Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:16:40.099Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Feminisms, Women's Rights, and the UN: Would Achieving Gender Equality Empower Women?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2015

ZEHRA F. KABASAKAL ARAT
ZEHRA F. KABASAKAL ARAT*
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
*
Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat is Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut, 365 Fairfield Way, U-1024, Storrs, CT 06269-1024 ([email protected]).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although all theories that oppose the subordination of women can be called feminist, beyond this common denominator, feminisms vary in terms of what they see as the cause of women's subordination, alternatives to patriarchal society, and proposed strategies to achieve the desired change. This article offers a critical examination of the interaction of feminist theories and the international human rights discourses as articulated at the UN forums and documents. It contends that although a range of feminisms that elucidate the diversity of women's experiences and complexities of oppression have been incorporated into some UN documents, the overall women's rights approach of the UN is still informed by the demands and expectations of liberal feminism. This is particularly evident in the aggregate indicators that are employed to assess the “empowerment of women.” In addition to explaining why liberal feminism trumps other feminisms, the article addresses the problems with following policies that are informed by liberal feminism. Noting that the integrative approach of liberal feminism may establish gender equality without empowering the majority of women, it criticizes using aggregate indicators of empowerment for conflating sources of power with empowerment and making false assumptions.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 109 , Issue 4 , November 2015 , pp. 674 - 689
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ahmed, Fauzia Erfan. 2008. “Microcredit, Men, and Masculinity.” NWSA Journal: 20 (2): 122–55.Google Scholar
Andreopoulos, George, and Arat, Zehra. 2014. “On the Uses and Misuses of Human Rights: A Critical Approach to Advocacy.” In The Uses and Misuses of Human Rights, eds. Andreopoulos, George and Kabasakal Arat, Zehra F.. New York: Palgrave/St. Martin's Press, 2014, 1–28.Google Scholar
Anzaldúa, Gloria. 1987/2012. Borderlands/La Frontea: The New Mestiza. 25th anniversary, 4th ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.Google Scholar
Arat, Zehra F. Kabasakal. 2011. “Globalization, Feminisms, and Women's Empowerment: Comments on Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann's Article, “Universal Women's Rights Since 1970” Journal of Human Rights 10:4 (December): 458–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arat, Zehra F. Kabasakal. 2008. “Human Rights Ideology and Dimensions of Power: The State, Property, and Discrimination,” Human Rights Quarterly: 30:4 (November): 906–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arat, Zehra F. Kabasakal. 2006a. Human Rights Worldwide: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc.Google Scholar
Arat, Zehra F. Kabasakal. 2006b. “Forging a Global Culture of Human Rights: Origins and Prospects of the International Bill of Rights,” Human Rights Quarterly 28:2 (May): 416–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arat, Zehra F. Kabasakal. 1995. “Women Under Layers of Oppression: The (Un)Changing Political Economy of Gender,” in The Changing Political Economy in the Third World, ed. Dorraj, Manochehr. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 265–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bachrach, Peter, and Baratz, Morton S.. 1962. “Two Faces of Power.” American Political Science Review” 56 (4): 947–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bachrach, Peter, and Botwinick, Aryeh. 1992. Power and Empowerment: A Radical Theory of Participatory Democracy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Bales, Kevin. 2004. Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Basu, Amrita. 2004.“Women's Movements and the Challenge of Transnationalism.” Amherst College, Curricular Crossings: Women's Studies and Area Studies. http://www3.amherst.edu/~mrhunt/womencrossing/basu.html (Accessed March 18, 2009).Google Scholar
Başcı, Pelin. 1998. “Shadows in the Missionary Garden of Roses,” in Deconstructing Images of “The Turkish Woman,” ed. Arat, Zehra F. K. New York: Palgrave/St. Martin's Press, 101–25.Google Scholar
Beale, Frances. (1969) 1979. “Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female.” In The Black Woman: An Anthology, ed. Cade, Toni. New York: New American Library, 90–100.Google Scholar
Bebel, August. 1879/1910. Women and Socialism. Trans. by Meta L. Stern. New York: Socialist Literature Co. https://www.marxists.org/archive/bebel/1879/woman-socialism/index.htm?utm_source=lasindias.info (Accessed June 20, 2015).Google Scholar
Beckwith, Karen, and Cowell-Meyers, Kimberly. 2007. “Sheer Numbers: Critical Representation Thresholds and Women's Political Representation.” Perspectives on Politics 5 (3): 553–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, Michelle Tracy, and Guidroz, Kathleen, eds. 2009. The Intersectional Approach. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Boserup, Ester (1970/2007). Woman's Role in Economic Development. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Brenner, Johanna. 2003. “Transnational Feminism and the Struggle for Global Justice.” New Politics 9 (2): 78–87.Google Scholar
