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

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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.