This document provides an overview of topics related to gender inequality and citizenship. It discusses persistent patterns of inequality such as unequal economic opportunities and differences in political voice between men and women. It also examines definitions of gender equality, criticisms of universal citizenship, and the role of international organizations like the UN and World Bank in advancing gender issues. Case studies are provided on women's representation in politics in different countries and regions. The document argues that while progress has been made, gender discrimination remains a problem worldwide and achieving full equality will require continued efforts from governments and political institutions.

1. Dr. Carolina Matos
Lecturer in Sociology
City University London
E-mail: Carolina.Matos.1@city.ac.uk
Considering the relationship of
citizenship to gender equity

2. Core issues
 Gender inequality in the 21st
century: facts and figures
 World Development Report 2012 and Voice and Agency October 2014
(The World Bank)
 Persistent patterns of inequality and challenges to gender equity
 Equality and gender: why does it matter?
 Criticisms to a universal definition of citizenship
 Defining discrimination
 The gender and equality debate in the UN
 UK’s DFID and World Bank positions
 The role of politics and the state in advancing gender equality
 UK government and the gender pay gap: what the future holds
 Seminar questions and conclusions

3. Gender inequality in the 21st
century
 * According to Womenkind Worldwide, women make up just 17% of
parliamentarians (Unicef, the State of the World’s Children, 2007)
 Gender-based violence is a problem across the globe. More than 700
million women are subject to physical or sexual violence, with
regional rates of such violence ranging from 21% in North America
to 43% in South Asia (in Voice and Agency, World Bank 2014)
 * At least 1 in 3 women around the world has been beaten, coerced
into sex or abused
 Gender inequality is a problem for developing and developed
countries alike:
 * The 2014 PwC’s second Women in Work Index underlined that the
UK lags behind most European countries on gender pay equality,
occupying the 18th
position out of 27 OECD countries for female
participation and pay.

4. Gender discrimination worldwide: some facts
 Facts and figures adapted from Oxfam (Institute of Development
Studies):
 * Women work 67% of the world’s working hours
 * Two out of three of the world’s illiterate people are women
 * Globally women make up just 10% of representatives in national
governments
 Gender discrimination in social institutions occurs in both developed as
well as developing countries
 The Atlas of Gender and Development – How Social Norms Affect
Gender Equality in non-OECD countries (2010) provides some
differences between regions, with very high gender discrimination as
in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, and lower
levels in East Asia and Pacific and Latin America.

5. What do we mean by gender equality?*
 “Gender refers to the social, behavioural and cultural attributes,
expectations and norms associated with being a woman or man. Gender
equality refers to how these aspects determine how women and men relate
to each other...”
 Equality of opportunities versus equality of outcomes:
 “Those who defend framing gender equality as equality of opportunity
argue that it allows one to distinguish between inequalities that arise from
circumstances beyond the control of individuals and those that stem form
differences in preferences and choices…..Those who argue for equality of
outcome argue that differences in preferences and attitudes are largely
“learned”… – they are the result of culture and environment that lead men
and women to internalize social norms and expectations. Persistent
differences in power and status between men and women can become
internalized in…behaviours…that perpetuate the inequalities.”
 * The World Bank – World Development Report 2012

6. Voice and Agency*
 Developing from the previous World Development report, this
document also underlines enormous progress that has occurred in the
last two decades
 The previous report highlighted how more countries guarantee women
and men equal rights under the law, including in property ownership,
inheritance and marriage
 Gender gaps in primary school have narrowed, and globally, more
women attend university than men and now women are living longer
than men in every region of the world
 The Voice and Agency report aims to focus more on what is seen as a
key driver of persistent gaps: limited agency.
 “Agency is about the ability to make effective choices and to transform
those choices into desired outcomes.” (pg. 12)

7. Persistent patterns of gender inequality*
 Gender disparities have persisted throughout the world, and include:
 1) Unequal access to economic opportunities – Women are more likely than
men to work as unpaid family labourers and in the informal sector, also work in
smaller firms as entrepreneurs
 2) Disparities in girl’s schooling – The lower enrolment for girls in primary
and secondary education is a still a problem in Sub-Saharan countries and parts
of South Asia.
 3) Excess deaths of girls and women – Females are more likely to die in many
low and middle-income countries than in the richer countries
 4) Differences in voice in households and society – In many countries women
have less say over decisions and less control over resources. They also
participate less in formal politics and are underrepresented in the upper ranks
of all sectors of society, including in business, academic, and governments.
 * in World Development Report, 2012

