Gender Matters
GPN's literature and article reviews call attention to recent work that members find useful, important and innovative. While not a comprehensive review of the literature related to gender and policy, they do highlight the current interests of members and offer a public forum for member work. If you are interested in writing a review, or if you have an article or book to suggest, please contact gender@princeton.edu.
“Do Men and Women Negotiate Differently-and Why Does it Matter?" (.pdf)
Literature Review by Rekha Reddy
Posted 5 April 2004
Whether women and men in fact view negotiation differently or behave differently in negotiation, there clearly is a perception that they might. These perceptions are critical because they can contribute to expectations and behaviors that flow from these assumptions. This paper aims to explore the effect of preconceived or learned assumptions on gender and negotiating behavior. First, empirical studies are reviewed to see whether measurable differences in the negotiating style of men and women exist. Once differences are identified, possible consequences and explanations for such differences are discussed. The paper concludes with prescriptive measures applicable to both men and women to improve negotiating performance.
“Scattered Resistance”: Prospects for Transnational Feminist Organizing (.pdf)
Book Review by Suerie Moon, MPA '03
Posted 4 March 2003
Women’s Activism and Globalization: Linking Local Struggles and Transnational Politics
Nancy A. Naples and Manisha Desai, editors
New York: Routledge, 2002.
Adding to the growing body of literature on the underside of globalization, Women’s Activism and Globalization offers a broad range of case studies depicting the ways in which women’s mobilization efforts have both succeeded and failed around the globe. It is a natural companion volume to Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink’s widely-read Activists Beyond Borders (Cornell University Press, 1998), which also explored the possibilities and pitfalls of transnational social justice organizing. Because Women’s Activism goes into great detail on a wide range of cases and focuses specifically on gender issues, it is a useful body of evidence with which to re-consider some of Keck and Sikkink’s claims regarding the power, structure, and relevance of transnational advocacy networks. However, Women’s Activism does not make any major contribution to the theoretical debate on transnational mobilization; rather, its strength is the way it documents how political and economic globalization are impacting the everyday lives of women around the globe, and how they are reacting to it.
Transnational Lives, Local Impacts: Dominican Migration and Community Development (.pdf)
Book Review by Estela Rivero-Fuentes
Posted 4 March 2003
The Transnational Villagers. Peggy Levitt.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001
Levitt’s book is a very detailed study of how international migrants adapt to their lives in their new country of residence while keeping strong ties to their countries of origin. While other studies about transnationalism focus only on one aspect of the binational activity like political or economic participation, Levitt explores most aspects of life that one can think about. In this book we learn how the migration from Miraflores, in the Dominican Republic, to Boston affects the family relations, gender roles, class and race identity, political, economic and religious participation, and community development strategies of those who migrate and of those who remain behind. The result is a book of interest to scholars from many different fields. Those interested in gender and family studies, international migration, immigrant assimilation, the relationship between migration and development, and development in Latin America might find the study useful.