WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES IN TUNISIAN POLITICS
Name
Course
Instructor
Institution
Date
Research Project Proposal
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Elements |
Task Description |
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Project Title |
Women’s Experiences in Tunisian Politics |
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Abstract |
The proposed study will assess the experiences of women in Tunisian politics in line with their participation in the political processes and the legal and social frameworks which hinder or support this participation. A secondary research method will be used to conduct the proposed study in order to ensure that it is feasible and credible. The study proposal will be turned into a dissertation through an active research process which will involve data collection, analysis and presentation. |
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Key Words |
Tunisian women, Women’s experiences, Tunisian politics, political participation |
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Research Aims And Objectives |
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Rationale |
Liberal and progressive legislative frameworks in Tunisia which were passed after 1956 gave women equal rights (Moghadam, 2014, p. 60). However, the extent into which these rights are being enjoyed by women within the political environment has not been determined by comprehensive research evidence and literature (Pickard, 2014, p. 260). This makes it necessary to engage in a research process which aims at determining whether the legal rights of women for equal participation in Tunisian politics are being experienced in political practice. Through a scientific approach, possible hindrances to the participation of Tunisian women in political processes would be identified and explained in line with feminist theories and legal frameworks on equal rights. Current research literature reveals that the situation in the ground which pertains to the participation of women in Tunisian politics is different from what is being reported by the government (Dalmasso & Cavatorta, 2010, p. 215). On the basis of this evidence, it becomes necessary to assess and discuss the experiences of women and their participation in Tunisian politics in order to determine what would be done to promote gender equality in political processes. The revolution ad democratic transition of Tunisia is attributed to the contribution of women movements (Coleman, 2015, p. 54). It therefore becomes essential to determine whether these movements were able to achieve their objectives in promoting democracy and the rights of women within the political climate. Through a comparative analysis of the level of participation of Tunisian women as compared to women in other countries in North Africa, a clear indication of the experiences and participation of women in the politics of Tunisia would be established. It is argued that the legal framework within Tunisia’s new constitution does not guarantee horizontal parity in the participation of women in political processes (Mekouar, 2014, p. 207). Therefore, through the proposed research, the experiences of Tunisian women in political processes will be determined with a goal of proposing amendments to the legal framework so that Tunisian women would be given more political freedom and rights. |
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Methodology |
A secondary research methodology is proposed for the study. Through this research methodology, the freely accessible data on the participation of Tunisian women in elections and their election into both the lower house and the senate would be used to assess their experiences in the political processes (Khan, 2011). The secondary data would also be used to compare the level of women’s participation in politics in Tunisia and other nations in North Africa. Qualitative and quantitative study designs are proposed for the research. Through these designs, both qualitative and quantitative data on the topic would be collected and used to gain an understanding of the experiences of Tunisian women in political processes. For instance, media reports on Tunisian women’s experiences in political processes would be used to gather qualitative data which would be used to assess the Tunisian political system in line with its effectiveness in protecting the political rights of women. Statistical data from Electoral Commission of Tunisia will be used to gather reliable data on the participation of women in the country’s political processes. Qualitative data on the political challenges that face women in Tunisia would also be used to discuss their experiences with a goal of proposing the changes that the country must implement in order to align its political system to the rights of women and the protections of the constitution. |
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Plan of Work/Time Schedule |
The proposed study will begin with the drafting of the study proposal and getting approval for the study. This process will take a period of 2 weeks. This will be followed by the data collection process, which is the main part of the study. Secondary data from online databases would be gathered for a period of 3 weeks and presented for the analysis and interpretation, which will take 2 weeks. In the final week of the study, the findings of the study and discussions would be presented in a report format. |
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Expected Outcomes |
It is expected that the experiences of women in Tunisian politics have improved since 1956. The level of participation of women in the political processes in Tunisia is also expected to have increased. However, it is expected that there are still some legal and social challenges which limit the full realization of political rights among women in Tunisia. |
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References |
Coleman, D 2015, 'Tunisia: 2015 Country Review', Tunisia Country Review, pp. 1-297 Dalmasso, E, & Cavatorta, F 2010, 'Reforming the Family Code in Tunisia and Morocco - the Struggle between Religion, Globalization and Democracy', Totalitarian Movements & Political Religions, 11, 2, pp. 213-228 Khan, J. A 2011, Research methodology, New Delhi, APH Publishing Corporation Mekouar, M 2014, 'No Political Agents, No Diffusion: Evidence from North Africa', International Studies Review, 16, 2, pp. 206-216 Moghadam, V 2014, 'Democratization And Women's Political Leadership In North Africa', Journal Of International Affairs, 68, 1, pp. 59-78 Pickard, D 2014, 'Prospects for Implementing Democracy in Tunisia', Mediterranean Politics, 19, 2, pp. 259-264 |
Commentary
Feasibility of the Proposal
The proposed study is feasible because it will employ a secondary research method rather than primary research. Secondary research is a feasible approach of conducting a study because of availability of extensive or vast data within online databases for the purposes of research (Kothari, 2005, p. 16). There is extensive data on women and Tunisian politics within credible media publications and institutional databases, such as the Electoral Commission of Tunisia, which would be used to achieve the objectives of the proposed study. In addition, secondary research method is a feasible approach of gathering data that covers a wide range of issues (Bryman, 2012, p. 32). Therefore, the proposed research method is effective in gathering extensive data for the study, including the participation of Tunisian women in politics, legal frameworks on gender rights, experiences of women in politics and comparative participation in elections among Tunisian women as compared to other states in North Africa. However, the secondary research approach may be affected by time lag issues because some of the collected data sets would not be current. In order to limit this methodological challenge, the study will be limited to secondary data on the topic which was published in the last 5 years.
