Maria Martin de Almagro

International Women’s Day: political crisis as windows of opportunity

by Maria Martin de Almagro | 6 March, 2018 | Gender, Human Rights, Political Economy

As we prepare to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8th, Spanish women are getting their banners, pickets and hashtags - #yoparo (#Istop) - ready for a feminist general strike. The strike’s motto is “If we stop, the world stops” and it calls for all women to stop all professional activities during the day, all household chores and to restrain from buying anything and spending any money at all. There will also be marches at the end of the day in Spain’s main cities. The women associations who are organising the industrial action indicate that the strike is motivated by the fact that...

The legacy of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: Why ‘great inspiration’ is not quite enough

by Maria Martin de Almagro | 3 February, 2018 | Gender, Human Rights, States & Regions

A co-authored post by Dr Leena Vastapuu and Dr Maria Martin de Almagro. The first elected woman head of state in Africa, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, has just stepped down from her office in Liberia. Her successor George Weah assumed the position on 22 January 2018. In a recent interview with CNN entitled “Why Africa owes a debt of gratitude to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf”, President Sirleaf and journalist Chude Jideonwo had the following exchange. Chude Jideonwo (CJ): You are in your final days as the first female president of an African country. When you step down, there won’t be any more....

The top 5 issues in International Politics for 2018

by Maria Martin de Almagro | 3 January, 2018 | Featured, Gender, Human Rights, Political Economy, Security

2017 was not a great year for international politics. The sentence I heard the most during conferences and other academic gatherings was that “the global order is in crisis.” Granted. It all started in 2016 with the victory of Trump, Brexit and the No to the Peace Agreement in Colombia. Nationalist ideologies have nothing but grown in 2017, when the victories of Marine Le Pen in France and of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands all of a sudden seemed plausible. Luckily, they did not materialise. We also had auto-proclaimed nations that demanded independence, such as Catalonia or Kurdistan. To...

The ultimate guide to stop procrastination

by Maria Martin de Almagro | 10 November, 2017 | Academia, Nerdblogging, Various and Sundry

I must confess. I have not been very productive this last month in the Duck of Minerva. I have been thinking about the topic for my next post and postponing it “till tomorrow”. I have been procrastinating. Procrastination comes from the Latin pro, meaning “forward, forth, or in favor of,” and crastinus, meaning “of tomorrow”. The Oxford English Dictionary defines procrastination as a postponement, "often with the sense of deferring though indecision, when early action would have been preferable," or as "defer[ing] action, especially without good reason." According to psychologist Pychyl,...

On Catalonia’s referendum: Groupthink and strategic essentialism as the enemies of democracy

by Maria Martin de Almagro | 26 September, 2017 | Human Rights, States & Regions, Various and Sundry

Last Sunday, I was having a walk around the city centre of Cambridge when I saw a demonstration of around 50 people rallying for their right to vote in a referendum for independence from Spain. They were joining other demonstrations of Catalan separatists that took place all around Europe and in Spain on that same day. The Catalan government and a separatist majority in the regional parliament seek to organise a referendum on October 1st in order to decide whether Catalonia will become a republic independent from the rest of Spain. Non-separatists political parties oppose or criticize the...

I can’t identify as a woman! Political discourse and Germany’s general elections campaign

by Maria Martin de Almagro | 7 September, 2017 | Gender, States & Regions

The next US presidential elections are around the corner and the Democrat US President has already announced that he will not run for the Presidency again. He defines himself as pro-choice, and it is now up to the Vice President, a woman, to position herself – and fast – on the issue of women’s rights to abortion. She also needs to propose the maximum number of weeks up to which it is acceptable to have an abortion. Because she is the only woman candidate to the Presidency, her team believes her opinion will be taken seriously by the electorate. The team encourages Selina to start her...

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