Gender, the women's movement and nation-building: the historical experience of Timor-Leste | |
| Author | Groves, Gabrielle |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.GD-11-02 |
| Subject(s) | Women--Timor-Leste Feminsm--Timor-Leste |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Gender and Development Studies, School of Environment, Resource and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Dissertation ; no. GD-11-02 |
| Abstract | The core subject of this research is the characteristization, constitution and changes in the women's movement in the processes of anti-colonial resistance, transition, and nation building in Timar-Leste, and how patriarchal practices may have been sustained and reconfigured in these historical stages. The study examined how the conditions of conflict during occupation and resistance spurred the growth of the Timorese women's movement and shaped their vision and agenda for change, as well as their experiences of war and liberation in the context of a newly independent nation. It also studied how two generations of women liberation activists' responded to the patriarchal norms, attitudes and practices in society and in the state by exploring their agendas and strategies to address social, specifically gender, inequalities. This research is located within the nexus of studies on state-society relations, through the specific exploration of the evolving nation-state in Timor-Leste and its engagement with the women's movement over historical time. A feminist historiography was employed in this study to address these objectives. The findings in this study generally concur with past studies that post-conflict regimes often reinstate patriarchy and other forms of hegemonic social and cultural systems, thereby re/producing and co-producing social inequalities and disenfranchising groups of people from the benefits of independence, peace and development. This study also demonstrates that new state regimes like Timor-Leste are usually tied to and embedded in local social institutions, thus calling for the need to address social and gender cleavages that have been traditionally shaped by them. Finally, the women's movement in TimorLeste has fragmented as a result of historically changing state agendas framed by social revolutionary to development goals, thus re-defining the pathways for transformation of gender inequalities in diverse ways. |
| Year | 2011 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Dissertation ; no. GD-11-02 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Gender and Development Studies (GD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Resuneccion, B.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Doneys, P. ;Sajor, E. ;Zimmermann, W ;Corcoran-Nantes, Yvonne ; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2011 |