Women’s Human Rights: A Social Psychological Perspective on Resistance, Liberation, and Justice contributes to the discussion of why women’s human rights warrant increased focus in the context of globalization. It considers how psychology can provide the links between transnational feminism and the discourse on women’s human rights and neoliberalism by using activist scholarship and empirical findings based on women’s grassroots resistance. The book takes a radically different approach to women’s human rights than disciplines such as law, for example, by developing new ideas regarding how psychology can be relevant in the study or actualization of women’s human rights and by making clear how activist-scholarship can make a unique contribution to the defense of women’s rights. This radical departure from using a legal framework, or examples that have been sensationalized throughout academia and advocacy (e.g., genital cutting), provides a route for better understanding how the mechanisms of violation operate. Thus, it has the potential to offer alternatives for intervention that extend beyond changing laws or monitoring international human rights treaties. The perspectives offered by the authors are largely informed by feminist liberation psychology, women of color, and critical race and queer theories in an attempt to demonstrate how research in psychology can shed light on the diverse experiences of women resisting human rights violations and to suggest means by which psychological processes can effectively challenge the broader structures of power that exacerbate the violation of women’s rights.
Activist scholarship in human rights
