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

Arat, Zehra F. Kabasakal

doi:10.1017/s0003055415000386

Cited by 102 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Quantitative approaches to understanding intersectional issues also face challenges in terms of accounting for power structures (Dubrow and Ilinca, 2019). Measuring inclusion does not in and of itself challenge such power structures (Arat, 2015). There is also a history of feminist critique of quantitative knowledge production, based in part on the privileging of quantitative methods (Brisolara et al, 2014).…”

Section: Governance By Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

UN Women’s feminist engagement with governance by indicators in the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals

Taylor

2020

Global Social Policy

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The rise of evidence-based policy has brought with it an increase in the use of indicators and data-driven global projects. The United Nations System has used the indicator-based Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) projects to govern policy from above. Of particular interest in this article is how indicators are used to govern gender equality initiatives within the Goals. By using ‘governance by indicators’ as a framework for understanding global policy processes, we can better understand how the power of indicators can help or hinder progress towards gender equality depending on the extent to which it renders gendered concerns visible. Studying indicators in this forum also illuminates spaces of contestation, where policy actors can debate indicators and reshape meaning. Based on this framework, this article explores UN Women’s feminist critique of measurement and knowledge production in the MDGs and SDGs. Looking through their feminist lens applied to this form of knowledge production can yield a better understanding of the use of indicators in shaping evidence-based policy from the global level. In recognizing the value of quantification and data-driven evidence in policy, this article speaks to the tension between feminist critique of quantitative knowledge production and the feminist approach’s welcoming of multiple ways of knowing.

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Section: Governance By Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

UN Women’s feminist engagement with governance by indicators in the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals

Taylor

2020

Global Social Policy

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“…1, 1997: 27). While gender mainstreaming policies are important, policymakers and scholars have struggled to interpret how to conceptualize and implement mainstreaming policies (Arat, 2015; Karim, 2017a). As a result, the focus of this study is on gender balancing only, as there is more clarity in its definition and because states have been particularly proactive in its implementation.…”

Section: Security Sector Reforms and Gender Balancingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The internationalization of security sector gender reforms in post-conflict countries

Huber

Karim

2017

Conflict Management and Peace Science

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With the passing of several UN Security Council Resolutions related to Women, Peace and Security, gender balancing security sector reforms (SSR)—or policies that ensure the equal participation of women in the security sector—have received increased global attention over the past two decades. However, to date, there is no explanation for variation in their adoption. This paper examines the internationalization of SSR gender reform, arguing that the presence of a peacekeeping mission within a post-conflict country affects the state’s resources and political will to adopt gender balancing reforms. We explore the effect of multidimensional peacekeeping using an original dataset on SSR in post-conflict countries, the Security Sector Reform Dataset, from 1989 to 2012. We find that peacekeeping missions increase the probability that a state will adopt gender balancing reforms in SSR. As the first cross-national quantitative examination of gender balancing reforms, these findings also shed light on the conditions under which states adopt security sector reforms more generally.

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“…demand[s] equal opportunities for women's education, electoral rights, economic participation, equal access to the public domain, and integration into all male institutions, liberal feminism seeks gradual change through legislative reform and anti-discrimination laws; it considers the state an apparatus that can be used to create equal opportunities for women and to establish gender equality (qtd. in Arat, 2015 , p. 676).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It underestimates the degree and types of challenges that remain for women in their multiple identities, including the persistence of all forms of violence against women ("Final Statement, 2010", p. 1). Arat's (2015) work to evaluate the level of the CSW's representation and responsiveness to different women populations as reflected in (a) state delegations' participation in debates, (b) NGO participation, and (c) NGO priorities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To be fully representative, the CSW would implement proposals from a diversity of women's organizations to dismantle barriers based on gender, race, class, and postcolonial status to empower women. The UN's processes have heard and been responsive to different women's groups and feminisms, but acknowledged them only in rhetoric, while in action mainly upholding liberal feminism in devising policies focused on reforming states, and removing discriminatory laws (Arat, 2015 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluating the Representation and Responsiveness of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to Diverse Women Populations Worldwide

et al. 2019

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The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is "the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women." The continued success of the CSW's mission is critical. Under the guise of needing competent male leaders to protect them, women and girls in many countries nonetheless suffer dire consequences from international conflict and war. While females may send mostly male loved ones into armed conflict, women and girls themselves face economic sanctions, poverty, displacement, and heightened risk of sexual violence, in an environment that already fails to respect their equal human rights with men. It is no accident that in most countries, females are de facto excluded from positions of power where they could try to prevent such conflict (Enloe, 2014), and the CSW is actively working to overcome this reality. In this article, we use a mixed-method approach to evaluate the level of United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) representation and responsiveness to diverse women populations as reflected in (a) state delegations' participation in formal session, (b) NGO participation, and (c) NGO priorities. We find that the CSW displays a high level of representation and responsiveness to diverse state delegations across UN regions in terms of their speaking time in formal session. The CSW is at best moderately representative of women's NGOs through regional advance consultations, and the level of responsiveness to women's NGOs is low. This is due to: costly barriers to entry to gain ECOSOC status, large underrepresentation of some UN Regions, and the fact that during formal session, women's NGOs participate primarily at parallel offsite events. Although the CSW passed important resolutions, its representation and responsiveness to women's NGO priorities is lower than it should be. We base our evaluation by comparing our surveys of attending and non-attending women's NGOs that showed top priorities that the 2010 CSW did not discuss or pass resolutions on such as: land rights, sex trafficking, internet access for women, and the effects of climate change on women. We contend that during 1970-1994, when World Conferences on Women occurred, parallel transnational advance consultations among women's NGOs in tandem with CSW regional consultations created a broadening of the CSW's agenda. Rincker et al. Evaluating the United Nations CSW The CSW rationally anticipated different kinds of feminism beyond liberal feminism and a broader set of priority issues for diverse women populations. We therefore argue for a Fifth World Conference on Women to increase the representativeness and responsiveness of the CSW.

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

Cited by 102 publications

References 53 publications

UN Women’s feminist engagement with governance by indicators in the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals

UN Women’s feminist engagement with governance by indicators in the Millennium and Sustainable Development Goals

The internationalization of security sector gender reforms in post-conflict countries

Evaluating the Representation and Responsiveness of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to Diverse Women Populations Worldwide

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