Gender, Nation and Women Politicians in Serbia and Kosovo

This book examines the ways women politicians in Serbia and Kosovo have imagined, constructed, and politicised national identity and gender while engaging with politics in the context of the democratisation process. The first book to focus on the work of women inside political structures, it draws on participant observation and interview material to answer the question of how women in positions of power and influence deal with their national identity and gender in societies deeply divided along ethnic lines. Based on close studies of the work of a small number of women from different ethnic backgrounds, the author offers comparative analyses of the ways in which women politicians of different ethnicities respond to similar events in their everyday work. An original political ethnography that considers engagement of women in formal politics, this volume will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in political structures and political participation, particularly as these relate to questions of gender, nation and ethnicity.

Gordana Subotic has taught in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Introduction 1. Women Politicians and the Nation: Ethnie, Birth, Tragedy, from 'I' to 'We' 2. Women Politicians, Blood and Roots 3. Women Politicians and Symbols, Myths, and Rituals 4. Women Politicians and Women's Participation in Nationalist Projects: Women as Biological Reproducers 5. Women Politicians and Women's Participation in Nationalist Projects: Women as Drawers of Political, Ideological, and Symbolic Boundaries and Transmitters of Culture 6. Women Politicians and Women's Participation in Nationalist Projects: Women as Signifiers of Ethnic and National Differences and Women as Active Participants in Ethnie and Nationalist Struggles 7. Women Politicians, Gender, Nation and Democratisation: Entering the 'Oda', Patriarchal Bargains and Survival Strategies Conclusion: Contribution, Limitations, and Future Research