By this research exchange and collaboration we will contribute to the empirically based theoretical development of the expanding research field of gender and politics. Overall, by combining our research expertise and knowledge about women’s position during periods of transition globally, this project will be able to contribute to theory development concerning the inclusion of women during regime change and –may be – transition to democracy

1. Project Brief:
“New Avenues for Political Influence for Women in the Arab Region?”
Donor Partners Budget Period
Countries
covered
Language
Swedish
Research
Council
University of
Stockholm
12.000
Euro +
15.850
Euro
October
2012-2014
Morocco,
Algeria,
Tunisia,
Libya,
Egypt,
Sudan,
South
Soudan,
Jordan,
Iraq,
Palestine,
Lebanon,
Syria
Finland,
Sweden,
Norway,
Denmark,
Iceland
English and
Arabic
Justification
Following the Arab Spring with its transformation of political life, new opportunities are
opening up for women. At the same time, there is a risk that women are once again being
marginalized. Many researchers and women’s organizations in the region base their
intensified work for the political mobilization of women on this dual perspective of new
windows of opportunity, on the one hand, and the risk of the continued marginalization of
women or even backlash, on the other.
Women have been very active in the democratic uprisings, especially in Tunisia and Egypt.
However, feminist researchers as well as women’s movements have pointed to the numerous
historical examples of women being pushed back into the home after having participated in
revolutionary processes. The traditional Nordic understanding that gender equality will come
with the development of society (the time-lag theory, Karvonen & Selle 1995) has been
seriously challenged by actual global developments, recently also in the Nordic countries.

2. Outcome
The aim of this project is to develop research ties between Swedish and Arab, particularly
North African, researchers that are experts on women’s political participation and
representation as well as on the use of active measures to overcome the many barriers to
women’s inclusion in political decision-making at all levels.
Outputs
The research collaboration, 2012-14, will consist of the following:
1. Research visits in Sweden and the Arab region, respectively
2. Workshops and one larger conference
3. Mapping of existing researches on women’s political participation and future perspectives
as potential new research fields
4. Interviews with party leaders and women leaders
5. A common book project
Target group
Swedish and Arab researchers within the expanding research field of gender and politics. Even if
the primary aim is academic, the project will also involve stakeholders engaged in the
empowerment of Arab women, so that research project results will be evidence based, will rest
on the field experiences and will be oriented, to a certain limit, to action.