Nationalist Projects and Gender Relations

Nationalist projects are multiplex, multi-dimensional and historically specific. The main aspects looked at in this article are those relating to genealogy and origin, those related to culture and tradition and those related to citizenship and state. In all of them gender relations play crucial roles, constructing notions of femininity and masculinity, naturalize power relations and reproduce biologically, culturally and symbolically national collectivities. Feminist politics, aimed at the promotion of women's position and power in all societies has had to confront the reality that their positions, as that of the men in their national collectivities, are constructed by a myriad of social divisions and other historical forces. Only by acknowledging and confronting differences among women as well as among men, can there be any process of political dialogue which could transcend and bridge these differences.