Challenging 'The bastion of Masculine power' Women and Politics: France, India and Russia. By Bharati Ray ed. Calcutta: K. P. Bagchi and Company, 2000. Reviewed by Barb King. 'Tout est politique.' Everything is political. This radically different approach to politics that emerged in France in 1968 has since become the cornerstone of contemporary feminist debates that highlight how intrinsic politics is to society and the individual. Women and Politics: France, India and Russia provides an illustration of this as it observes the multi-faceted relationship women have with politics and how politics extends beyond the institutions through which the state is governed. Women and Politics describes women's experiences and histories from three distinct and disparate countries. While welcome as an intervention in academic writing in which 'gender is never given the weight it deserves' as Michelle Perrot suggests, the perspectives throughout the volume are much more reformist than revolutionary. The book is a collection of papers from the 'Women and Politics: France, India and Russia' seminar held in Calcutta in February 1995. The seminar was jointly sponsored by the Maison des Sciences de L'Homme, Paris, and the Women's Studies centres of the University of Calcutta and Jadavpur University. Two fundamental questions in feminist theory and political theory were addressed: first, why does politics continue to be a masculine form of power and second, why is it difficult for women to access the public sphere? The first half of Women and Politics focuses on France and the roles women play in French politics. Perrot identifies the tendency of the political observer to focus upon French Feminism without addressing other forms of women's participation in politics. Monica Juneja provides a historical analysis of the role of women in the French Revolution with particular attention to images and iconography of the citizen that preceded contemporary perceptions of the French citizen. Cecile Dauphin's chapter deconstructs the dynamics of phallogocentricity by examining the various institutions and situations where women had gained access to write for example, at home, school, and the publishing and political world. Parity and equal representation is discussed by Francoise Picq, along with the reasons why some second wave feminists completely rejected the notion of representative systems. Janine Mossuz-Lavau poses the question of whether women have the same relationship to politics as men, and if women perceive politics differently. Mossuz-Lavau also calls for equal representation within National Assemblies in order to change the image of these masculine institutions. Danielle Haase-Dubosc discusses the concept of international feminism and the ideology of the universal female subject. Does a form of international feminism exist and can feminists identify a universal female subject? These questions, Hasse-Dubosc argues, need to be addressed within a late twentieth century, multicultural context. The remainder of the volume deals with Eastern Europe and India. Rada Ivekovic examines nationalism and its habitually associated misogyny within the particular context of Eastern Europe. This paper also identifies the ambiguous role and status of women and how, in times of war, the identity of woman is subjected to severe manipulation. Svetlana Aivazova examines the participation of Russian feminists and their active involvement in the downfall of serfdom that resulted in only men being granted civil and political rights. Renewed interest in the Russian feminist movement ensued as women started to demand equal recognition. Galina Negrustueva, in her paper, further addresses the formal political changes that occurred from women's actions and demands for increased political participation in Russia. Chandreyee Niyogi's paper is a deconstruction of Sister Nivedita's theories on the role of women and the domestic environment, detailing her long association with cultural and political nationalism in India. Sister Nivedita endorsed woman's acceptance of a subordinate and unequal position within marriage. Flavia Agnes problematises the boundaries of oppressed and oppressor (which may be fluid rather than rigid) by examining the interaction between gender and religion in India. Samita Sen assesses the position of textile workers in Calcutta and Bombay between 1920 and 1940, looking specifically at the experiences of women factory workers and at working conditions strictly demarcated according to gender. All the papers focus upon politics as a masculine institution located within a public sphere that denies full participation to women. Although throughout most of the world women have gained suffrage, this form of electoral equality has not functioned to allow further equality to filter through into other areas of formal politics. That women's right to vote is a relatively recent gain (not until 1944 in France for example) has been the usual 'explanation' as to why there are fewer women than men involved in politics and why women's political representation is strikingly disproportionate. Can the entrenched masculinisation of politics and political institutions be dissolved? Mossuz-Lavau argues in 'French Women's Relationship to Politics' that, although women's space in the political environment is less rich and diversified than men's, these restrictions allow women a greater receptivity to the problems of all human beings, rather than of just one specific gender. Mossuz-Lavau suggests that women are better established within their communities to connect what they see in everyday life to politics and are, therefore, in a position to inform the political sphere of what needs to be addressed and what is important. Exercising this role, she suggests, would ultimately create a shift in traditional definition of politics. This proposition is problematic in that playing such roles does little to challenge dominant constructions of femininity and masculinity and the 'traits' or 'behaviours' associated with the respective binaries. The notion that women are more concerned with all members of the community may be a legitimate argument within a liberal context but is hardly useful within feminist interventions. To encourage women into politics as 'messengers', as Mossuz-Lavau describes them, is likely to be counter-productive and demeaning as it denies women the right to be positioned as valued decision-makers and policy developers. The notion of politics as 'the bastion of masculine power', as Perrot's inaugural address asserts, is re-affirmed when one considers the historical position of women, and the sexism ubiquitous within politics. Contemptuous interpretations of women have been current - from Augustine, Plato and Aristotle where the conceived construction of the citizen and political actor was male, to later in history when, throughout the French Revolution, iconography of the citizen had not substantially altered. Images throughout the French Revolution, deconstructed by Juneja in, 'A Revolution in Images? Gender, Iconography and Politics in Revolutionary France', expose the symbolic relationship between difference and domination. Juneja describes the images of Liberty and Hercules to show that the visualisation and transformation of the body politic operated through