Research Portfolio Post #5: Research Puzzle Proposal

I am proposing to research Western feminist jurisprudence because I want to know why some human rights practices and laws are unsuccessful/successful in improving the conditions of women to help my reader understand what barriers exist in the international system that impede progress for women.

It is becoming relatively mainstream to recognize gender equality as a part of democratization and human rights law rather than a separate issue within these topics.[1] This is evident by the increased awareness of gender-based violence and the economic status of women in the Global South. This trend can be traced back to the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1979.[2]  The proposed International Violence Against Women Act is an example of how the heightened awareness of women’s issues has influenced U.S foreign policy.[3]

However, the increased awareness has not led to necessarily better outcomes for women. There is an ongoing debate over the validity and effectiveness of gender mainstreaming.[4] There is also some concern that increased awareness is really a result of feminist discourses being co-opted.[5] Another debate within this research puzzle is if an increased reliance on policing and legislation to promote gender equality creates more problems for women.[6]

The significance of my research topic gets at the core debate within feminist discourses: should we work towards reforming patriarchal systems or should we dismantle them? In the context of my research question, the significance would be related to if the inadequacies of human rights responses are a result of an inherently flawed system or if we can parse out what works and what doesn’t. The policy implications can go both ways. Whether the research can be used to highlight something fundamentally wrong with institutions or to pinpoint areas for improvement will be both dependent of the reader and my findings. I am also open to seeing how my research can question whether it makes sense to research gender equality from this perspective.

My research is important within feminist circles because it also addresses the issue of solidarity. One major debate in feminist discourses is if transnational solidarity is possible. Can women from the Global North ever be in true solidarity with women from the Global South? Does the international system reproduce a hierarchy or does western feminist discourses inadvertently play into it? Is it both? Is there an inherent conflict of interest between both or is it more nuanced?  This is an important debate to consider because the of policy implications. We may have to rethink how we understand gender in relation to human rights abuses, conflict, migration/asylum, trafficking, and most certainly development.

I have a few specific research questions that I would like to explore. One aspect of this puzzle I would like to understand is what factors make it more likely for women’s equality to be used as a justification for some interventions but not others. Moreover, I would like to understand why women’s rights was used to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003. In answering this question, I would hope to find out what makes gender equality a mobilizer for domestic and international support rather than other types of equality (racial, ethnic, class, religious, etc).

Another question I would be interested in exploring is why punitive measures are understood to be a necessary means of preventing gender-based violence. A case specific question I could ask is why the practice of detaining prostitutes is used in South Asia to stop sex trafficking, if prostitutes are essentially the victims of sex trafficking. In answering this question, I would hope to understand the reigning “logic” that allows for policies like this to occur.

Bibliography:

Hilary Charlesworth, “Not Waving but Drowning: Gender Mainstreaming and Human Rights

in the United Nations,” Harvard Human Rights Journal 18 (2005): 1

UN General Assembly, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 December 1979, A/RES/34/180, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3b00f2244.html [accessed 29 September 2019]

 

Hunt, Krista (2006). “Embedded Feminism’ and the War on Terror”. In Hunt, Krista; Rygiel, Kim (eds.). (En)Gendering the War on Terror. War Stories and Camouflaged Politics. Hampshire: Ashgate. pp. 51–71.

 

U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, International Violence Against Women Act of 2018, 115thCong., 2ndstsess., H.R. 5034. Accessed on 29 September 2019, Art. I-XVII, Sec. 2.

 

Bernstein, Elizabeth. 2012. “Carceral politics as gender justice? The “traffic in women” and neoliberal circuits of crime, sex, and rights.” Theory and Society 41, no. 3: 233-259, http://proxyau.wrlc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxyau.wrlc.org/docview/1008903097?accountid=8285.

[1] Hilary Charlesworth, “Not Waving but Drowning: Gender Mainstreaming and Human Rights

in the United Nations,” Harvard Human Rights Journal 18 (2005): 1

[2] UN General Assembly, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 18 December 1979, A/RES/34/180, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3b00f2244.html [accessed 29 September 2019]

[3] U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, International Violence Against Women Act of 2018, 115thCong., 2ndstsess., H.R. 5034. Accessed on 29 September 2019, Art. I-XVII, Sec. 2.

[4] Charlesworth, 2

[5] Hunt, Krista (2006). “Embedded Feminism’ and the War on Terror”. In Hunt, Krista; Rygiel, Kim (eds.). (En)Gendering the War on Terror. War Stories and Camouflaged Politics. Hampshire: Ashgate. pp. 51–71.

[6] Bernstein, Elizabeth. “Carceral Politics as Gender Justice? the “Traffic in Women” and Neoliberal Circuits of Crime, Sex, and Rights.” Theory and Society 41, no. 3 (05, 2012): 233-59, http://proxyau.wrlc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxyau.wrlc.org/docview/1008903097?accountid=8285.

One thought to “Research Portfolio Post #5: Research Puzzle Proposal”

  1. Thamara — overall this is a very good discussion of your proposed research puzzle. The scholarship and sources that you discuss to substantiate the puzzle are all appropriate and relevant, though you could have also used those (or other) sources to substantiate some of your discussion of the significance of the puzzle as well. As you continue to research the topic area, you’ll want to think about how the scholarship that you’ve read groups together into “conceptual buckets” that provide different explanations for why conditions might improve as well as the primary source material that provides data demonstrating that the conditions for women have not improved (how would you think about operationalizing the concepts of conditions and improvement?). Keep reading and researching as it sounds like the project is moving in the right direction!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *