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Gender and Human Rights

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Handbook of the Sociology of Gender

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

Compared to the long lineage of scholarship on women’s rights and gendered inequalities, the sociological scholarship on gender and human rights is a relative newcomer. In this chapter I move beyond human rights charters and conventions and focus on the substantive access to rights and the terrains of power, privileges, and inequalities that have to be navigated in the process. The first section of this chapter summarizes the scholarship on the growing power of feminist, anti-racist, and anti-colonial activism that shaped conversations about the conceptualization, policies, and access to human rights globally. The second section presents the scholarship on violence against women (VAW), gender and human rights. While the terrain of human rights literature covers many topics, discussions of violence are woven through an array of conversations about the access to political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights. I draw upon the literature and activism from different parts of the world to highlight the dynamism and continuing conflicts related to gender and human rights.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA

    Bandana Purkayastha

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  1. Bandana Purkayastha
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Correspondence to Bandana Purkayastha .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Barbara J. Risman

  2. University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA

    Carissa M. Froyum

  3. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    William J. Scarborough

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Purkayastha, B. (2018). Gender and Human Rights. In: Risman, B., Froyum, C., Scarborough, W. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Gender. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76333-0_38

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76333-0_38

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