8. Voice and Agency*
 “It’s particularly encouraging to see that progress has been made in
some of the poorest countries in sub Saharan Africa and South Asia
where girls enrolment rates compared to boys was lowest 15 years
ago. There’s still a lot more to be done in secondary education
where girls are still less likely to enrol in school than boys in some
regions – for example sub-Saharan Africa and South and West
Asia…..There has also been progress on legislation. Seventy five
countries have enacted domestic violence legislation since the
adoption of CEDAW in 1979…International commitments to
gender equality are also increasing The World Bank documents
nearly $39bn of gender informed lending in fiscal year 2014 and
OECD countries contributed nearly $26bn in aid towards gender
equality.”
 (Lucia Hanmer, lead economist, Gender Group, World Bank).

9. “Women need to be treated as equals”
 Paul Healey, Head of Profession Social Development of the UK’s
Department of International Development, has argued also over the
importance of agency.
 “If society does not treat women as equal – they won’t be”
(19/09/2014)
 Criticisms of the concept in development studies

10. Challenges to gender equality: understanding
progress and barriers
 Gender equality matters. Why?:
 Promotes economic growth
 Because it enhances productivity and improves development outcomes
for the next generation
 It can also make institutions more representative of a range of voices
(World Development Report, 2012)
 Despite being a worldwide problem, gender inequality manifests itself
more persistently in poor societies with strong anti-female bias (Sen,
1999, 194-195).
 Sen (1999) sees a correlation between high levels of education for
women and employment with the reduction of fertility rates.
 I.e. Countries with basic gender inequality – India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, China, Iran, West Asia and North Africa – often have
higher female mortality of infants and children (Sen, 1999).

11. Equality and democracy: why does it matter?*
 Historical perspectives:
 Western concept of citizenship originated in the fifth century BC in
Athens, with the exclusion of women remaining unchallenged until the
late 18th
century (Einhorn, 2013, 29)
 Political equality started to emerge in the 17th
century as a challenge to
hereditary monarchs
 The 19th
century saw battles for universal suffrage and against the
property qualifications of citizenship
 Similarly to the struggles of the African-American civil rights
movements in the US in the 1960’s, voting rights were only conceded
to women with a lot of reluctance in the first half of the 20th
century
(Philips, 1999)
 Democracies thus are accused of holding a thin promise of political
equality and popular participation, but, as many scholars note, no
country in the world has managed to live up fully to its ideals (i.e.
Blaug and Schwarzmantel, 2000)
 * Philips (1999)

12. Feminist theory and citizenship
 Ideas on the “inferiority” of women and their place in society - the
distinction between the private and the public worlds (mind-body)
 During the 1980s and early 1990s, feminist political theorists criticised
the theorists of citizenship, especially the notion of the “universal
citizen”, seen as exclusively male (Einhorn, 2013, 30).
 Criticisms to universal definitions of citizenship:
 According to scholars like Philips (2010) and Young (1990) , the
problem with looking for a core humanity behind all the differences of
class, gender and so forth leads to equating equality with sameness,
leaving untouched inequalities in power.
 Iris Marion Young in Justice and Difference has argued for the need to
“acknowledge our differences but also to highlight our similarities as
human beings who behave justly to members of all races.” (in Matos,
2012, 147)

13. Equality and democracy: why does it matter?*
 From J. S. Mill to Habermas:
 Relationship between democracy, equality and social inclusion:
 The quality of democratic decision-making depends on sustained
conditions of dialogue, deliberation and talk
 There has also been a rejection of an understanding of political equality
as merely the right to vote
 Notable, the underrepresentation of women and ethnic minorities
threatens the democratic vitality of democratic decision-making.
 Thus democratic struggle is above all about expanding the space for
the inclusion of a wider citizen body, avoiding exclusions based on
property, gender, race or ethnicity
 * Philips (1999) and Matos (2012)

14. Women’s rights and the relationship between
economic and political equality
 Philips (1999, 16) sees an important relationship between political and
economic equality
 The author views the pursuit of economic equality as having been
abandoned, whilst there has been a growth in concerns with political
and civil rights and of egalitarianism
 Here political equality is understood not only as the right to participate
in politics, but includes a deeper notion of equal intrinsic worth; Thus
political equality is understood in a broader sense, as encompassing
social or cultural equality.
 However, it can be argued that the pursuit of wider economic equality
has returned to global agenda

15. The gender and equity debate in the UN:
historical perspectives
 The United Nations has been instrumental in the recognition of the
importance of women’s rights and gender equality globally
 Late 1960’s and 1970’s – The UN’s Commission on the Status of
Women (CSW) produced two important documents, the Declaration
on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (DEDAW,
1967) and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW, 1979)
 Documents set new standards with which to measure progress in how
governments engaged with women and gave them a template to follow.
 However, a recent report presented by the UN’s Secretary-General Ban
Ki-Moon in March 2015 underlined that it will take 81 years for full
gender parity to be reached in the economy, and 50 for equality in
parliamentary representation.