the model of gender relations. The traditional image of Liberty was of a young woman dressed in white holding a sceptre in one hand and a bonnet in the other, while the typical image of Hercules can be described as the ultimate depiction of Western masculinity - strong and powerful, reinforced by a club. These images may have celebrated the independent, autonomous image of French men and French women, but the citizen that had evolved was male, not a gender generic citizen. Even with great participation and active involvement by French women, only men were ultimately identified as citizens. Ivekovic, in, 'Women and War after 1989 in Eastern Europe', seeks to show that contemporary politics and the public sphere remains masculine and ultimately controlled by patriarchy. She argues that women's suffrage, access to economic independence and individual autonomy had effectively not been 'won' by women but, rather, had been given to women by their government. Women in Yugoslavia were 'rewarded' with the right to vote for the contributions they made throughout World War Two. Women were also given the opportunity to hold political offices and public positions. The new wave of nationalism that arose in the 1980s forced women out of the labour market owing to an economic crisis. Nationalist rhetoric identified the role of women as mothers of soldiers and the custodians of national virtue. The present nationalist regimes in the former Eastern bloc and in Yugoslavia cannot be described as democracies for women because women's rights are threatened within the workplace and in relation to their bodies. Although specific voting patterns of women within France, India and Russia are discussed within the text, specific figures of how many women actually vote, what they vote for, and what their motivations are for voting are omitted. However, statistics for political representation do indicate the value placed on the contribution women make to government and politics. In 1995 just 6 percent of the National Assembly in France was female, a similar figure to the Greek parliamentary body. Approximately 20 percent of national parliamentarians in Iceland, Austria and Germany were women, while in other European states like Finland, Sweden and Norway the figure was between 30 to 40 percent. Feminists are not under the illusion that if there were more women in Parliament then 'women's issues' would necessarily be given greater attention. However, the apathy expressed by many women voters (whether due to misunderstanding, pessimism or even cynicism) is a reaction to candidates lack of interest in, and commitment to, policies or legislation that would benefit women. In moving away from a central focus on political institutions, some of the papers in Women and Politics illustrate how politics has infiltrated other social institutions, for example religious rites and practices and the domestic and family environment. Agnes was involved in developing the legal and cultural organisation, Majlis, that provides legal aid to the oppressed members of the Indian community of Bombay. In 'Gender Justice versus Minority Rights: Some Lessons from the Bombay Riots', Agnes identifies both formal and theoretical approaches to discrimination and victimisation. She also discusses the practices and traditions within the Indian community. One specific issue that triggers controversial and emotive responses from both men and women, in both secular and clerical groups, is that of the right of women to divorce their husbands. When the issue is discussed, consideration of Muslim and Hindu beliefs must be taken into account along with the government's 'commitment' to comply with the state's Constitution with regard to equality. Presently, different laws apply to each group. Muslim women have the right to access divorce, but Hindu women do not. Agnes argues that Muslim women were granted the right to dissolve their marriages because of the desire to consolidate Islamic identity that granted women greater rights. Although Hindu women were granted some rights, the right to divorce or to inherit property was denied. At a community level, even though most family relationships are governed by state legislation, personal values deemed 'religious' lead to an ambiguity between personal laws and the provisions of the Constitution. This is illustrated by the prescribed roles and responsibilities expected of women within a secular context, and those expectations interpreted from religious doctrine. The story Agnes incorporates in her paper challenges feminist theory as the reader is asked to reconsider traditional notions of oppressed and oppressor in the light of what Agnes presents as her own personal and ethical dilemma. As her title suggests, Agnes highlights the dynamics of oppression and illustrates that there is far more to it than mere gender. The categories of the oppressor and the oppressed may in fact be continually shifting, rather than remaining static, with reference to specific issues or situations. The vast majority of India is Hindu and exerts great domination over the Muslim community. As in other parts of the world, religious fundamentalism has often led to violence. In December 1992 riots broke out in Bombay, caused by the demolition of the Babri Masjid, a standing symbol of Islam. Muslims reacted violently to government indifference and tolerance for the destruction of their mosque. The fighting between Hindus and Muslims led to bloodshed throughout India. The participation of women led Agnes and her colleagues to ask the question: 'Are the categories of oppressor and oppressed static?' Agnes articulates her insight that some women were in the position of the 'oppressor'. The catalyst for Agnes' dilemma was a candid conversation with a Hindu woman seeking protection from her husband after the riots had ceased. The woman informed Agnes about her role in the riot. As members of the women's wing of Shiv Sena, the Hindu communal party that had an instrumental role in the riots, women had to stone victims while the men poured kerosene on them and set them alight. Agnes and her colleagues readdressed the concept of oppression, and the dynamics involved which extended far beyond simple matters of gender. Women and Politics is a collaborative effort by women academics from three distinctly different nation states whose objective is to illustrate the eclectic cultural and political influences within their individual environments. This text recognises the diverse characteristics of political participation and endeavours to deconstruct various aspects of such participation. The legislative and juridical establishments directly linked to politics still do not work to benefit women, or, often, to even acknowledge women's oppressed position. The initiatives documented throughout Women and Politics are largely reformist, as these feminist academics have given greater attention to identifying the flaws within the present political systems than envisaging a restructuring of the social order. For women to access the public sphere, and enter the masculine institutions of politics on an equal basis, the politics of the private and public spheres need addressing in much more incisive and far reaching ways. Barb King is an Honours Student in Women's Studies at The University of Queensland.