Gender and Nation

by Nira Yuval-Davis

Nira Yuval-Davis provides an authoritative overview and critique of writings on gender and nationhood, presenting an original analysis of the ways gender relations affect and are affected by national projects and processes. In Gender and Nation Yuval-Davis argues that the construction of nationhood involves specific notions of both `manhood′ and `womanhood′. She examines the contribution of gender relations to key dimensions of nationalist projects - the nation′s reproduction, its culture and citizenship - as well as to national conflicts and wars, exploring the contesting relations between feminism and nationalism. Gender and Nation is an important contribution to the debates on citizenship, gender and nation

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Politics, Sociology, Gender, Academic, Feminist Theory

168 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1997

Reviews

[Fabienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because I saw a call for papers revisiting this book 30 years after it’s first publication. And what can I say… it is very 30 years old. I’ve used Bordering by Yuval-Davis a lot in my research and appreciate her work, but this was not that useful to me in comparison.
It’s not bad per se but I found it very underwhelming, considering the fact that it is called Gender and Nation I found it had a lot of talk of Nation and not so much Gender… I was expecting more analysis of the body, bodies as boundary-making (something more along the lines of Sara Ahmed), but it was more about classic feminist topics such as discussions surrounding population control/ reproductive rights, private/public division and citizenship, identity politics and intersectionality, etc. She seems very concerned with questions regarding the work of feminist movements and has a very not queer cis-binary gender approach talking generally about women and their role in “reproducing” the nation, but not from a particularly constructivist perspective, imo. We must remember this came out after Gender Trouble… Also some problematic takes here and there on religion.

I don’t want to trash this book as its core idea that the nation and gender are codependent concepts remain true, but I’m not really taking any inspiration from the examples and analysis of this.

[Rachel Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a tough read - worth a few go-overs. Her analysis was well-organized and well thought-out. Beginning with an overview of how she will show the gendered context of national reproduction, culture, citizenship, war and militarization, and identity politics and transversal perspectives, Yuval-Davis reveals from the start that this book will go deep into theory while maintaining a fresh, realistic perspective.

One of my favorite parts was the chapter on women's roles as carriers of the burden of the reproduction of national culture. Women not only have a responsibility to physically bear children to populate the nation (or to bear fewer children) to "maintain ethnic purity," but also they must engage in 'appropriate' behavior and appearances and exert control over other women 'deviants' to reinforce the national culture. Women also, Yuval-Davis discusses, have the burden of representation of national culture, which she explores through a discussion of the concept of honor. She talks about how, in many societies around the world, women are murdered by male relatives because of shame brought to families. Despite this seemingly powerful role women have in reproducing and policing culture - as physically bearing the children and socially engaging in and producing culture - Yuval-Davis talks about how women are not usually actors within their societies. They are usually objects, kept in their 'proper position' by these cultural codes. This pluralism fascinated as well as sickened me. Yuval-Davis did a wonderful job discussing the concept of national culture through a gendered lens.

[Guðrún Úlfarsdóttir]

Las bara fyrri hlutann því hann nýttist mér best. Margt brjálæðislega áhugavert sem opnar hug manns en það var oft agalegt strit að koma sér í gegnum textann. Það var ekki eingöngu það að hún notaði (skiljanlega) mikið af esóterískum faghugtökum sem ég hafði ekki gott vald á — textinn var bara illa skipulagður. En hvað um það ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Rose Clubok · Rating 4 out of 5]

Used a lot of academic/theoretical jargon, but well researched and said a lot of important things.

[Hazal]

koca bir literature review, hiç argümanı yok ama nefis
seviyorum seni yuval-davis <3

[Olive · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting but a tad repetitive and sluggish.

[Wenjing · Rating 3 out of 5]

The reference book for SIMP 27. Although it may be creative and groundbreaking at that time(1990s), it seems boring now. Missing the most important and fundamental relationship, 'women do not have country', between women and nation, other pages are all like empty words.

[Johannes Lindelöw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dialogue, rather than fixity of location, becomes the basis of empowered knowledge (p. 129). WAF, Haraway, Hill-Collins.

Transversal politics p. 130

Barefoot boogie

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite the small page number and the interesting content, this was a struggle to read for me.

[Steph Orme · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yuval-Davis provides a comprehensive overview of the vital role that gender plays in nationalist projects, and, in doing so, covers a lot of ground. Nonetheless, it's a good introductory text to an understanding of nation as inherently gendered.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

This definitely includes more "overview" than "original analysis," and it is much heavier on the nation/state than on gender or gender's role in the construction of the nation. Not bad, just not what I expected based on the description.