How has the collapse of communism across Europe and Eurasia changed gender? In addition to acknowledging the huge costs that fell heavily on women, Living Gender after Communism suggests that moving away from communism in Europe and Eurasia has provided an opportunity for gender to multiply, from varieties of neo-traditionalism to feminisms, from overt negotiation of femininity to denials of gender. This development, in turn, has enabled some women in the region to construct their own gendered identities for their own political, economic, or social purposes. Beginning with an understanding of gender as both a society-wide institution that regulates people's lives and a cultural "toolkit" which individuals and groups may use to subvert or "transvalue" the sex/gender system, the contributors to this volume provide detailed case studies from Belarus, Bosnia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. This collaboration between young scholars -- most from postcommunist states -- and experts in the fields of gender studies and postcommunism combines intimate knowledge of the area with sophisticated gender analysis to examine just how much gender realities have shifted in the region. Contributors are Anna Brzozowska, Karen Dawisha, Nanette Funk, Ewa Grigar, Azra Hromadzic, Janet Elise Johnson, Anne-Marie Kramer, Tania Rands Lyon, Jean C. Robinson, Iulia Shevchenko, Svitlana Taraban, and Shannon Woodcock.

Jurisprudence is about the nature of law and justice. It embraces studies and theories from a range of disciplines such as history, sociology, political science, philosophy, psychology and even economics. Why do people obey the law? How does law serve society? What is law's relation to morality? What is the nature of rights? This book introduces and critically discusses the major traditions of jurisprudence. Written in a lucid and accessible style, Suri Ratnapala considers a wide range of views, bringing conceptual clarity to the debates at hand. From Plato and Aristotle to the medieval scholastics, from Enlightenment thinkers to postmodernists and economic analysts of law, this important volume examines the great philosophical debates and gives insight into the central questions concerning law and justice.

Nonie Darwish lived for thirty years in a majority Muslim nation. Everything about her life?family, sexuality, hygiene, business, banking, contracts, economics, politics, social issues, everything?was dictated by the Islamic law code known as Sharia. But Sharia isn't staying in majority Muslim nations. Darwish now lives in the West and brings a warning; the goal of radical Islam is to bring Sharia law to your country. If that happens, the fabric of Western law and liberty will be ripped in two. Under Sharia law: A woman can be beaten for talking to men who are not her relatives and flogged for not wearing a headdress Daughters, sisters, and wives can be legally killed by the men in their family Non-Muslims can be beheaded, and their Muslim killers will not receive the death penalty Certain kinds of child molestation are allowed The husband of a "rebellious" wife can deny her medical care or place her under house arrest Think it can't happen? In 2008, England?once the seat of Western liberty and now the home of many Muslim immigrants?declared that Sharia courts in Britain have the force of law. When Muslim populations reach as little as 1 or 2 percent, says Darwish, they begin making demands of the larger community, such as foot-level faucets for washing before praying in public schools, businesses, and airports. "Airports in Kansas City, Phoenix, and Indianapolis are among those who have already installed foot baths for Muslim cab drivers," writes Darwish. These demands test how far Westerners will go in accommodating the Muslim minority. How far will they push? The Organization of the Islamic Conference works to Islamize international human rights laws and apply Sharia "standards" for blasphemy to all nations. The penalty for blasphemy? Death. Weaving personal experience together with extensive documentation and research, Darwish exposes the facts and reveals the global threat posed by Sharia law. Anyone concerned about Western rights and liberties ignores her warning and analysis at their peril.

Analyzing such cultural practices as selling and shopping, political and social activism, urban field work and rural labor, radical discourses on feminine sexuality, and literary and artistic experimentation, this volume contributes to the rich vein of current feminist scholarship on the "gender of modernism" and challenges the assumption that modernism rose naturally or inevitably to the forefront of the cultural landscape at the turn of the twentieth century.".

This exciting new Handbook offers a comprehensive overview of the contemporary state of the field in feminist philosophy. The editors' introduction and forty-five essays cover feminist critical engagements with philosophy and adjacent scholarly fields, as well as feminist approaches to current debates and crises across the world. Authors cover topics ranging from the ways in which feminist philosophy attends to other systems of oppression, and the gendered, racialized, and classed assumptions embedded in philosophical concepts, to feminist perspectives on prominent subfields of philosophy. The first section contains chapters that explore feminist philosophical engagement with mainstream and marginalized histories and traditions, while the second section parses feminist philosophy's contributions to numerous philosophical subfields, for example metaphysics and bioethics. A third section explores what feminist philosophy can illuminate about crucial moral and political issues of identity, gender, the body, autonomy, prisons, among numerous others. The Handbook concludes with the field's engagement with other theories and movements, including trans studies, queer theory, critical race, theory, postcolonial theory, and decolonial theory. The volume provides a rigorous but accessible resource for students and scholars who are interested in feminist philosophy, and how feminist philosophers situate their work in relation to the philosophical mainstream and other disciplines. Above all it aims to showcase the rich diversity of subject matter, approach, and method among feminist philosophers.

Gender and Sexuality in Ghanaian Societies explores cultural dynamics embedded in the interstices of agency, vulnerability, and power within patriarchal structures that seek to regulate the sexual lives of women in Ghana. Emphasizing the centrality of gender as a motive force for sexual expression, the book stresses that contemporary Ghanaian women's sexual expressions are caught at the intersection of traditional gender expectations of heteronormativity and women’s perceptions of how heteronormativity should operate in their lives. The book's emphasis on women's agency is significant because it highlights a flaw in earlier, Western accounts of African women's lives under Africa's special brand of patriarchy that held women in total subjection to men. Gender and Sexuality debunks that trope and presents Ghanaian women's dynamism, resilience, and vulnerabilities embedded in the diverse cultures in which they live.

Desi Dreams focuses on the construction of self and identity by Indian immigrant professional and semi-professional women who live and work in the US. The focus in this anthropological fieldwork is on Indian immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area. They have often been defined as a model minority. Indian immigrant women who have achieved entry into the current technology based economy in the Silicon Valley value the capital-accumulation, status-transformation, socio-economic autonomy, and renegotiation of familial gender relations that are made possible by their employment. However, this quintessential American success story conceals the psychic costs of uneasy Americanization, long drawn out gender battles, and incessant cross-cultural journeys of selves and identities. The outcome is a diasporic identity through the recomposition of Indian culture in the diaspora and strengthening of transnational ties to India.

Feminisms Matter confronts the major reasons people offer for not being feminists by breaking apart stereotypes of feminists, unraveling myths about women's history, and challenging assumptions about feminists and feminisms.

This work includes 1000 entries covering the spectrum of defining women in the contemporary world.