Thursday, August 13, 2009

McClain and Grossman, Gender Equality: Dimensions of Women's Equal Citizenship

Gender Equality: Dimensions of Women's Equal Citizenship, edited by Linda C. McClain, Boston University School of Law and Joanna L. Grossman, Hofstra University School of Law, has just been published by Cambridge University Press. The authors have posted a book abstract and table of contents on SSRN. Here's the abstract:

Citizenship is the common language for expressing aspirations to democratic and egalitarian ideals of inclusion, participation, and civic membership. However, there continues to be a significant gap between formal commitments to gender equality and equal citizenship – in the laws and constitutions of many countries as well as in international human rights documents − and the reality of women’s lives. This volume presents a collection of original works that examine this persisting inequality through the lens of citizenship. Distinguished scholars in law, political science, and women’s studies investigate the many dimensions of women’s equal citizenship, including constitutional citizenship, democratic citizenship, social citizenship, sexual and reproductive citizenship, and global citizenship. Gender Equality takes stock of the progress toward – and remaining impediments to – securing equal citizenship for women, develops strategies for pursuing that goal, and identifies new questions that will shape further inquiries.
And here are the blurbs:

"This outstanding collection of essays both illuminates and complicates a range of gender justice problems in intimate and public arenas within and across national boundaries. The "citizenship" of the title stands for democratic inclusion, and is animated by an aspirational vision of "equal citizenship" for women and men. Yet the volume's editors recognize that the citizenship concept is itself fraught and double-edged, and must be deployed self-critically. `Gender Equality' is comprised of a set of original essays by a range of distinguished scholars working at the intersection of feminist legal and political theory. The volume offers a rigorous overview of many of the political and theoretical conundrums facing advocates of equal justice for women today." --Linda Bosniak, Rutgers University School of Law

"This rich cross-national and comparative collection explores and assesses the progress of women toward equal citizenship, identifying multiple dimensions of citizenship and theorizing citizenship in new arenas. Posing complex and provocative questions, Gender Equality will generate conversations between legal scholars and political scientists and will challenge empirical researchers and theorists to consider more fully what equal citizenship requires." --Carol Nackenoff, Department of
Political Science, Swarthmore College

"This volume is an exciting collection that will be essential reading for those concerned with gender equality and citizenship across myriad disciplines." --Leti Volpp, University of California Berkeley School of Law