16. Advancements and frustrations: the UN
debates
 The executive-director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka,
pointed out a disappointing gap between the norms and the
implementation of Beijing’s Platform for Action, signed by 189
countries in 1995.
 There seems to have been little progress in the elimination of
discriminatory laws and the approval of legislation against violence
directed to women and girls.
 Women are still seen as having the worse jobs, and the gender income
gap is seen as being present in all countries throughout the world
 I.e. In Brazil, which together with other countries in Latin America has
been signalled out by organisations such as the Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC – UN
2004) for having advanced equality, a women’s salary in 2013 was
40.5% less than the man’s

17. The UN and women’s rights*
 The UN inscribed equality between men and women into its founding
texts, creating a separate human rights body exclusively for women
 After being founded in 1945, the UN advocated that women be given
full political suffrage worldwide.
 In 1952, the General Assembly adopted the Convention on Political
Rights for Women, in order to implement the principle of equality of
rights contained in the Charter of the United Nations.
 A View from the South - From 1956 to 1963, the new member states
admitted to the UN were developing countries. Women who
represented the developing countries also struggled against the colonial
rule.
 Equality for women became transposed into the debates on
development. * (Jain, 2005)

18. Advancing women’s rights and recognition of
gender discrimination worldwide*
 In 1950, the CSW began working with other agencies to collect data
about employed women and to strategize about how to improve work
opportunities and create policies that would result in equal pay
 The commission’s research over two decades outlined the problems
that women around the world faced, mainly inequality and
discrimination in education and employment.
 In 1967, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the
Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (DEDAW).
 Discrimination was perceived to be based on “difference”, as is the
case of religious or ethnic minorities, stigmatized groups or those for
reasons of class differentiation are deprived of opportunities for
advancement.

19. Definition of gender discrimination
Discrimination was seen as the key barrier to enhancing
women’s status. *(Jain, 2005)
Reeves and Baden (2000, 7), from the Institute of
Development Studies, have defined discrimination as
being “the systematic, unfavourable treatment of
individuals on the basis of their gender, which denies
them rights, opportunities or resources.”

20. Equality versus discrimination
 Some analysts see equality and non-discrimination as formulations
of the same principle. Achievement of equality thus meant the removal
of discriminatory treatment of women vis-à-vis men
 As Reeves and Baden (2007) further note, women’s lack of
representation and voice in decision making bodies in the
community perpetuates discrimination.
 The role of the state in advancing gender equality:
 As Norris (1993) has argued, the role of political parties in advancing
gender equality cannot be ignored.
 I.e. Feminists who entered the Italian parties, such as the Democratic
Left, were active in forcing the implementation of party initiatives
favouring women’s concerns. This happened also with British Labour
Party and the German Social Democratic party during the 1980s.

21. Gender politics and electoral systems: women in politics
worldwide (in Norris, 1993; Matos, 2012)
 As Lovenduski (in Norris, 1993) argues, during the 1960s and 1970s
many second wave feminists were cynical about political institutions.
During the 1980s, support for getting more women into politics grew.
Feminists started to become active members of political parties.
 Paradox: women have started to occupy positions of high office
throughout the world (i.e. Hillary Clinton, Angela Merkel, Dilma
Rousseff), but discriminatory towards the “ordinary women” persists
 Rise of female leadership in Latin America: Panama elected a
woman president in 2003, Mireya Moscoso (1999-2004), and soon
afterwards Chile and Argentina followed by electing the former
president Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010) and Cristina Kirchner
(2007), wife of previous president Nestor Kirchner (2003-2007) and
Dilma Rousseff.

