| Budget Amount *help |
¥5,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,500,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
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| Research Abstract |
The purpose of this cross-national research is to examine the influences of women's collective activities on politics in Britain, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. I have investigated three hypotheses. First, women's collective activities play an important role in improving women's socio-economic and political status, and can unite their diverse views as a single voice to influence politicians. The second hypothesis is that an "agent" is required to channel their collective voices to policy-makers, to effectively realize their demands. The third is the importance of collaboration between policy-makers, activists and scholars/researchers, to establish more practical public policies. The women's movements link women's everyday lives with politics. In order to bridge between private and political spheres, the women's organizations serve as "agencies". The women's organizations perform four functions. First, the organizations transform private concerns into public issues. The second is to gathe
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r and share the knowledge and information useful for problem-solving. Third, they provide women with an opportunity to be involved in political activities. Finally, the organizations put forward their proposal to the political institutions through lobbying and campaigning. I found that women's action groups have had a significant impact on the socio-political sphere and consequently contributed not only to improving women's everyday lives but also to strengthening democracy. In this process, an "intermediary" body exists which channels voices from the women's groups into government policymaking institutions. For instance, such bodies as the Women's National Commission in the United Kingdom and Gender Equality Ministries in Denmark and Sweden work as "intermediaries". When the governments make up new social policies for women, these bodies gather ideas and opinions from related women's groups through meetings as well as conducting surveys. After collecting women's ideas, the intermediary bodies sort them out, and then convey the results to their governments. They also collect technical information from researchers and scholars who are experts on the related issues. Less
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