The conceptual originality of the gathered data would be limited because it will be gathered from secondary publications (Rubin & Babbie, 2010, p. 23). In order to improve the reliability of the proposed research, data from credible sources, such as authoritative magazines, peer-reviewed journals and government publications would be used as the main sources of both statistical and qualitative secondary data for the proposed study. Furthermore, a comparative analysis approach would be used in the research process because it is effective in ascertaining the accuracy of research data (Magruk, 2015, p. 235). The methodological requirements of the proposed study include access to reliable online databases, data collection and analysis skills and ability to use statistical packages to code and present research data using graphs and charts. These requirements are attainable because I have excellent research skills and competencies in the use of statistical packages in the analysis and presentation of qualitative and quantitative data.
Developing the Proposal into a Dissertation
In order to develop the proposal into a dissertation, I will seek guidance from my research supervisor on my choice of research methods. I will then refine my research proposal with a goal of ensuring that the dissertation would be highly feasible, credible and reliable. I will also refine the proposed research objectives with a goal of ensuring that they cover all of the important aspects of the proposed study and the purpose of the research. This is important because research objectives define the research processes, including the research methods and data analysis and presentation (Wardale, Cameron & Jun, 2015, p. 38). I will then conduct an in-depth review of literature on the topic. The purpose of the review is to understand what current research literature reports on the experiences of women in Tunisian politics. The review of literature will enable me to identify gaps in research on the proposed topic so that I would be able to fill them through my dissertation. I will assess current research evidence that women in Tunisia are increasingly participating in political processes (Donker, 2013, p. 209) through the literature review.
I will then collect secondary data from a wide range of credible online sources, such as magazines, peer-reviewed articles, government publications, institutional publications and websites. In the data collection, I will aim at assessing the challenges that Tunisian women face in their attempt to participate in political process, such as social, institutional and legal barriers (Ogbonnaya, 2013, p. 5). I will also assess the level of participation of Tunisian women in political processes as compared to women from other nations in North America in order to substantiate the reported disparities and the associated political implications (Tunisia Country Review, 2012, p. 10). To develop the proposal into an actual dissertation, I will analyze the gathered data with a goal of organizing qualitative data into relevant themes and statistical data into graphical presentations. I will effectively achieve this through coding and the use of statistical packages, such as Microsoft Excel and SPSS (Zachariadis, Scott & Barrett, 2013, p. 856). I will then discuss the findings in line with theoretical frameworks, such as feminist models and views in order to establish the implications of the dissertation on the legal and policy frameworks in Tunisia on the participation of women in political processes.
References
Bryman, A 2012, Social research methods, Oxford, Oxford University Press
Coleman, D 2015, 'Tunisia: 2015 Country Review', Tunisia Country Review, pp. 1-297
Dalmasso, E, & Cavatorta, F 2010, 'Reforming the Family Code in Tunisia and Morocco - the Struggle between Religion, Globalization and Democracy', Totalitarian Movements & Political Religions, 11, 2, pp. 213-228
Donker, T 2013, 'Re-emerging Islamism in Tunisia: Repositioning Religion in Politics and Society', Mediterranean Politics, 18, 2, pp. 207-224
Khan, J A 2011, Research methodology, New Delhi, APH Publishing Corporation
Kothari, C. R 2005, Research methodology: methods & techniques, New Delhi, New Age International (P) Ltd
Magruk, A 2015, 'The Process of Selection of the Main Research Methods in Foresight from Different Perspectives', Business, Management & Education, 13, 2, pp. 234-248
Mekouar, M 2014, 'No Political Agents, No Diffusion: Evidence from North Africa', International Studies Review, 16, 2, pp. 206-216
Moghadam, V 2014, 'Democratization and Women's Political Leadership in North Africa', Journal of International Affairs, 68, 1, pp. 59-78
Ogbonnaya, U 2013, 'Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya: A Comparative Analysis of Causes and Determinants', Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations, 12, 3, pp. 4-16
Pickard, D 2014, 'Prospects for Implementing Democracy in Tunisia', Mediterranean Politics, 19, 2, pp. 259-264
Rubin, A., & Babbie, E. R 2010, Essential research methods for social work, Belmont, CA, Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning
Tunisia Country Review, 2012, 'Political Conditions', Tunisia Country Review, pp. 9-22
Wardale, D, Cameron, R, & Jun, L 2015, 'Considerations for Multidisciplinary, Culturally Sensitive, Mixed Methods Research', Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 13, 1, pp. 37-47
Zachariadis, M, Scott, S, & Barrett, M 2013, 'Methodological Implications of Critical Realism for Mixed-Methods Research', MIS Quarterly, 37, 3, pp. 855-879
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