Overview
- Explores to what extent the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) affects the lives of women worldwide
- Discusses specific methods which have made CEDAW resonate
- Highlights the context-specific values and agency factors that influence the Convention's impact
Part of the book series: Gender and Politics (GAP)
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
Table of contents (9 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book looks at the centerpiece of the international women’s rights discourse, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and asks to what extent it affects the lives of women worldwide. Rather than assuming a trickle-down effect, the author discusses specific methods which have made CEDAW resonate. These methods include attempts to influence the international level by clarifying the meaning of women’s rights and strengthening the Convention’s monitoring procedure, and building connections between international and domestic contexts that enable diverse actors to engage with CEDAW. This analysis shows that while the Convention has worldwide impact, this impact is fundamentally dependent on context-specific values and agency. Hence, rather than thinking of women’s rights exclusively as normative content, Zwingel suggests to see them as in process. This book will especially appeal to students and scholars interested in transnational feminism and gender and global governance.
Reviews
“Zwingel’s authoritative treatment of the CEDAW convention from a social science perspective fills a gaping hole in the literature on feminist international governance. It confirms her as the foremost expert on the politics of CEDAW with a deep knowledge of not only the text and its legal ramifications, but also of all that went into producing it, the contestations around it as it has matured, and the uses it has been put to in different contexts. Engagingly written and based on deeply considered conceptualizations, the book brings to life an understudied key instrument of global feminist politics.” (Elisabeth Prügl, Professor of International Relations, Graduate Institute, Switzerland)
“This compelling and meticulous in-depth study of the evolution and impact of CEDAW demonstrates the potential of international norms to become instruments of social transformation and gender justice. It brings theoretical insight and empirical rigour to address the question: how far can international norms like CEDAW reach? This book breaks new ground and greatly enhances our understanding of the relevance of global gender equality mechanisms and the crucial work of “norm translation” activists who “stitch together” international women’s rights discourse and contextualised practice on the ground. An innovative and important intervention.” (Fiona Mackay, Professor of Politics, University of Edinburgh, UK)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Susanne Zwingel is Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University, USA. Her research areas include women’s human rights and their translation, global governance and gender, and feminist and post-colonial theories. She is co-editor of Feminist Strategies in International Governance (with E. Prügl and G. Caglar, 2013).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Translating International Women's Rights
Book Subtitle: The CEDAW Convention in Context
Authors: Susanne Zwingel
Series Title: Gender and Politics
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-31501-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Limited, part of Springer Nature 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-230-29097-6Published: 25 August 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-95864-1Published: 15 January 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-31501-4Published: 13 August 2016
Series ISSN: 2662-5814
Series E-ISSN: 2662-5822
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 288
Number of Illustrations: 8 b/w illustrations
Topics: Political Science, International Organization, Social Justice, Equality and Human Rights, Gender Studies