Plan of Activities and Goals and Particularly Future Meetings and Conferences, Publications and Newsletters

Many of the prospective members of this group have had a long standing interest in the topic of Gender, Globalization, and Democratization. Hem Lata Swarup and Pam Rajput ( both from India) wrote one of the very first books on the subject of gender and globalization in the 1980s, a book published in India. Rita Mae Kelly, Jane H. Bayes, Mary Hawkesworth, and Brigitte Young recently edited a book with the title Gender, Globalization and Democratization (Rowman and Littlefield 2001) which includes contributions from scholars from Africa, India, Japan, Australia, Korea, Japan, and the United States. Jane Bayes and Nayereh Tohidi recently published a book entitled Globalization, Gender, and Religion: Implementing Women's Rights in Catholic and Muslim Contexts (Palgrave, 2001). At the Special Session on Women and Politics preceding the IPSA Congress in Quebec, the Women and Politics section held a very successful pre-conference session on gender, globalization, and democracy which sparked the initiative for this proposal. Three research projects are already underway by members of the proposed committee. They are: 1) a project on sexual trafficking being conducted by Kinhide Mushakoji (Japan), Seiko Hanochi (Japan), Brigitte Young (Germany) , Isabelle Bakker ( Canada), Stephen Gill (Canada), and Nancy Hartsock (USA). A second project is being conducted by Laura Gonzalez, and Jane Bayes on patterns of migration between Mexico and the United States with particular interest in the development of the transnational organizations that this migration creates and the changing roles of women - especially women's political leadership. Laura MacDonald , Janine Brodie and Lois Harder (all from Canada ), Jane Bayes, Mary Hawkesworth and Laura Gonzalez (all from the United States), and Patricia Begne and Olga Aiken (both from Mexico) are engaged in a North American Mobility Project funded by the US Department of Education with an emphasis on globalization , gender, and governance.

Recent Meetings and Conferences

In March 2002, Janine Brodie, Laura MacDonald, Lois Harder (all from Canada) met with Patricia Begne and Olga Aiken (both from Mexico) and Jane Bayes, Laura Gonzalez, and Mary Hawkesworth (all from the United States) in New Orleans, Louisiana USA to present papers and discuss research projects involving Canadian and Mexican border studies. In September, 2002, Gunnel Gustafsson (Sweden) invited Marian Simms (Australia), Mary Hawkesworth (USA), Laura Gonzalez ( USA/Mexico), and Jane Bayes (USA) along with others to meet in Umea, Sweden to discuss and plan a research project on developing women's leadership in an age of globalization. Jane Bayes through the Institute on Gender, Globalization and Democracy at California State University Northridge organized and sponsored a conference on Transnational Feminism in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 12, 2002. Jane Bayes and Nancy Hartsock have established separate institutes at their respective institutions concerned with the subject. One is the Center for Women and Democracy at the University of Washington. The other is the Institute for Gender, Globalization and Democracy at California State University, Northridge. Both of these centers/institutes sponsor conferences.

Future Meetings and Conferences

The most immediate future meeting of the Research Committee will be in Durban, South Africa, 29 June - 4 July 2003. The Research Committee will be sponsoring panels on two topics: 1) Women and Leadership Around the World and 2) Exploring Transnational Feminisms.