The project of this book is to introduce a framework for discussing and analysing the different ways in which the discourse on gender and that on nation tend to intersect and to be constructed by each other. First there is a need to look at each discourse separately. The focus of the discussion on ‘gender’ is on the theoretical debates around the category of ‘woman’ as well as the relationship between the notions of ‘sex’ and ‘gender.’ The notion of ‘the nation’ has to be analysed and related to nationalist ideologies and movements on the one hand and the institutions of the state on the other. The gendered characteristics of a nation should be understood only within the context of the specific historical moment in which it exists.
