Collaborative Research: Gender and Constitutions: A Comparative Analysis of the Effect of Gender Provisions

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法》（公法111-5）资助的。 新的民主国家和一些老的民主国家越来越多地在其宪法中列入性别条款。 这项研究审查了将性别问题纳入国家宪法的情况以及这一趋势对妇女平等的意义。关于性别权利的宪法选择反映了关于法律是否以及如何承认性别差异的对立观点。性别和法律学者对妇女和代表她们的运动是否应该追求基于与男子平等的权利战略，或者是否应该接受和拥抱她们与男子的差异并追求允许妇女差异的政策存在分歧。本研究对这些战略进行了比较评估，追踪了不同类型的性别规定对各国妇女政治和经济地位的影响，并分析了宪法条款可能影响法律和法规内容的条件，这些法律和法规反过来又会影响妇女的福祉和平等。 调查人员使用多种方法和分析层次。 研究方法包括一百个国家的宪法编码和跨国统计分析，基于档案研究的十五个国家的中级比较分析，以及基于国内访谈研究和南部非洲三个国家和南美洲三个国家的法律的奖学金的比较深入的定性分析。 这项研究有助于社会政策和两性平等、宪法设计和执行、法律的动员以及法律和社会变革的理论。将在万维网上提供一个关于性别条款、宪法编码和编码方法以及中级分析数据的跨国数据库。 传播这项研究的结果有可能为国内和国际妇女倡导团体的战略提供信息和形成战略。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)Does the "gendering" of constitutions promote women's equality? New democracies, and some older ones, increasingly include gender provisions in their constitutions. This research examines the incorporation of gender in national constitutions and the significance of this trend for women's equality. Constitutional choices about gender rights reflect opposing perspectives about whether and how gender differences should be recognized in law. Gender and law scholars disagree whether women, and the movements that represent them, should pursue a rights strategy based on their equality with men or if they should accept and embrace their differences with men and pursue policies that make allowances for women's differences.This research evaluates these strategies comparatively, traces the impact of different types of gender provisions on women's political and economic status across countries, and analyses the conditions under which constitutional provisions are likely to shape the content of laws and regulations that in turn affect women's well-being and equality. The investigators utilize multiple methodologies and levels of analysis. The research methods include constitutional coding and cross-national statistical analysis of one hundred countries, a mid-level comparative analysis of fifteen countries based on archival research, and a comparative in-depth qualitative analysis based on in-country interview research and legal scholarship in three countries in southern Africa and three countries in South America. The research contributes to theories of social policy and gender equality, constitutional design and performance, legal mobilization, and law and social change. A cross-national database on gender provisions, constitutional coding and coding methods, and data from the mid-level analysis will be made available on the world wide web. Dissemination of the results of this research has the potential to inform and shape the strategies of women's advocacy groups, both domestic and international.