Gender, Law and Justice in a Global Market

Abstract

Theories of gender justice in the twenty-first century must engage with global economic and social processes. Using concepts from economic analysis associated with global commodity chains and feminist ethics of care, Ann Stewart considers the way in which 'gender contracts' relating to work and care contribute to gender inequalities worldwide. She explores how economies in the global north stimulate desires and create deficits in care and belonging which are met through transnational movements and traces the way in which transnational economic processes, discourses of rights and care create relationships between global south and north. African women produce fruit and flowers for European consumption; body workers migrate to meet deficits in 'affect' through provision of care and sex; British-Asian families seek belonging through transnational marriages.

Gender and governance of global value chains: Promoting the rights of women workers

“…The embeddedness of institutions in social norms configures the gender profile of public governance. Feminist political economy has contributed to critical analysis of gender bias within national and international institutions (Pearson and Seyfang, 2001;Hoskyns and Rai, 2007;Stewart, 2011). Extending this argument, some posit that markets are themselves gendered institutions that act as bearers of gendered rules and norms (Elson, 1999;Beneria, 2007).…”

Do Feminists Need an Economic Sociology of Law?

“…Recent examples include a special issue of Signs coedited by a political theorist and a law academic on feminist approaches to IPE, with hardly a reference to the angst of inter-disciplinary scholarship, 79 and Stewart's rich, synthetic account of feminist legal theory and IPE embodied in her idea of`body work chains'. 80 We might filter into our legal analysis notions such as the`care diamond,' where social reproduction is provided through the market, state, community, and the family 81 or thè global household' as an economic actor and macroeconomic category. 82 I am also not suggesting that we look to empirical work to resolve or defer what are fundamentally ideological differences amongst feminists on issues of women's labour.…”

Wench Tactics? Openings in Conditions of Closure

“…As a lineage of feminist critique, documenting custom pluralises law and its effects by moving beyond what might seem the obvious legal institutions. Criticising custom also brings with it a commitment to working with local expertise in naming and countering gendered harms (Stewart 2011). From resisting the colonial contempt with which the local residents of Grenfell have been treated (El-Enany 2017b), to lining the walls of law schools differently, 12 critical strategies seem to demand a re-engagement with local custom.…”