1st Edition
International Women’s Rights Law and Gender Equality Making the Law Work for Women
The law is a well-known tool in fighting gender inequality, but which laws actually advance women’s rights? This book unpacks the complex nuances behind gender-responsive domestic legislation, from several of the world’s leading experts on gender equality.
Drawing on domestic examples and international law, it provides a primer of theory alongside tangible and practical solutions to fulfil the promise of the law to deliver equality between men and women. Part I outlines what progress has been made to date on eradicating gender inequality, and insights into the law’s potential as one lever in the global struggle for equality. Parts II and III go on to explore concrete areas of law, with case studies from multiple jurisdictions that examine how well domestic legislation is working for women. The authors bring their critical lens to areas of law often considered from a gender perspective – gender-based violence, women’s reproductive health, labour and gender equality quotas – while bringing much-needed analysis to issues often ignored in gender debates, such as taxation, environmental justice and good governance. Part IV seeks to move from a theoretical goal of greater accountability to a practical one. It explores both accountability for international women’s rights norms at the domestic level and the potential of feminist approaches to legislation to deliver laws that work for women.
Written for students, academics, legislators and policymakers engaged in international women’s rights law, gender equality, government accountability and feminist legal theory, this book has tremendous transformative potential to drive forward legal change towards the eradication of gender inequality.
Foreword
Elizabeth Evatt AC
Part I. Women and the Law: Addressing Inequality
Chapter 1. In Pursuit of Gender-Responsive Legislation: Transforming Women’s Lives Through the Law
Ramona Vijeyarasa
Chapter 2. Women’s Rights – The State of Play: How Far Have We Come Since the Beijing Declaration?
Jeni Klugman
Part II. Legislating for Women: Successes and Setbacks in Delivering Gender-Responsive Outcomes for Women
Chapter 3. Domestic Violence Law: When Good Intentions Go Awry in Practice
Heather Nancarrow
Comment: Promoting Safety and Accountability: Clarity, Consistency and Interconnected Laws
Heather Douglas
Chapter 4. Towards a Gender-Transformative Approach to Abortion: Legislative Perspectives from South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa
Payal K. Shah and Onyema Afulukwe
Comment: Gender-Transformative Law Reform as Healthcare
Jenni Millbank
Chapter 5. Employing the Law for Women: Gender, Work and Legal Regulation in Australia
Anna Chapman
Comment: Women and Work – How Useful is the Law?
Marian Baird
Chapter 6. Enhancing Equality in Political Life: Successes and Limitations with Electoral Gender Quotas
Leena Rikkila Tamang
Comment: Enhancing Equality in Public Life
Marian Sawer
Part III. Legislating with Women in Mind: A Demand for Gender-Responsiveness at the Drafting Table
Chapter 7. Gender, Race and Environmental Law: A Feminist Critique
Rowena Maguire
Comment: Gender and Queer Perspectives on the Sustainable Development Paradigm for Environmental Law
Brad Jessup
Chapter 8. ‘No One Left Behind’? Gender Equality Taxation and the UN 2030 Global Agenda
Kathleen A. Lahey
Comment: Tax, Gender Equality and Sharing the Costs of Care
Miranda Stewart
Chapter 9. Women in Anticorruption Laws: The Case for More Gender-Responsive International Treaties
José-Miguel Bello y Villarino
Comment: Perverse Reactions and the Missing Link in Gender-Smart Anticorruption Policy
Susan Harris Rimmer
Part IV. Accountability for Embedding Women’s Rights in Domestic Law
Chapter 10. CEDAW and Global Standards for Women’s Rights: The Convention’s Actual and Potential Influence as an Accountability Mechanism for Gender-Sensitive Legislation
Anne Hellum
Chapter 11. Lighting the Spark: Reimagining the Statutory Landscape Through the Feminist Legislation Project
Becky Batagol and Ramona Vijeyarasa
Chapter 12. Gender Audits and Legislative Scrutiny: Do Parliamentary Human Rights Bodies have a Role to Play?
Jacqueline Mowbray
Chapter 13. Conclusion – Women and the Law: The Challenges Ahead for Gender-Responsive Legislation
Ramona Vijeyarasa
Biography
Ramona Vijeyarasa is a global scholar of gender equality. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Her research has helped shape theory and practice in areas of migration and trafficking, human rights and international women’s rights. Ramona is the Chief Investigator behind the Gender Legislative Index, a tool used to rank and score legislation for its gender-responsiveness. She is the author of the academic best-seller Sex, Slavery and the Trafficked Woman: Myths and Misconceptions about Trafficking and its Victims (2015) and a plethora of academic, policy and general media publications on law and gender issues. Ramona has been the recipient of a number of awards and grants, including from the Academy of the Social Sciences of Australia (2020–2021) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2020–2022). She was the 2020 Women’s Leadership Institute of Australia Research Fellow. Before joining academia, Ramona held several positions related to women’s rights in international organisations, and local and international NGOs.
"Feminist critiques of law have challenged claims of the law's neutrality over the past few decades. While these critiques have been powerful, the task of designing laws to take gender into account has received much less attention. This book offers rich insights into the complexities of taking women’s lives seriously in legislative design across a range of legal fields. Its optimism that the law can be an important site for social change, along with its practical guidance, are inspiring."
Hilary Charlesworth, Laureate Professor at Melbourne Law School and Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University, Australia
"No country in the world has entirely eliminated discrimination against women in law and practice. Not only have we witnessed profound regression on women’s rights in some quarters of the world, but the risk of a roll-back of the progress made globally towards gender-equality has become increasingly clear. This insightful compilation of chapters on diverse aspects of women’s lives and the law will undoubtedly be an important resource and tool for legal practitioners, policy-makers, and activists who, in the aftermath of a once-in-a-century global health and economic crisis, are now faced with the daunting but critical task of building an equitable and just future for all based on a transformative vision of women’s human rights."
Melissa Upreti, Vice Chair of the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls
"International Women’s Rights Law and Gender Equality: Making the Law Work for Women is a bold and diverse collection that seeks to promote gender-responsive legislation… As Vijeyarasa notes, the "cornerstone" of the collection is that "gender equality laws are not enough" and that "[g]ender-responsive legislation across all fields of the law is pivotal to delivering gender-equal outcomes"… This thought-provoking collection provides both a snapshot of global progress on achieving women’s rights, and a roadmap for further progress through its case studies of laws and accountability mechanisms. It will be of interest to scholars, practitioners, law-makers, and citizens who are interested in the law’s potential to advance (or hinder) progress towards gender equality."
Emma Dunlop, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, writing in the Asian Journal of International Law (2022), 1–2
