ABSTRACT:

This study explores the relationship between elected representatives and the parties they belong to in the European context. It uses an elite cross-national survey, exploring the way elected representatives perceive their representative role and construct their perceptions of representation with regards to party unity. In order to bypass the "no-variance" problem in recorded votes, the study makes use of a legislator's sequential decision-making model, according to which party unity is not considered an end-result, but rather a process. Using attitudinal data on legislators’ perceptions and attitudes, the study shows that representatives often feel a tension between different, competing foci of representation – mainly party representation versus all other foci. It then examines how elected representatives reconcile this tension; how they are assisted by internalized perceptions of their role; and the effect of various institutional factors in this process.   

SPEAKER BIO:

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Reut received a Ph.D. in political science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2014, where she won the President Fellowship for outstanding doctoral students. She holds an M.A. with honors in political science from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a B.A with honors in political science and history also from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 

Event Description

Join us to hear from female speakers with experience at all levels of policy-making, learn about the challenges that women face in the political arena, and explore solutions to gender inequality. 

This panel will be moderated by Professor Shelley Correll.

This event is sponsored by the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law; Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Stanford in Government; and the Women's Community Center. 

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Join the Center for African Studies and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law's (CDDRL) Program on Social Entrepreneurship (in partnership with the Haas Center for Public Service) for a special lunchtime seminar.

Three leaders from the Global Women’s Water Initiative (GWWI) will share their work in East Africa transforming women from being water bearers to water providers and social entrepreneurs. GWWI is training and building a cadre of women water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) specialists steeped in a holistic set of technical and entrepreneurial skills to lift themselves from poverty and create self-reliance. Women have developed the capacity to construct technologies, provide health education and generate revenue by professionalizing their services. Come to Africa Table for an engaging hour listening to the stories of these three incredible leaders.

Gemma Bulos is a multi award-winning social entrepreneur, water champion and musician. As Director of the Global Women's Water Initiative, she trains women to be technicians and entrepreneurs who are able to build clean water and sanitation solutions in their communities. Her work has provided over 200,000 people with clean water in Asia and Africa.

Rose Wamalwa manages GWWI in-country logistics as Kenya/Tanzania Regional Coordinator. She was named one of the '8 African Water Women to Watch' by WASH Advocates alongside President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and President Joyce Banda of Malawi. She is currently an IREX Community Solutions Fellow sponsored by the US State Department.

Godliver Businge, Head Technology Trainer is a trained mason, welder, bricklayer, and a candidate for a Civil Engineering degree in Uganda. She is admired for her ability to train women with no background in construction. Godliver received a scholarship from the Uganda Rural Devlop-ment Trust, and was recently featured in Reuters trust.org as a Female Water Role Model. 

Lunch will be served.

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Abstract:

Gender equality is considered important for development and good governance, yet the causes of cross-national variation in gender equality are still not well understood. This paper claims that the distinct types of rule pursued by the French versus the British imperial powers selected for postcolonial institutions that are systematically correlated with gender equality. The paper evaluates this conjecture using three tests: a cross-country test of former British and French colonies, a historical comparison of Syria and Iraq, and a regression discontinuity across the former colonial border within modern-day Cameroon (see Lee and Schultz 2012). Results indicate that, despite our understanding of British colonialism as beneficial for a variety of economic institutions (Acemoglu and Johnson 2004, La Porta et al. 2008, Lipset 1994) French institutions often better promoted gender equality. This paper contributes to the discussion on the relative importance of colonial institutions versus natural resource endowments or religion (Nunn 2013, Sokoloff and Engerman 2000, Ross 2008, Fish 2002, Inglehart and Norris 2003).

Speaker Bio:

Adi Greif is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Yale University and a pre-doc at CDDRL for the academic year 2013-2014. Her dissertation, "The Long-Term Impact of Colonization on Gender", investigates why gender equality varies by former colonizer (French or British) in the Middle East and globally. It uses cross-national statistics, a regression discontinuity across the former colonial border in Cameroon, and interviews from Egypt and Jordan. Her research abroad was supported by a Macmillan Dissertation Fellowship.

Adi's research interests are colonialism, international alliances, state formation and comparative gender policies with focus on the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. She has lived in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco, and visited Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey. Adi holds an M.A. in Political Science from (Yale University) and a B.A with honors in Political Science and a minor in Math (Stanford University). Before coming to Yale, she worked at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. through the Tom Ford Fellowship in Philanthropy.

