“What do Women in the Egyptian Public Service Want?”
Laila EL-BARADEI, Rana Hindy, Noha El-Mikawy
The American University in Cairo, Egypt
Problem Statement and Purpose
The challenges and opportunities of women in public service around the world have been examined by multiple scholars over the years. However, despite the plethora of published research, the challenges persist.
Globally, challenges facing female public servants have been reported in the US (Alkadry & Tower, 2013), in Russia (Antonova, 2002) and in India (Shrivastava ,2015).
In Egypt, studies show that women in the Egyptian public service value a number of aspects related to their work, including the ‘working hours’, the fact that their workplace was near their residence, and the higher level of perceived job security (Abdel Hamid & El Baradei, 2010). They are not getting hired at the same rate as before; their total percentage in the workforce in the public service is on the rise, but gender parity has not been attained (Barsoum, 2024). There is minimum pay discrimination compared to the private sector (Said, 2011), and alarmingly, a high percentage of them may be depressed (Eshak & Abd-El Rahman, 2022). Overall, the situation is worthy of further investigation and analysis.
Methodology
Basically, borrowing from the title of the famous movie “What Women Want?”, the authors, focusing on women in the Egyptian public service, will try to reach out to them directly through semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus groups, to identify and document their perceived challenges, opportunities and aspirations. The time frame for the interviews will be during the two months of May to June 2024. Through the qualitative in-depth interviews and focus groups with a purposive sample of female public servants from different sectors, and at different ranks along their career paths, a number of useful insights can be revealed.
Findings
The field study has not been implemented as yet.
Proposals
Based on the challenges, opportunities and aspirations of Egyptian women public servants, to be identified from the field study, the researchers will try to come up with proposed solutions to better meet those needs.
References
References
Alkadry, Mohamad & Leslie E. Tower (2013). Women and Public Service: Barriers, Challenges, and Opportunities. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
Antonova, Victoria K. (2012). “Women in Public Service in the Russian Federation”, Review of Public Personnel Administration, 22 (3), 216-232.
Abdelhamid, Doha & Laila El Baradei (2010). “Reforming the Pay System for Government Emplyees in Egypt”, International Public Management Review, 11 (3), 59-87.
Barsoum, Ghada (2024). “Not Like Father, Like Son: Public Sector Employment Reforms in Egypt”, Review of Public Personnel Administration, 1-21. DOI: 10.1177/0734371X241227406
Eshak, Ehab Salah & Tarek Ahmed Abd El-Rahman (2022). “Depression in Public Servants of Upper Egypt: Gender specific Prevalence and Determining Factors”, Journal of Prevention, 43: 623-638. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-022-00690-3
Said, Mona (2011). “Does the Public Sector Discriminate Against Women? Occupational Segregation Prior to Privatization in Egypt”, Advances in Management & Applied Economics, 1 (2), 185-205.
Shrivastava, Hermant (2015). “Harassment at the Workplace, Powerlessness and Identity: Experiences of Women Civil Servants in India”, Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 22 (3), 437-457.
Resilience Logic and Action Network of Embedding Public Services into Community Vulnerable Groups
Jiao BIAN, Jianying SHI
Xi'an Administrative College, China, People's Republic of
Problem Statement and Purpose
Under highly uncertain and complex social development conditions, community governance activities have a profound impact on the effectiveness of urban resilience governance.Although existing research has formed different perspectives on the concept, characteristics, and specific fields of resilient governance, the improvement of resilience depends on the dynamic debugging of governance under normal and emergency conditions, which promotes the improvement of urban governance efficiency through continuous interaction and cooperation.Obviously, existing research lacks dynamic research on the generation and operation mechanism of urban resilience.This study starts from practical cases and focuses on the resilience logic of embedding public services into vulnerable groups in communities. From the perspective of community embedded service supply, it analyzes how to improve community collaborative governance capabilities by adjusting internal member relationships and constructing a resilience governance action network. By constructing an action network framework that combines embedded community services with the effectiveness of urban resilience governance, a new perspective can be provided to understand how cities can improve their ability to respond to challenges through community level services.I hope to provide a window for understanding urban resilience, as well as an analytical perspective for solving the "big problem" of how public services can improve governance efficiency.
Methodology
This study is based on a field investigation of the Xi'an community, and uses methods such as case studies, participatory observation, and semi-structured in-depth interviews to summarize and extract the generation logic and action path of resilient urban governance from specific governance scenarios. Specifically, it includes extracting the common characteristics of embedded public service supply for vulnerable community groups, sorting out the governance experience of typical communities, and summarizing the implementation elements for building community resilience. Select typical community cadres, representatives of social organizations, and community residents, and combine their work experience and methods with democratic deliberation and consultation, volunteer teams, and property management interaction.
Findings
Research has found that some communities in Xi'an have cultivated rich social capital through special care for vulnerable groups, and achieved refined management through the comprehensive embedding of professional organizations, presenting a governance landscape of “exchanging temperature for trust”and “shaping resilience with emotions” that integrates grassroots governance resources, consolidates people's hearts, and dynamically connects normal and abnormal management. Starting from the phenomenon, it is an urgent theoretical and practical issue to summarize, replicate, and promote the governance experience of embedding public services into vulnerable communities to enhance community resilience.