Bunch, Charlotte. 1975. “Lesbians in Revolt,” in Lesbianism and the Women's Movement, ed. Myron, Nancy and Bunch, Charlotte. Baltimore: Diana Press, 29–37.Google Scholar
Bunch, Charlotte. 1987. “Prospects for Global Feminism,” in Passionate Politics: Feminist Theory in Action, Essays 1968–86. New York: St. Martin's Press, 301–5.Google Scholar
Cabral, Amilcar. 1966. “The Weapon of Theory,” speech at the first Tricontinental Conference of the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America, Havana, January. https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/cabral/1966/weapon-theory.htm (Accessed September 24, 2014).Google Scholar
Charlesworth, Hilary. 1995. “Human Rights as Men's Rights.” In Women's Rights Human Rights, eds. Peters, Julie and Wolper, Andrea. New York: Routledge, 103–13.Google Scholar
Childs, Sarah, and Krook, Mona Lena. 2008. “Critical Mass Theory and Women's Political Representation.” Political Studies 56: 725–36.Google Scholar
Cho, Sumi, Crenshaw, Kimberly W., and McCall, Leslie. 2013. “Intersectionality Studies: Theory, Applications, and Praxis.” Signs 38:4 (Summer): 785–810.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chowdhry, Geeta. 1995. “Engendering Development? Women in Development (WID) in International Development Regimes.” In Feminism/Postmodernism/Development, ed. Marchand, Marianne H. and Parpat, Jane L.. London: Routledge, 26–41.Google Scholar
Cockburn, Cynthia. 2004. The Line: Women, Partition and the Gender Order in Cyprus. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Cohen, Joshua, and Rogers, Joel. 1983. On Democracy: Toward a Transformation of American Society. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Collins, Patricia Hill. 1998. “It's all in the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nation.” Hypatia 13 (3): 62–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craske, Nikki, and Molyneux, Maxine, eds. 2002. Gender and the Politics of Rights and Democracy in Latin America. New York: Palgrave/Macmillian.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1989. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum 4: 139–67.Google Scholar
de Beauvoir, Simone. 1949/2011. The Second Sex. Trans. Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Ecevit, Yıldız. 2007. “Women's Rights, Women's Organizations and the State.” In Human Rights in Turkey: Policies and Prospects, ed. Kabasakal Arat, Zehra F.. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 187–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
el Saadawi, Nawal, Mernissi, Fatima, and Vajrathon, Mallica. 1978/1997. “Women and Development: A Critical View of the Wellesley Conference.” In Nawal El Saadawi Reader. New York: Zed Books, 143–53.Google Scholar
Engels, Frederick. 1884/1990. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Firestone, Shulamith. 1970. The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. New York: Bantam Books.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–77. Brighton: Harvester.Google Scholar
Fraser, Nancy. 2009. “Feminism, Capitalism and the Cunning of History.” New Left Review 56 (March–April): 97–117.Google Scholar
Gaer, Felice D. 2002. “Mainstreaming a Concern for Human Rights of Women: Beyond Theory.” In Women, Gender and Human Rights: A Global Perspective, ed. Agosín, Marjorie. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 98–122.Google Scholar
Garikipati, Supriya. 2013. “Microcredit and Women's Empowerment: Have We Been Looking at the Wrong Indicators?” Oxford Development Studies 41 (Supplement 1), S53–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goetz, Ann Marie. 1988. “Feminism and the Limits of the Claim to Know: Contradictions in the Feminist Approach to Women in Development.” Millennium 17.3 (December), 477–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grewal, Inderpal, and Kaplan, Caren, eds. 1994. Scattered Hegemonies: Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Grzanka, Patrick R, ed. 2014, Intersectionality: A Foundations and Frontiers Reader. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Guilhot, Nicolas. 2005. The Democracy Makers: Human Rights and the Politics of Global Order. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hafner-Burton, Emilie, and Pollack, Mark A.. 2002. “Mainstreaming Gender in Global Governance.” European Journal of International Relations 8 (3): 339–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Hanna Pitkin's ‘Concept of Representation’ Revisited,” 2013. Critical Perspectives on Gender and Politics, Politics & Gender 8.4 (December): 508–47.Google Scholar
Hartmann, Heidi I. 1975/1981. “The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism.” In Women and Revolution, ed. Sargent, Lydia. Boston: South End Press, 1–41.Google Scholar
Hartsock, Nancy. 1996. “Community/Sexuality/Gender: Rethinking Power. ” In Revisioning the Political: Feminist Reconstructions of Traditional Concepts in Western Political Theory, eds. Hirschmann, N. and Di Stefano, C.. Oxford: Westview Press, 27–50.Google Scholar
