Women, Europe and the New Languages of Politics

Description

This book contributes to the debates around the presence and activity of women in politics, as well as the part which language plays in shaping and developing political activity. Footitt argues that, in a world of shifting roots and multiple identities, the stories we tell, the ways in which we understand the relationships between us, and the communities we imagine ourselves belonging to, are of ever-increasing political importance. At the centre of the study are the women from 12 European Union countries who participate in the transnational political site of the European Parliament. Using interviews with female Members of the European Parliament from the late 90s and early 00s, and a close textual study of speeches in the European Parliament, Hilary Footitt argues that women have created a language of politics that transcends nationalities and political parties and contributes to engendering democracy, defining citizenship and imagining the community of Europe. Politics, she argues, is multilingual, and an understanding of the varieties of vocabularies and grammars that are potentially available to us may help us to create a more inclusive and dynamic political process. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations 1 Women, Language and Politics FEMINISM AND POLITICS LANGUAGE AND POLITICS WOMEN, LANGUAGE AND POLITICS CONCLUSIONS 2 Women in the European Union THEORIES OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION FRAMEWORKS OF ANALYSIS: THE NATION-STATE FRAMEWORKS OF ANALYSIS: THE EU WHY THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT? WOMEN IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT STUDYING THE LANGUAGES OF WOMEN 3 Engendering Democracy: Narratives of Representation WOMEN, DEMOCRACY AND REPRESENTATION SCRIPTS OF REPRESENTATION THE GENDER SCRIPT NARRATIVES OF REPRESENTATION IMAGINING THE POLITICAL PROCESS CONCLUSIONS 4 Grammars of Citizenship LANGUAGES OF CITIZENSHIP LANGUAGES OF CITIZENSHIP IN THE EU WOMEN'S LANGUAGES OF CITIZENSHIP CITIZENSHIP AND TRANSITIVITY GRAMMARS OF CITIZENSHIP MALE/FEMALE GRAMMARS OF CITIZENSHIP CONCLUSIONS 5 Imagining Europe EUROPEAN IDENTITY IMAGINED COMMUNITIES OF EUROPE INSTITUTIONAL IMAGININGS WOMEN AND EUROPEAN IDENTITY LANGUAGES OF PROCESS AND MOVEMENT ECONOMIC ISSUES GENDER AND THE LANGUAGES OF EUROPEAN IDENTITY CONCLUSIONS 6 The Category 'Women': Women's Languages of Politics ACCENTING THE LANGUAGES OF POLITICS DIALECTS OF ENGENDERING REPRESENTATION THE INFLUENCE OF POLITICAL IDEOLOGY WOMEN'S LANGUAGES OF POLITICS THE DIFFERENT VOICE WOMEN'S LANGUAGES OF POLITICS AND THE DIFFERENT VOICE 7 Conclusions ENGENDERING DEMOCRACY DEFINITIONS OF CITIZENSHIP IMAGINING EUROPE LANGUAGE AND POLITICS Appendix 1: List of MEPs Interviewed Appendix 2: MEP Profiles Appendix 3: Languages of Process and Movement References Index