Proposals
Firstly, construct a theoretical framework that combines the embedding of public services into vulnerable groups and the effectiveness of urban resilience governance. Secondly, analyze the generation and internal operational logic of community resilience from the perspectives of caring for vulnerable groups, providing professional services to social organizations, and cultivating social capital. Finally, based on the analysis framework of “concept structure capability”, this paper explores the action network of community embedded services to enhance the effectiveness of urban resilience governance, providing ideas and references for urban governance innovation and efficiency improvement.
References
Ouyang H ,Tang X ,Zhang R , et al.Resilience Building and Collaborative Governance for Climate Change Adaptation in Response to a New State of More Frequent and Intense Extreme Weather Events.International Journal of Disaster Risk Science,2023,14(01):162-169.
J.Huggins T ,Peace R ,R.Hill S , et al.Visually Modelling Collaborative Research into Innovative Community Disaster Resilience Practice,Strategy,and Governance.International Journal of Disaster Risk Science,2015,6(03):282-294.
Tang J ,Zhao P ,Gong Z , et al.Resilience patterns of human mobility in response to extreme urban floods.National Science Review,2023,10(08):121-133.
Gender-based political violence in Brazil: social-political dynamics and State responses
Letícia GODINHO DE SOUZA, Luiza CARVALHO PIRES, Rosânia RODRIGUES DE SOUSA, Isabela CARNEIRO, Mariana SARAIVA DUARTE
Fundação João Pinheiro, Brazil
Problem Statement and Purpose
Gender-based political violence is a widespread and growing phenomenon in Brazil. It refers to a mechanism used to silence and exclude women from the political sphere. Such practices cause incalculable damage, and can reach the maximum expression of political violence, as the brutal murder of councilwoman Marielle Franco, a black woman elected with more than 40,000 vows. In addition to clear cases of gender-based political violence, which take place in the forms of physical aggression, with apparent bodily injury or even femicide, there are others "less visible" expressions. Political violence against women emerges as a global phenomenon of interest, once it it poses important challenges to the careers of women in the State and in political life in general. Notably, on Latin America, a region that stands out as a pioneer in the elaboration of legislation related to this theme.
The main objective of the paper is to present the dynamics, contexts, and variations of gender-based political violence in a Brazillian state, Minas Gerais, the state with the worst indicators of this type of violence currently. Also to show how the justice system responds to this violence.
Methodology
The present investigation analyzed gender-based political violence suffered by state and local female parliamentarians elected in 2020 and 2022 from a Brazilian federated state, Minas Gerais. The research included documentary analysis, six semi-structured interviews with state parliamentarians, three public servants and six justice system operators, and a survey with 30 councillwomen.
Findings
The results show significant limiting impacts on the political careers of the women investigated, as well as to the parliamentary work. Also show profound personal e family impacts. The reaearch identifyed legal achievements, but comprehensive difficulties in recognizing and punishing such practices by the State.
Proposals
The reasearch proposals include: norms creating sanctions and fixes for abuses; specialized whistleblowing channel; strengthening the public service structure and capacities; training and capacity building programs.
References
BIROLI, F. Political violence against women in Brazil: expressions and definitions. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, v. 42, n. 4, p. 883-905, 2016.
BIROLI, F. Violence against Women and Reactions to Gender Equality in Politics.
Politics & Gender, v. 14, n. 2, p. 237-242, 2018. DOI: 10.1017/S1743923X1800015X
BOBADILLA, M. Mujeres en la política de América Latina: avances y desafíos. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Costa Rica, n. 153, p. 117-132, 2016.
INSTITUTO MARIELLE FRANCO. Violência política de gênero e raça no Brasil 2021:
eleitas ou não, mulheres negras seguem desprotegidas. Rio de Janeiro, 2021.
KROOK, Mona Lena. Violence against women in politics. Journal of Democracy, v. 28, n. 1, p. 74-88, 2017.
KROOK, L.; SANÍN, F. G. Género y violencia política en América Latina: Conceptos, debates y soluciones. Política y Gobierno, v. 23, n. 1, p. 127-162, 2016.
KUPERBERG, Rebecca. Intersectional violence against women in politics. Politics &
Gender, v. 14, n. 4, p. 685-690, 2018.
ONU MULHERES BRASIL. Cartilha de prevenção à violência política contra as
mulheres em contextos eleitorais. Brasília, DF, 2021.
PISCOPO, Jennifer M. State capacity, criminal justice, and political rights. Rethinking
violence against women in politics. Política y gobierno, v. 23, n. 2, p. 437-458, 2016.
SEN, P.; VALLEJO, C.; WALSH, D. Opposition to women’s participation in politics and society. Report for the Poverty, Violence and Inequality Lab, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. March, 2019.
UNION, Inter-Parliamentary. Sexism, harassment and violence against women in
parliaments in Europe. 2018.
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