Research Commons
      • Browse 
        • Communities & Collections
        • Titles
        • Authors
        • By Issue Date
        • Subjects
        • Types
        • Series
      • Help 
        • About
        • Collection Policy
        • OA Mandate Guidelines
        • Guidelines FAQ
        • Contact Us
      • My Account 
        • Sign In
        • Register
      View Item 
      •   Research Commons
      • University of Waikato Research
      • Arts and Social Sciences
      • Arts and Social Sciences Papers
      • View Item
      •   Research Commons
      • University of Waikato Research
      • Arts and Social Sciences
      • Arts and Social Sciences Papers
      • View Item
      JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

      Differences that matter: From ‘gender’ to ‘ethnicity’ in contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand

      Simon-Kumar, Rachel
      Thumbnail
      Files
      Differences that matter.pdf
      332.8Kb
      Link
       www.wsanz.org.nz
      Find in your library  
      Citation
      Export citation
      Simon-Kumar, R. (2011). Differences that matter: From ‘gender’ to ‘ethnicity’ in contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand. Women's Studies Journal, 25(2), pp. 74-90.
      Permanent Research Commons link: https://hdl.handle.net/10289/7019
      Abstract
      Gender and ethnicity are recognised as two of the leading axes of marginality in late twentieth century western liberal democratic societies – the former emerged in the wake of Second Wave feminism of the 1970s and the latter, with the rise of ‘identity politics’ in the 1980s and 1990s. Both have similarities. As categories of disadvantage, their basis is ‘natural’ in that the complex webs of social and political organisation, and consequent disadvantages, based on gender or ethnicity can be traced to physiology, that is, differences in either skin colour or sex. These are also, as Nancy Fraser (1997) points out, ‘bivalent categories’ of disadvantage in that gender and ethnicity display simultaneous discriminations in areas of resource allocation (Redistribution) and as socially acceptable identities (Recognition).

      Here, however, the common trajectory followed by these social markers ends. Drawing on the changing nature of society and governance in New Zealand, the present paper argues that the differences between gender and ethnicity, rather than their similarities,expose fundamental attributes of contemporary marginality in increasingly diverse western democracies. This paper advances the following proposition (and contradiction): in the past decade, ethnicity and diversity as an axis of social division has gained credibility and has markedly influenced political, economic and social (re)organisation in New Zealand, while in contrast, it has proven harder to justify gender as structural disadvantage. Thus, while the boundaries of ‘gender’ are ruptured, porous and, at moments, open to erasure, ‘ethnicity’ has coalesced to become a new, valid, and increasingly relevant border of social inequity.
      Date
      2011
      Type
      Journal Article
      Publisher
      Women's Studies Association New Zealand
      Rights
      © Women's Studies Association New Zealand. This article has been published in the journal: Women's Studies Journal 2011. Used with permission.
      Collections
      • Arts and Social Sciences Papers [1424]
      Show full item record  

      Usage

      Downloads, last 12 months
      83
       
       

      Usage Statistics

      For this itemFor all of Research Commons

      The University of Waikato - Te Whare Wānanga o WaikatoFeedback and RequestsCopyright and Legal Statement