scholarly journals REVIEW: Old abortion law still holds sway

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 234
Author(s):  
Sue Kedgley
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Abortion Law ◽  
Abortion Laws ◽  
History Of

Fighting to Choose is a fascinating, meticulously researched history of the struggle to liberalise New Zealand’s abortion laws. It examines why there is still no right to have an abortion in a progressive country like New Zealand, which has a strong record of promoting women’s rights, and why it is that an unsatisfactory abortion law, that was passed 35 years ago, is still on the statute books.

scholarly journals 100 Years On, How Many More To Go? Challenges Facing Women in Law in 2013

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Monique Van Alphen Fyfe
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
Community Solidarity

One hundred years on from Harriette Vine's graduation, women in law are still confronted with discrimination in their careers. This article examines perceptions of women in law and women's pessimism regarding their prospects. It suggests that legislative, institutional and individual efforts could generate equality within the legal community. Solidarity and agitation to encourage the participation of women at all levels of the profession can best honour the legacy of women's rights in New Zealand.

2. Feminist and Activist Approaches to Human Rights

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ackerly Brooke
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Political History ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Cultural Relativism ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Moral Legitimacy ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
History Of

This chapter explores the theoretical and political history of human rights that emerges out of the struggles that have been waged by feminists and other non-elites. It first considers the bases for the moral legitimacy of human rights and challenges to those arguments before discussing three aspects of feminist approaches to human rights: their criticism of some aspects of the theory and practice of human rights, their rights claims, and their conceptual contributions to a theory of human rights. It then examines the ways in which feminists and other activists for marginalized groups have used human rights in their struggles and how such struggles have in turn shaped human rights theory. It also analyses theoretical and historical objections to the universality of human rights based on cultural relativism. Finally, it shows that women’s rights advocates want rights enjoyment and not merely entitlements.

scholarly journals COMPETING NARRATIVES: HISTORIES OF THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT IN IRAQ, 1910–58

2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 466a-466a
Author(s):  
Noga Efrati
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
Women's History ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
History Of ◽  
Women’S History

The history of the women's movement in Iraq before 1958 has received little attention in contemporary scholarly literature published in English. Moreover, when surveying the brief accounts in secondary sources, one is struck by their inconsistency. Upon closer examination, two historiographical approaches emerge. One primarily follows the development of women's activities sanctioned by the regime, focusing on organizations and activists associated with the Iraqi Women's Union, established in 1945. The second approach traces developments and organizations linked with the underground League for the Defense of Women's Rights, founded in 1952. This essay argues that members of the rival union and league constructed two competing narratives in presenting the history of the women's movement in pre-1958 Iraq. The article unpacks these two different narratives as they were originally articulated by activists in order to piece together a more elaborate portrayal of the evolution of the early Iraqi women's movement. The essay also explores how scholars have reproduced these narratives, arguing that both activists and researchers were active participants in a “war of narratives” that left women's history the unfortunate casualty

Women in Burundi

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Saiget
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Women's Organizations ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Domestic Sphere ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
History Of ◽  
Women’S Organizations

The history of women is characterized by nonlinear and gendered social, political and economic processes. In particular, the history of Burundian women’s collective actions has been embedded in the contested and violent trajectory of the Burundian state. Burundian women’s collective actions refer to a broad range of interactions: from protest, and social mobilizations to institutionalized actions. These interactions have been shaped by both global and local social structures, and by complex conflictive and cooperative relations between the Burundian state, political parties, women’s organizations and movements, and external actors (colonial powers, international organizations, non-governmental organizations). Women’s experiences in Burundi’s pre-colonial patriarchal society are little known, with the exception of the glorified Queen-mothers. German and Belgian colonial policies (1886–1962) reinforced and rigidified pre-colonial social constructions of ethnic and gendered social identities and roles, assigning ordinary women to the domestic sphere and sanctioning their social inferior status along with ethnic lines (Tutsi, Hutu, and Twa). After Burundi’s independence, the one-party military regime organized and supervised the first forms of women’s political participation through the Union des femmes burundaises (1962–1980s). The democratic transition of the early 1990s led to the creation of autonomous women’s organizations and networks, which were extended during the civil war (1993–2005). Burundian women actively contributed to national and grassroots peace processes. In particular, a delegation of seven Burundian women participated in the negotiations held in Arusha (1998–2000), with observer status. Post-conflict struggles for women’s rights posed the central issue of women’s political representation, with the adoption of gender quotas from 2005, but left aside other issues after 2010, such as women’s right to inherit land. In Spring 2015, Burundian women were present in protests against the president’s third mandate; with the women’s march being the first to reach the city center in March 2015. Women’s organizations kept mobilizing towards women’s rights after the electoral crisis, in exile or within Burundi, though facing important financial constraints and political repression.

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