Gender Politics in Global Governance

From the grassroots to the global, women's movements worldwide are taking on new arenas, new goals and strategies, and in some cases a whole new vocabulary. International organizations, nonstate actors, regimes and norms, and a host of globalizing forces offer women and their representatives new opportunities and obstacles. This volume draws together a wide range of exciting new research that looks at the gendered nature of the institutions, practices, and discourses of global governance. The contributors describe the spaces women have carved out in international organizations, the strategies women's movements have employed to influence international politics, and the ways in which movement activism has contested gendered rules in global governance. Out of a stimulating diversity of approaches, the common goal of empowering women resounds.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Gender Politics in Global Governance Part 3 Part I: Locating Women: Organizational Spaces in Global Governance Chapter 4 Women Workers in the United Nations: From Margin to Mainstream? Chapter 5 United Nations Peacekeeping: Men's and Women's Work Chapter 6 Negotiating International Norms: The Inter-American Commission of Women and the Convention on Violence against Women Chapter 7 Gender and Transnational Democracy: The Case of the European Union Chapter 8 Nongovernmental Organizations: An Alternative Power Base for Women? Part 9 Part II: Shaping Agendas: Feminist Strategies in Global Governance Chapter 10 The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom: Organizing Women for Peace in the War System Chapter 11 International Women's Activism and the 1994 Cairo Population Conference Chapter 12 Shaping the Human Rights Agenda: The Case of Violence against Women Chapter 13 Realizing Women's Human Rights: Nongovernmental Organizations and the United Nations Treaty Bodies Chapter 14 The United Nations Women's Conferences and Feminist Politics Part 15 Part III: Contesting Language: Gendered Rules in Global Governance Chapter 16 What Is a Worker? Gender, Global Restructuring, and the ILO Convention on Homework Chapter 17 Women in the Neoliberal "Frame" Chapter 18 An Ecofeminist Critique of the International Economic Structure Chapter 19 Trafficking in Women: Alternate Migration or Modern Slave Trade? Chapter 20 Gender Construction and the Protection Mandate of the UNHCR: Responses from Guatemalan Women Chapter 21 Of Roots, Leaves, and Trees: Gender, Social Movements, and Global Governance Chapter 22 Works Cited Chapter 23 Appendix: The United Nations System Chapter 24 Index

About the Author :
Mary K. Meyer is associate professor of political science at Eckerd College. Elisabeth Prügl is assistant professor of international relations at Florida International University.

Review :
Overall this constitutes a very useful text for students and teachers alike. All of the contributions are well-written, clear and accessible... Provides a wealth of material that contributes to the understanding of the dynamics of global governance more broadly. That many of the authors have considerable activist experience as well as a strong academic background adds considerable authority to awork of this type. . . . excellent chapter. . . . . . analytically sophisticated and empirically informative. . . In sum the volume offers a rich and rewarding account of women's politics and will be profitably read by all those interested in analysing decision-making process and understanding the politics of policy change in international relations... This constitutes a very useful text for students and teachers alike. All of the contributions are well-written, clear and accessible and there is a useful appendix which sets out the UN system and how it works. This book should be recommended reading for students on global governance courses as well as more specialized gender and international relations / politics options. For International Relations specialists this book is a must-read. This is a very useful introductory text book to issues of international feminism and women and politics at an international level. An important lesson one learns from reading these rich case studies is: asking the sort of feminist questions that have shed so much light on local militaries and welfare bureaucracies can produce equivalent revelations about the masculinist political cultures and everyday workings of international agencies. After one reads Gender Politics in Global Governance, the UN, OAS, and EU will never look the same, nor will feminist activism. This is a breakthrough book. Provides a wealth of material that contributes to the understanding of the dynamics of global governance more broadly. That many of the authors have considerable activist experience as well as a strong academic background adds considerable authority to a work of this type. . . . excellent chapter. . . . . . analytically sophisticated and empirically informative. . . In sum the volume offers a rich and rewarding account of women's politics and will be profitably read by all those interested in analysing decision-making process and understanding the politics of policy change in international relations. It is well worth the attention of those who study and teach international relations as well as those concerned to understand the involvement of women with political action.