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As Georgia seeks to reinvent itself as a nation-state in the post-Soviet period, Georgian women are maneuvering, adjusting, resisting and transforming the new economic, social and political order. In Gender in Georgia, editors Maia Barkaia and Alisse Waterston bring together an international group of feminist scholars to explore the socio-political and cultural conditions that have shaped gender dynamics in Georgia from the late 19th century to the present. In doing so, they provide the first-ever woman-centered collection of research on Georgia, offering a feminist critique of power in its many manifestations, and an assessment of women’s political agency in Georgia.
“This book is recommended reading to anybody interested in Georgia with a broad variety of topics where every reader can find something interesting.” • East European Politics
“While academic in style, the book is suitable for a wider audience. The range of methodology and sources used are its main assets. The book will be of interest to researchers, students and practitioners in the fields of gender studies, identities, East European studies and post-socialism. Overall, the book is an ambitious attempt to cover broad themes and topics pertaining to gender in Georgia.” • Europe-Asia Studies
“Gender in Georgia is, frankly, a delightful example of scholarly explorations of identity and gender in a tumultuous political environment. It would be a welcome addition for courses on identity and gender. For feminist scholars and students generally, its interdisciplinary and methodological diversity offers a master class on addressing a single question from a variety of perspectives and angles. For those of us who are interested in Georgia, this a necessary work that not only highlights the challenges faced by women and LGBT communities there, but also is a testament to the resilience and strength of those who find paths forward.” • Gender & Society
“…a remarkably frank, thought-provoking and—to this reader—inspiring examination of gender in Georgia…The collection shows gender in Georgia as a social and political construct, as an experience, and as a powerful analytical tool through which to assess Georgia’s past and present. It is a much needed and welcome contribution to the field.” • Women East-West Newsletter (Association for Women in Slavic Studies)
“This edited volume provides the first collection of essays exploring gender in Georgia covering the period from the late nineteenth century to the present. As a collection, the volume is valuable reading for anyone with an interest in the complex and contested configurations of gender categories, identities, experiences, and agency in Georgia (and beyond), and for their relation to history, power, nation, and geo-politics.” • Slavic Review
“This volume is a wonderful and essential contribution to an understudied but critical area of interest.” • Fran Mascia-Lees, Rutgers University
Maia Barkaia comes from an interdisciplinary background. She has an international PhD in gender studies from Tbilisi State University and an M.A. in modern Indian history from Jawaharlal Nehru University. She was previously a visiting researcher at the International Gender Studies Center at the University of Oxford, and currently teaches at the Tbilisi State University. Her most recent project is a historiography of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict.
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Contextualizing Gender in Georgia: Nation, Culture, Power and Politics
Alisse Waterston
PART I: POWER AND POLITICS
Chapter 1. Pioneer Women: “Herstories” of Feminist Movements in Georgia
Lela Gaprindashvili
Chapter 2. “The Country of the Happiest Women”?: Ideology and Gender in Soviet Georgia
Maia Barkaia
Chapter 3. “The West” and Georgian “Difference”: Discursive Politics of Gender and Sexuality in Georgia
Tamar Tskhadadze
Chapter 4. Overcoming the “Delay” Paradigm: New Approaches to Socialist Women’s Activism in Georgia and Poland
Magdalena Grabowska
Chapter 5. Women’s Political Representation in Post-Soviet Georgia
Ketevan Chkheidze
PART II: VIOLENCE
Chapter 6. The Domestic Violence Challenge to Soviet Women’s Empowerment Policies
Tamar Sabedashvili
Chapter 7. Domestic Violence in Georgia: State and Community Responses, 2006-2015
Nino Javakhishvili and Nino Butsashvili
Chapter 8. Remembering the Past: Narratives of Displaced Women from Abkhazia
Nargiza Arjevanidze
Chapter 9. Displacement, State Violence and Gender Roles: The Case of Internally Displaced and Violence-Affected Georgian Women
Joanna Regulska, Beth Mitchneck, and Peter Kabachnik
PART III: IDENTITIES, REPRESENTATIONS, AND RESISTANCE
Chapter 10. Images of “The New Woman” in Soviet Georgian Silent Films
Salome Tsopurashvili
Chapter 11. Gender Equality: Still a Disputed Value in Georgian Society
Nana Sumbadze
Chapter 12. Georgian Women Migrants: Experiences Abroad and at Home
Tamar Zurabishvili, Maia Mestvirishvili and Tinatin Zurabishvili
Chapter 13. Being Transgender in Georgia
Natia Gvianishvili
Chapter 14. Tracing the LGBT Movement in the Republic of Georgia: Stories of Activists
Anna Rekhviashvili
Afterword
Elizabeth Cullen Dunn
Index