Translating International Women's Rights

This book looks at the centerpiece of the international women’s rights discourse, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and asks to what extent it affects the lives of women worldwide. Rather than assuming a trickle-down effect, the author discusses specific methods which have made CEDAW resonate. These methods include attempts to influence the international level by clarifying the meaning of women’s rights and strengthening the Convention’s monitoring procedure, and building connections between international and domestic contexts that enable diverse actors to engage with CEDAW. This analysis shows that while the Convention has worldwide impact, this impact is fundamentally dependent on context-specific values and agency. Hence, rather than thinking of women’s rights exclusively as normative content, Zwingel suggests to see them as in process. This book will especially appeal to students and scholars interested in transnational feminism and gender and global governance.

“Zwingel’s authoritative treatment of the CEDAW convention from a social science perspective fills a gaping hole in the literature on feminist international governance. It confirms her as the foremost expert on the politics of CEDAW with a deep knowledge of not only the text and its legal ramifications, but also of all that went into producing it, the contestations around it as it has matured, and the uses it has been put to in different contexts. Engagingly written and based on deeply considered conceptualizations, the book brings to life an understudied key instrument of global feminist politics.” (Elisabeth Prügl, Professor of International Relations, Graduate Institute, Switzerland)

“This compelling and meticulous in-depth study of the evolution and impact of CEDAW demonstrates the potential of international norms to become instruments of social transformation and gender justice. It brings theoretical insight and empirical rigour to address the question: how far can international norms like CEDAW reach? This book breaks new ground and greatly enhances our understanding of the relevance of global gender equality mechanisms and the crucial work of “norm translation” activists who “stitch together” international women’s rights discourse and contextualised practice on the ground. An innovative and important intervention.” (Fiona Mackay, Professor of Politics, University of Edinburgh, UK)

Susanne Zwingel is Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University, USA. Her research areas include women’s human rights and their translation, global governance and gender, and feminist and post-colonial theories. She is co-editor of Feminist Strategies in International Governance (with E. Prügl and G. Caglar, 2013).