The Woman President

Abstract

Too much attention is paid to the absence of women leaders around the world rather than their presence, leaving a gap in our understanding of the difference women leaders make on the lives of fellow women. With women leaders an under-studied group and with the law profoundly important in advancing women’s rights, The Woman President brings together these two domains to become the first-ever comparative study of women’s leadership and the law. It offers the legal and political science scholarship new ways for understanding the impact of female presidential leadership on women’s everyday lives by analysing the legal legacies of four women presidents: Corazon Aquino (1986–1992), Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (2001–2010), Megawati Sukarnoputri (2001–2004) and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (1994–2005). The book relies on aninnovative methodology, which includes the use of new the Gender Legislative Index. The findings challenge and expand our understanding of what constitutes a woman’s issue, bringing within its analysis labour law reform, democracy, anti-corruption, poverty-alleviation and pro-peace interventions, alongside more oft-considered terrain such as gender-based violence, reproductive rights, gender equality quotas and women’s rights at work. This book also offers important insights into the institutional and social mechanisms that enable women leaders to lead for women, including women’s movements, women legislators, women bureaucrats and global networks of women presidents and prime ministers. The Woman President offers new tools and sharpens old ones to provide an essential comparative contribution to our knowledge about the dynamics and impact of female presidencies, drawing from the realities of the Asia region.