Hevener, Natalie Kaufman. 1983. International Law and the Status of Women. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
hooks, bell. 1981. Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism. Boston: South End Press.Google Scholar
Howard-Hassmann, Rhoda. 2011. “Universal Women's Rights Since 1970: The Centrality of Autonomy and Agency.” Journal of Human Rights: 10 (4): 433–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, Ronald F., and Norris, Pippa. 2003. Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jain, Devaki. 2005. Women, Development and the UN: A Sixty-Year Quest for Equality and Justice. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Jayawardena, Kumari. 1986. Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Jones, Adam. 1996. “Does ‘Gender’ Make the World Go Round? Feminist Critiques of International Relations.” Review of International Studies 22.4 (October): 405–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kabeer, Naila. 1994. Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought. London: Verso Books.Google Scholar
Kandiyoti, Deniz. 1988. “Bargaining with Patriarchy.” Gender and Society 2.3 (September): 274–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karim, Lamia. 2011. Microfinance and Its Discontents. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keating, Christine, Rasmussen, Claire, and Rishi, Pooja. 2010. “The Rationality of Empowerment: Microcredit, Accumulation by Dispossession, and the Gendered Economy.” Signs 36:1 (Autumn): 153–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kristof, Nicholas, and Wudunn, Sheryl. 2009. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Lang, Sabine. 2009. “Assessing Advocacy: European Transnational Women's Networks and Gender Mainstreaming.” Social Politics 16 (3): 327–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy, Jonah, ed. 2006. The State after Statism: New State Activities in the Age of Liberalization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lombardo, Emanuela, and Meier, Petra. 2008. “Framing Gender Equality in the European Union Political Discourse.” Social Politics 15.1 (Spring): 101–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lukes, Steven. 1974/2005. Power: A Radical View. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKinnon, Katherine. 1989. Toward a Feminist Theory of the Sex. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Making Waves: Writings by and about Asian American Women . 1989. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Mann, Susan Archer. 2012. Doing Feminist Theory: From Modernity to Postmodernity. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McBride, Dorothy E., and Mazur, Amy G.. 2010. The Politics of State Feminism: Innovation in Comparative Research. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle. 2006. Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mill, John Stuart, and Mill, Harriet Taylor. 1869/1970. Essays on Sex Equality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Millett, Kate. 1969/2000. Sexual Politics. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Juliet. 1966. “Women: The Longest Revolution.” New Left Review I/40 (November–December), 1–37.Google Scholar
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 2003. Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade, Russo, Ann, and Torres, Lourdes, eds. 1991. Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Molyneux, Maxine. 1985. “Mobilization without Emancipation? Women's Interests, the State, and Revolution in Nicaragua” Feminist Studies: 11 (2): 227–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Molyneux, Maxine and Razavi, Shahra, eds. 2003. Gender Justice, Development and Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Moraga, Cherríe, and Anzaldúa, Gloria. 1981. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.Google Scholar
Narayan, Uma. 1997. Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, and Third-World Feminism. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha C. 2011. Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha C. 1999. “The Professor of Parody.” The New Republic 220.8 (February), 37–45.Google Scholar
O'Campo, Patricia, McDonnell, Karen, Gielen, Andrea, Burke, Jessica, and Chen, Yi-hua. 2002. “Surviving Physical and Sexual Abuse: What Helps Low-income Women?” Patient Education and Counseling 46: 205–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Okin, Susan Moller. 1998. “Gender, the Public and the Private.” In Feminism and Politics, ed. Phillips, A.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 116–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paxton, Pamela, Hughes, Melanie M., and Green, Jennifer L.. 2006. “The International Women's Movement and Women's Political Representation, 1893–2003.” American Sociological Review 71.6 (December): 898–920.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, Spike V., and Sisson, Anne Runyan. 2010. Global Gender Issues in the New Millennium. 3rd ed., Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Porter, Fenella, and Sweetman, Caroline. 2005. Mainstreaming Gender in Development: A Critical Review. Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prügl, Elizabeth. 1999. “What is a Worker? Gender, Global Restructuring, and the ILO Convention on Homework.” In Gender Politics in Global Governance, eds. Meyer, Mary K. and Prügl, Elizabeth. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 197–209.Google Scholar
