Gender, Constitutions, and Equality (Gender and Comparative Politics)

This book addresses whether the "gendering" of constitutions promotes women’s equality.

The authors use a mixed-methods approach to explore how constitutional gender rights affect political processes and strategies, legislative and judicial outcomes, and ultimately women’s equality. They employ a cross-national study by constructing a unique database of gender provisions in over 100 countries at three points in time: 1995, 2005, and 2015. Four in-depth comparative case studies on Argentina, Chile, South Africa, and Botswana trace the complex relationship between constitutional law, strategies, and policy change in four policy areas: family law, gender-based violence, reproductive rights, and employment rights. They argue that where egalitarian constitutional provisions are present, women’s rights advocates can use them as a tool to fight gender discrimination and pursue policy changes that address gender-based power disparities.

At a time when gender equality provisions are increasingly common in constitutional design, this book clarifies the mechanisms that link constitutional provisions to changes in process and outcomes while also systematically describing and analyzing the effect of gender provisions across countries and over time. Gender, Constitutions, and Equality will inform theoretical debates on gender and politics, law and social change, feminist institutionalism, and constitutional design and its effect on legislation and political strategies.

Priscilla A. Lambert is Associate Professor of Political Science at Western Michigan University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California San Diego in 2004 and specializes in comparative politics, Japanese politics, welfare state politics, and women and politics. She has published articles on these topics in Comparative Politics, Gender and Politics, the Journal of Japanese Studies, Social Politics, Politics, Groups and Identities, and the Journal of Politics in Latin America.

Druscilla L. Scribner is Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California San Diego in 2004 and specializes in comparative politics, Latin American judicial politics, and women and politics. She has published articles on these topics in Comparative Politics, Gender and Politics, Global Policy, Politics, Groups and Identities, and the Journal of Politics in Latin America.