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  • Gender, Civil Society, and Participation:Introduction to the Special Issue of Social Politics
  • Armine Ishkanian (bio) and Jane Lewis (bio)

The position of women in relation to civil society organizations has long been recognized as historically significant in most western welfare states. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when women were often denied full political citizenship, they were usually able to participate in what would then have usually been called voluntary organizations and are now more likely to be termed third sector organizations, or even civil society organizations.1The historical literature has been divided on how to interpret this work: as an important bridge to the public world of paid work and political action, as evidence of female solidarity (given that the organizations often worked on behalf of women and children), or as rather inadequate outlets for well-meaning middle class women, excluded from the public sphere (e.g. Lewis 1991; Skocpol 1992; Summers 1979)? The context for assessing participation in and the impact of the "third sector" is very different in the [End Page 407] early twenty-first century, but tensions remain around the meaning of civil society organizations for women's participation and welfare.

The articles in this special issue of Social Politics explore and analyze gender, citizenship and participation in eastern and western Europe through several case studies including Armenia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK.2 The articles highlight key questions concerning the link between gender and participation in Europe. They ask: are there major differences between East-West Europe with respect to gender and participation? How do the tensions between gender, culture, and religion affect women's participation in civil society and their experience of citizenship? What have been the consequences of foreign aid, both western and now increasingly Islamic aid, on women's participation in civil society? What impact has European Union enlargement had from a gender perspective? Does women's participation in civil society increase with inclusion in the European Union? And more broadly, what is the relationship between gender, civil society and participation?

The goals of this special issue are to advance thinking around citizenship and participation in Europe. The articles examine the intersections of gender and social policy as well as the changes that have occurred in the East since 1989 and particularly in the context of European Union enlargement. We think that they represent an exciting and coherent foray into East/West encounters, focusing particularly on women's participation in civil society organizations which not only embraces a gender-aware perspective (Howell), but also considers the impact of local, national, and transnational politics, religion, and class on participation and organizing. Several of the authors pay particular attention to the potential for conflict between East/West, especially in respect of the politics of aid (Ghodsee, Ishkanian, Roth). A number also examine the role of various national as well as international institutional actors including government ministries, foreign aid agencies, intergovernmental bodies, as well as transnational networks and global civil society actors in influencing local level organizing and participation in myriad ways (Bleijenberg and Roggeband, Ghodsee, Ishkanian, and Roth). Given that civil society does not exist in a vacuum and is not a power-free space, it is important to consider how these various interactions and relationships affect women's organizing at the local and national levels.

Peter A. Hall's (1999) study of social capital in the UK at the end of the twentieth century concluded that social capital had been "sustained in Britain largely by virtue of the increasing participation of women in the community." Women are also often the majority of [End Page 408] paid workers in third sector organizations. But while women have always been present in these organizations that are "outside the state," they have not necessarily occupied leading positions, although in some countries, particularly the United States, they have managed to exert considerable political influence through their membership. But, on the whole, third sector organizations are not known for the excellence of their pay and conditions. Furthermore, feminist literature on women's voluntary participation in developing countries has long pointed out that this form of...

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