The 1990s saw positive changes in women’s rights and human rights more broadly, with growth in the size and influence of the international women’s movement. Linked regionally and internationally, the movement was able to collaborate on issues of policy and agenda setting. This United Nations Research Institute on Social Development (UNRISD) paper examines ways in which liberal rights and ideas of democracy and justice have been incorporated into these agendas in three aspects: Social sector restructuring and social rights in a neoliberal economic policymaking era, the democratisation and politics of gender and universalism and multiculturalism in practice.
As the women’s movement grew, the collapse of many authoritarian regimes presented an opportunity to press for political and legal reform at national level. However, often these advances were not matched by progress in social justice. Rising income inequality and widespread poverty in many countries were accompanied by record levels of crime and violence. States abdicated responsibility for economic and social domains just when they were needed most.
This mixed record is fundamental to the international policy agenda. The agenda has two central elements: The consolidation of a market-led development model, and a greater emphasis on democracy and rights. How much significance has the latter been accorded in international policy?
There are two perspectives through which the areas of neoliberal policies, democracy, and multiculturalism are examined: The first is a ‘gender lens’ to analyse political and policy processes, the second, a cross-cultural analysis of how liberalism exists in, and is resisted in, diverse cultural settings.
- Social sector restructuring and social rights: Case studies on Chile, India and Poland raise concerns over state welfare provision. In some contexts policy reforms threaten to undermine the social gains that women have made. Elsewhere welfare reform denies the prospect of non-discriminatory allocation of jobs, public services and social security systems.
- Democratisation and the politics of gender: As the central instrument for the protection of rights must be the state, the women’s movement is required to engage with it. Case studies in Iran, Peru, Uganda and South Africa demonstrate such engagement is partial, and sometimes involves the co-option of women’s movements by authoritarian regimes.
- Multiculturalisms in practice: Case studies in Malaysia, Mexico and Uganda demonstrate multicultural debates for developing countries, and how these interests contend with the women’s movement. Despite points of convergence in ‘difference-blind’ liberalism, political factors influencing interpretation of human rights law sometimes lead to seemingly irreconcilable conflict over core principles.
The issues raised by the UNRISD’s collection of studies represent a variety of challenges for those engaged in movements for social justice. There must be a rethinking of the relations between feminism and liberalism, recognising commonalities and suggesting grounds for critical accommodation, despite the obstacles.
- Poverty relief often depends on a predominantly female unpaid, or poorly paid, unregulated workforce. Some new welfare regimes are delivering a questionable level of service, continuing to penalise the socially disadvantaged.
- Democratic institutions generally allow greater voice and presence to social forces pressing for reform, yet the degree to which democracy has been consolidated and institutionalised is often highly variable.
- Women have become a visible political force, individually and as a social group, even when their political voice or representation is limited or absent.
- When engaging with the state, women’s movements are in danger of being co-opted, and losing their ability to represent their constituency and advance radical reform.
- In ethnically segmented countries ruled by authoritarian elites, multicultural policies can hinder equality claims rather than advance them.