Prügl, Elizabeth and Lustgarten, Audrey. 2006. “Mainstreaming Gender in International Organizations.” In Women and Gender Equity in Development Theory and Practice, eds. Jaquette, Jane S. and Summerfield, Gale. Durham: Duke University Press, 53–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rathgeber, Eva M. 1990. “WID, WAD, GAD: Trends in Research and Practice.” Journal of Developing Areas 24.4 (July): 489–502.Google Scholar
Razavi, Shahra. 2001. “Globalization, Employment and Women's Empowerment,” paper prepared for United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), EGM/POV/2001/BP.1.: 14 November.Google Scholar
Reilly, Niamh. 2011. “Doing Transnational Feminism, Transforming Human Rights: The Emancipatory Possibilities Revisited.” Irish Journal of Sociology 19 (2): 60–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubio-Marin, Ruth, ed. 2006. What Happened to the Women? Gender and Reparations for Human Rights Violations. New York: Social Science Research Council.Google Scholar
Sa'ar, Amalia. 2005. “Postcolonial Feminism, the Politics of Identification, and the Liberal Bargain.” Gender and Society 19.5 (October): 680–700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sadasivam, Bharati. 1997. “The Impact of Structural Adjustment on Women: A Governance and Human Rights Agenda.” Human Rights Quarterly 19 (3): 630–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandoval, Chela. 1991. “U.S. Third World Feminism: The Theory and Method of Oppositional Consciousness in the Postmodern World.” Genders 10: 1–24.Google Scholar
Santos, Boaventura de Sousa. 2006. Another Production is Possible: Beyond the Capitalist Canon. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Sen, Gita, and Grown, Caren.1987. Development, Crises, and Alternative Visions: Third World Women's Perspectives. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Shiva, Vandana. 1988/2010. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.Google Scholar
Squires, Judith. 1999. Gender in Political Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Strube, Michael J., and Barbour, Linda S.. 1984. “Factors Related to the Decision to Leave an Abusive Relationship.” Journal of Marriage and the Family (November): 837–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staudt, Kathleen. 1985. Women, Foreign Assistance and Advocacy Administration. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Symington, Alison. 2004. “Intersectionality: A Tool for Gender and Economic Justice,” Women's Rights and Economic Change 9 (August). AWID. Facts and Issues. http://lgbtq.unc.edu/sites/lgbtq.unc.edu/files/documents/intersectionality_en.pdf (Accessed September 25, 2011).Google Scholar
Tekeli, Şirin. 1982. Kadınlar ve Siyasal Tomplumsal Hayat (Women and Socio-political Life). Ankara: Birikim Yayınları.Google Scholar
“The Meaning and Measurement of Women's Interests,” 2011. Critical Perspectives on Gender and Politics, Politics & Gender 7.3 (September): 417–46.Google Scholar
The Revolution will not be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex . 2007. An anthology by INCITE! Women of Color against Violence. Cambridge, UK: South End Press.Google Scholar
The World's Women 2010: Trends and Statistics . 2010. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
Thornton, Margaret. 2010. “Can We Feminise Human Rights.” In Sex Discrimination in Uncertain Times, ed. Thornton, Margaret. Canberra, Australia: ANU E-Press, 319–46.Google Scholar
True, Jacqui. 2012. The Political Economy of Violence Against Women. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vargas-Cooper, Natasha. 2011. “We Work Hard, but Who's Complaining?” New York Times: (April 2), 11.Google Scholar
Verloo, Mieke. 2005. “Displacement and Empowerment: Reflections on the Concept and Practice of the Council of Europe Approach to Gender Mainstreaming and Gender Equality” Social Politics 12 (3): 344–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wängnerud, Lena. 2009. “Women in Parliaments: Descriptive and Substantive Representation.” Annual Review of Political Science 12: 51–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weldon, S. Laurel. 2006. “The Structure of Intersectionality: A Comparative Politics of Gender” Politics & Gender 2 (2): 235–48.Google Scholar
Winslow, Anne, ed. 1995. Women, Politics, and the United Nations. Westport: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Wittig, Monique. 1981. “One is not Born a Women.” Feminist Issues 1 (2): 47–54.Google Scholar
Wollstonecraft, Mary. 1790–92/1990. Wollstonecraft Anthology, ed. Todd, Janet. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
World Bank, GenderStats, “Women's Empowerment.” http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTGENDER/EXTANATOOLS/EXTSTATINDDATA/EXTGENDERSTATS/0,,contentMDK:21438792~menuPK:4080962~pagePK:64168445~piPK:64168309~theSitePK:3237336,00.html (Accessed June 11, 2012).Google Scholar
World Bank. 2002. Empowerment and Poverty Reduction: A Sourcebook. May 1. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEMPOWERMENT/Resources/486312-1095094954594/draft.pdf (Accessed June 7, 2012).Google Scholar
Yuval-Davis, Nira. 2006. “Intersectionality and Feminist Politics.” European Journal of Women's Studies 13.3 (August): 193–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.