22. Gender politics and electoral systems: women in
politics worldwide (in Norris, 1993; Matos, 2012)
 Women’s issues were brought to the political agenda, and these have
included demands for policies to secure sex equality in employment,
equality in childcare, reproductive rights and family policies.
 One of their main aims has been to secure changes in attitudes. As the
authors note, demands for women’s representation have been
successful in Scandinavia.
 In Norway, the challenge to attitudes was particularly successful. I.e.
At least 40% of the members of every Norwegian government since
1986 have been women.
 Progress in the UK - The UK 2015 elections made more women MPs
than ever, after 190 women were elected. Over 30% of all MPs are
women, up from 23% (there were 148 out of a total of 650).

23. The role of the state and political parties in
boosting gender equality
 In a time when globalization has been seen as reducing the power of
nation-states, it is still evident across the world, historically as well as
now, that the state and governments have an important role to play here
in securing that women can exercise their citizenship rights
 Seen as one of the countries in Europe with the lowest female political
representation, the UK in the 2015 elections made some significant
gains. Compared to 2010, or even 1997, there are now a series of
influential women party leaders, i.e. Harriet Harman (Labour Party),
Caroline Lucas (Greens) and Nicola Sturgeon (Scottish National Party)
 Both Central and Eastern Europe, and Western countries, after the II
World War implemented top-down and bottom-up policies,
respectively, aimed at achieving gender-equal citizenship rights and
integrating women in the marketplace (Einhorn, 2013, 32).

24. The countries where gender equality has advanced -
Gender equality Index: World Economic Forum
 The Global Gender Gap Index 2012
 According to the report, out of the 111 countries covered in 2006-2012,
88% have improved in their performance, while 12% have widening
gaps.
 In some countries, progress is occurring slow, regardless of whether
they are starting out near the top or the bottom of the rankings, and
independent of their income.
 Countries such as Iceland, Bolivia, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia,
Lesotho, Yemen and others have made much progress relative to their
own situation in 2006
 Latin America has also made some progress: surveys have shown that
women’s economic participation increased significantly in the 1990s,
as did political participation, but women still face higher levels of
unemployment than men.

25. The Global Gender Gap Index 2012
Iceland 1
Finland 2
Norway 3
Sweden 4
Ireland 5
New Zealand 6
Denmark 7
Phillipines 8
Nicaragua 9
Switzerland 10
Netherlands 11
Belgium 12
Germany 13

26. How to achieve wider gender equality*
 The need to tackle persistent patterns of inequalities and
discrimination:
 * Income growth by itself does not deliver greater gender equality by
itself. Where gender gaps have closed, it is because of how markets
and have functioned and evolved (i.e. opening new employment
opportunities for women)
 * Gender gaps persist where girls and women face other disadvantages,
such as in poorer countries. These disparities are larger when poverty
combines with other forms of exclusion, such as ethnicity and class
 * Markets, institutions and households can combine to limit progress.
Gender gaps in productivity are driven by deep-seated gender
differences in time use, in rights of ownership, etc.
 * Globalization can help, connecting women to markets and economic
opportunities (* World Development Report 2012 – The World Bank)

27. UK government and the gender
pay gap
Sky News – Pay Women More
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUITlPXFL9Q

28. Conclusions and questions for thought
 Women have come a long way since gaining political rights and the
vote, but various forms of discrimination and traditional attitudes
persist worldwide
 As well as international bodies, the state has (and had) a role in
legislating in favour of gender equality
 Gender quotas in political parties have helped women advance, but
there are limits
 Female bosses and a few women in high office does not directly
translate either in more opportunities for women in the workplace
 Gender equality is not only important for citizenship and social justice,
but for economic growth
 What are the barriers still for wider gender inequality?
 How can women change social institutions and attitudes?

29. Selected bibliography
 Einhorn, B. (2013) “Citizenship” in Evans, M. et al (eds.) Gender – the key concepts,
London: Routledge
 Jain, D. (2005) Women, development and the UN – a 60 year quest for equality and
justice, Bloomington: Indiana University Press
 Lovenduski, J. and Norris, P. (1993) Gender and party politics, London: Sage
Publications
 Mill, J. S (1997) The Subjection of Women, Dover Publications
 Philips, A. (1999) Which equalities matter?, London: Polity Press
 Wollstonecraft, M. (1996) The Vindication of the Rights of Women, Dover Publications
 Young, I. (1990) Justice and the Politics of Difference, Princeton Press
 Reports
 The Atlas of Gender and Development – How Social Norms Affect Gender Equality in
non-OECD countries (2010)
 The Global Gender Gap Index and World Development Report 2012 – The World Bank
 Voice and Agency 2014 (World Bank)