Unsex CEDAW, or What’s Wrong with Women’s Rights
2011; Columbia University Libraries; Volume: 20; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2333-4339
Autores Tópico(s)Feminist Theory and Gender Studies
ResumoPROLOGUE Before go on, want to tell a story. During high school, had an English teacher who often wore a pendant from the National Organization of Women. asked her about it and we began a conversation that continued for years as she fed my voracious mind with Gloria Steinem, Alice Walker and other feminist literature. One day, on my way home from a meeting of Gay and Lesbian Youth of New York, picked up the Village Voice and saw an announcement for a women's rights conference. My dad drove me into the city for the conference, which well over a thousand people attended. As part of the forum, individuals reported back from the 1985 World Conference on Women held in Nairobi. As people entered the hall, a slide show of conference photos ran alongside Helen Reddy's I am Woman.1 Perhaps two or three men were there. Throughout the day, attendees approached me to inquire where they could find coffee or if was in the right place. As a sixteen-year old boy with darker-than-average skin, must have struck the attendees as some sort of coffee boy. Why else would be there? While took no offense, this experience exposes the longstanding separatist tendencies of many women's rights efforts. Even recently, Gloria Steinem spoke at a conference at the University of Baltimore, saluting the who have taken inspiration from her. (2) Although may have thought that such assertions included the woman inside of me, and although do not think Steinem meant to slight men, her statement was not only exclusionary, but also self-defeating. As a child and as an adult, struggled with gender. continue to explore gender, sexuality and the law in their many interactions. Yet, hesitate to make the argument that women's rights are too narrow a focus for issues of gender equality and balance. Some may dismiss the argument because am a man. Worse, feminists may think belong to some reactionary men's movement and that do not get the struggle at some core level. This troubles me because, in many ways am just a big girl, and always have been. For this reason, this Article is not a purely academic exercise for me--my goal is to aid in the fight against gender inequality. INTRODUCTION CEDAW, (3) signed on July 17, 1980 by sixty-four countries, has as its principal goals the protection and promotion of women's rights and the elimination of discrimination against (4) As of March 7, 2011, 186 countries--more than ninety-percent of the United Nations' member states--are parties to the Convention. (5) The most notable non-party to the Convention is the United States. (6) In addition, as of May 15, 2010, there are seventy-nine Signatories and ninety-nine Parties to the Optional Protocol, a supplement to CEDAW designed to remedy some of the treaty's shortcomings. (7) Although challenges have hobbled implementation of CEDAW, it remains the central pillar of gender equality norms at the international level. (8) The Convention, despite its focus on women's rights, is also the preeminent treaty on gender inequality. It cannot succeed, however, in creating gender equality if it continues to focus so narrowly and exclusively on As Lady Macbeth gathers the strength to achieve her evil ends, she implores the spirits to unsex me here. (9) She believes that her feminine gender obstructs the ability to commit evil. Only by unsexing herself will she be empowered to kill King Duncan. Viewing unsexing as part of Lady Macbeth's evil reinforces the objectionable set of ideas seek to criticize. Although Lady MacBeth's unsexing is normatively opposite of what 1 seek here, CEDAW must also be unsexed to realize its potency. It is amazing then to note that while CEDAW defines many central terms, at no point does it attempt to define its central subject, women. At the time of CEDAW's adoption, the complexity of sex and gender was only recognized in a few contexts. CEDAW's focus on women enshrines the male/ female binary in the core of international law' when CEDAW's goals would be better served by seeking the elimination of the categories themselves. …
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