Welcome to the website of RC07 “Women in the Global South”

The name of this Research Committee has recently been changed from “Women in the Developing Nations” to “Women in the Global South”.  The reason for this is to bring the title of the RC in line with the research that members of this RC do.  Some members work on women’s representation such as quota systems, others work on women’s mobilization and activism and others research policy issues, such as migration and xenophobia, or economic development.  While gender and development will remain a focus of the RC, other areas of research will now also be represented by RC 07.   It will therefore also be able to liaise with RC19, whose members have similar research areas.

The difference with RC 19 is that the focus is on women in the global South, where political challenges are different from countries in the North, some who were erstwhile colonies that have gone through processes of decolonization, others are developing countries which are now negatively affected by global neo-liberal capitalism, civil war, or religious fundamentalism, with women disproportionately bearing the brunt of these issues.

We hope that more women political scientists from the global South will join RC 07.

Research Linkages

RC 07 has a relationship with the Women’s Caucus of the South African Association of Political Science (SAAPS).  As the Chair of RC 07 I invite caucuses  of other associations to join and to send news about their research activities.

For the IPSA conference in Poznan RC 07 will host 5 panels:

RC 07.04 “Gender Politics in an Unequal World”
RC07.05 “Dealing with Gender Equality through Activism”
RC07. 08 “The Politics of Representation in the Global South”
RC07.10 “Women’s Mobilization for Gender Justice”
RC07.11 “Women’s Representation and Leadership in the Global South”

RC 07 will have a combined business meeting with RC19 on  25 July from 15h30 to 17h15.  I hope to see those of you who are attending the conference at this meeting so that we can elect office bearers.