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Gender and civil society: Transcending boundaries. Edited by Jude HOWELL and Diane MULLIGAN. London, Routledge, 2005. xvii + 257 pp. Figures, tables, index. ISBN 0-415-33574-4.
This volume aims to launch a debate on gender and civil society since the two subjects have so far been studied separately - and extensively - but "have not encountered each other with greater force or depth. The failure to 'tango' cannot be blamed on either party", Howell argues, because "each has been busy with its own affairs". For example, some feminist researchers consider that civil society is not a significant analytic category and have focused more on the family and the public/private divide. At the same time, many civil society theorists and empirical researchers have preferred to explore civil society's relations with the State and, to a lesser extent, with the market. As a result, there is a gap - which this volume addresses - on a range of issues such as the "gendered" structure of civil society and what is described as the distinctiveness of women's organizing. Women are indeed significant actors within civil society around the world, and the publication aims to put the relationship between civil society and gender on the map.
The book's core chapters are divided into national case studies (on Chile, China, Indonesia, Mexico and the United States), regional overviews (of central and eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East), and a contribution entitled "Who is the real civil society? Women's groups versus pro-family groups at the international criminal court negotiations". The three underlying questions that the various contributors address are:
* How does the political environment and nature of the State shape the way women organize and the issues they address?
* What are the factors that affect women activists and their organizations' attempts to influence state policies on gender?