Gender Politics in Transition

Eva Schmidt analyses how power relations, ideas, and institutions in Tunisian gender politics changed during the democratisation process 20112014. Her analysis of gender politics offers a productive lens to understand the course of the Tunisian transition. As gender policies are integral to Tunisian national identity, they became a major battlefield in the fight for political inclusion and exclusion. In this context, liberal and leftist feminists accessed the decision-making institutions and enhanced the existing womens rights legislation. Yet the intertwinement of modernist nationalism with womens rights also limited the scope for feminist demands. This book contributes a unique case study to political transitology and advances an original theoretical approach based on Bourdieus theory of the political field.