Abstract:

This talk is motivated by increased efforts in ICTD to lower rates of violence against women (VAW) worldwide. Conventional wisdom in international development often cites women’s advancement as the key factor in sustainable development strategies, although overall, ICTD has historically done a poor job taking women’s unique development concerns into account. However, new anti-rape and anti-harassment ICT efforts combine gender and technology policy and activity, and raise interesting questions about design, agency and ethics. This discussion introduces these intersections as areas for future research and development.

Speaker Bio:

Revi Sterling is the founder and director of the first Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD) professional master’s program in the United States, a program that places equal emphasis on technology, methodology, and development studies.  Previously, Sterling worked at Microsoft for 10 years where she spearheaded Microsoft Research’s efforts in gender equity in computer science. She has served on the leading gender and technology boards, and testified before the U.S. Congress about the need for more women in the technical workforce. She moved into the field of ICTD to research the impact of technology on women’s empowerment in underdeveloped communities. She is most concerned on the “hidden” barriers to ICTD use and access. Some of these topics include gender and power relations, development readiness, community expectation management and systemic disempowerment. Her current research explores the potential of ICT to establish and sustain mental health interventions in remote communities with a history of trauma and isolation. She is the recipient of the 2012 Anita Borg Institute Women of Vision award for Social Impact.

Abstract
The framework of "LGBT rights" can be critiqued as challenging tradition or as culturally specific, yet at the same time, it can be essential to one's sense of identity and justice.  Where can the discourse of "public health" help overcome barriers for LGBT people, both within the right to health and beyond? What are the limits to using public health to talk about human rights, LGBT or otherwise?  What are the dangers of conflating these distinct areas of concern?  We will explore these questions and focus on how academics and activists can most effectively navigate challenges to benefit both public health and LGBT rights.

Jessica Stern is the Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. As the first researcher on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human rights at Human Rights Watch, she conducted fact-finding investigations and advocacy around sexual orientation and gender identity in countries including Iran, Kyrgyzstan, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. As a Ralph Bunche Fellow at Amnesty International, she documented police brutality for what became its landmark report on police brutality in LGBT communities in the U.S., “Stonewalled.” She was a founding collective member and co-coordinator of Bluestockings, then New York’s only women’s bookstore. She has campaigned extensively for women’s rights, LGBT rights, and economic justice with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Control Ciudadano, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, and the Urban Justice Center. She holds a masters degree in human rights from the London School of Economics. She is frequently quoted in the Mail & Guardian, Al Jazeera English, the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France Presse, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America, The Guardian and The BBC.

**** PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF SPEAKER***

Dr. Susan Kasedde currently serves as Senior Advisor and Team Leader on HIV and Adolescents for UNICEF based in New York since November 2009. In this role, she has contributed towards global level evidence generation, technical guidance development, advocacy, global partnership development, and technical assistance towards the global response towards HIV prevention, treatment and care in adolescents aged 10 - 19. Since 2011, on behalf of UNICEF, Susan has coordinated a series of efforts including documentation of global practices in the care of adolescents living with HIV; mathematical modeling with the Futures Institute to assess the impact and cost of scale up of proven high impact HIV prevention, treatment and care interventions within a holistic response, on new HIV infections and AIDS deaths in adolescents; and a systematic review with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to confirm evidence on effective approaches for programming to reduce HIV infection, illness and death in adolescents. This work has contributed to stronger advocacy and technical guidelines for programming for adolescents, a group of children previously largely neglected. In 2013, the documentation on adolescents living with HIV was a major contribution to the new WHO guidelines on HIV testing and counseling and care in adolescents. The impact modeling and systematic review are among a series of key papers that will be released in a special supplement on HIV prevention, treatment and care in adolescents at the International AIDS Society Conference in Melbourne, Australia in 2014.

 Susan joined UNICEF having served since 2007 as Regional Adviser with the UNAIDS Regional Office for Eastern & Southern Africa. In that role, she was responsible for coordinating analytic work on the epidemic and response and modes of HIV transmission in several high HIV burden countries, working extensively with government teams and partners in the highest HIV burden countries in the world to use an incidence model to predict the next 1000 new HIV infections and assess alignment of national strategies with the national epidemic. Susan has over 18 years of experience working on adolescents sexual and reproductive health of which 16 of those have been focused on HIV in adolescents. Susan holds a doctorate in Epidemiology and Population Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, a Masters degree in Public Health from Boston University and Bachelors degrees in Biomedical Science and French. Susan is a national of Uganda and speaks English and French.