Achievements, Shortcomings, and Challenges

Author(s): Cecilia Sardenberg, and Ana Alice Alcantara Costa

In: Basu, Amrita, Women’s Movements In The Global Era. The Power Of Local Feminism, pp. 299-329

This chapter provides an overview of Brazilian feminist and women's movements since the 1970s, showing how dialogues with the state began and eventually led to the establishment of Women's Policy Agencies at different governmental levels, as well as in the different branches of government. It demonstrates that, despite these setbacks, state feminism in its participatory form continues to be an important instrument in the fight for gender equality in Brazil. The chapter deals with a periodization of feminist struggles in Brazil, tracing the emergence and consolidation of state feminism and the challenges it encountered up to more recent years. It examines how state feminism in Brazil has furthered women's struggles in combating their underrepresentation in formal politics, confronting violence against women, and advancing state support for the exercise of women's reproductive rights, focusing on the legalization of abortion.

Is the European Union Supporting Democracy in its Neighbourhood?

Author(s): Richard Youngs, Jos Boonstra, Julia Choucair Vizoso, Ana Echagüe, Balázs Jarábik, and Kristina Kausch

FRIDE, Madrid, 2008, pp. 150

EU ‘neighbourhood plans’ agreed with neighbouring states link economic cooperation with human rights and democratization. This report includes case studies of how this has been implemented - or not - in Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Ukraine, Belarus and Azerbaijan. FRIDE has published a range of reports and policy briefs - all available online - with critical analyses of ‘democracy promotion’, especially by the European Union and its members, including in the context of the ‘Arab Spring’.

Available online at:

http://fride.org/publication/540/is-the-european-union-supporting-democracy-in-its-neighbourhood

Building Feminist Movements: Global Perspectives

Editor(s): Lydia Alpizar, Anahi Duran, and Anali Russo Garrido

Zed Books, London, 2006, pp. 288

The chapters cover a wide range of countries and issues, including: The Korean Women’s Trade Union, the feminist movement in Indonesia, the Algerian ‘Twenty Years is Enough’ campaign, widening the base of the feminist movement in Pakistan, advocacy of women’s rights in Nigeria, re-politicizing feminist activity in Argentina, new modes of organizing in Mexico, and two chapters on Israel, one on an Arab women’s organization.

I will not keep silent: Khadija rape case spurs women into action in Morocco - video

Author(s): Anaïs Brémon, Irene Baqué, Sabrina Hakimm, Claudine Spera, and Liz Ford

In: The Guardian, 2018

After the kidnapping and gang rape of a 17-yearl old young woman called Khadija by 12 men, public outrage in Morocco led women and men to organize a campaign combating violence against women. ‘#Masaktach’ (She was not silent) first took to the streets of Casablanca, Morocco’s largest city, with early members carrying whistles, which they handed out to women as a defense against sexual harassment. Khadija was held for two months, during which time she was starved, drugged, beaten, gang-raped, tortured, tattooed with swastikas, and burned with cigarettes.  

See also https://insidearabia.com/masaktach-a-movement-against-sexual-harassment-in-morocco/ and https://www.azeemamag.com/stories/masaktach

Available online at:

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/video/2018/nov/23/i-will-not-keep-silent-khadija-case-sparks-backlash-in-morocco-video

India – Macro Violence, Micro Resistance: Development Violence and Grassroots Unarmed Resistance

Author(s): Anand Mazgaonkar

In: Howard Clark, People Power: Unarmed Resistance and Global Solidarity (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements), pp. 76-85

Include two brief accounts of struggles to retain land, by Adivasi (indigenous) people in Gujarat against dispossession from traditional lands by the Forest Department, and the ‘Save Our Lands’ campaign in Gujerat for common lands held by villages and often used by the landless for herding animals, plant collecting, etc, who were threatened by corporate agriculture. See also Anand Mazgaonkar, Macro Violence, Micro Resistance (Development Violence and Unarmed Grassroots Resistance), 2006 .

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