International Workshop on Gender Equality and Governance
News from Dec 10, 2014
From October 31 to November 1, 2014, the SFB 700 cohosted an international workshop on the question “Why is Gender Equality Good for Governance” in cooperation with Prof. Amy C. Alexander, political scientist at the University of Göttingen. The workshop invited interdisciplinary scholars worldwide and took as its starting point the paper „Taking the State (Back) Out? Statehood and the Delivery of Collective Goods. Governance“ (2014) by Melissa M. Lee, Gregor Walter-Drop, and John Wiesel. The authors argue through their research that the empowerment of women – in contrast to statehood – has a significant influence on governance. Workshop participants traveled to Berlin from the United States, the Netherlands, Morocco, and Bosnia-Herzegovina and engaged in a heated discussion over the course of five different panels. Findings were presented from both qualitative and quantitative studies and focused on the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. Key areas were the consequences of gender equality on corruption, the influence of gender on political participation, the empowerment of women in predominantly Muslim countries, and the influence of patriarchal norms in general. On the topic of corruption and governance, participants debated whether women contribute to governance with more integrity than men because of their weaker or nonexistent integration into political networks. To conclude, it was noted that men face discrimination because of their gender as well, and that this should receive more attention (on an international level).