Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives

Front Cover
NYU Press, 2003 - Political Science - 323 pages

The second edition of this classic text substantially revises and extends the original, takes account of theoretical and policy developments, and enhances its international scope. Drawing on a range of disciplines and literatures, the book provides an unusually broad account of citizenship. It recasts traditional thinking about the concept and pinpoints important theoretical issues and their political and policy implications for women. Themes of inclusion and exclusion (at national and international levels), rights and participation, inequality and difference, are thus all brought to the fore in the development of a woman-friendly, gender-inclusive, theory and praxis of citizenship. Wide-ranging, stimulating and accessible, this is a ground-breaking book that provides new insights for both theory and policy.

 

Contents

What is Citizenship?
13
An essentially contested concept
14
Citizenship as rights
16
Citizenship as general obligation
19
Citizenship as political obligation
24
A critical synthesis
34
Conclusion
42
Inclusion or Exclusion?
43
PrivatePublic the Barriers to Citizenship
119
Autonomy undermined or promoted at the publicprivate intersection
125
The sexual division of labour responsibility and time
130
The economic key to womens citizenship
138
Conclusion
141
Womens Political Citizenship Different and Equal
143
The masculine sphere of formal politics
144
The feminine sphere of informal politics
145

Inclusionexclusion
44
The age of migration
45
The nationstate under pressure
52
Beyond the nationstate?
55
Shifting the boundaries of exclusioninclusion
64
Conclusion
66
A Differentiated Universalism
68
Diversity division and difference
73
The challenge of diversity and difference for citizenship
79
Living with the tension between the universal and particular
88
Conclusion
92
Beyond Dichotomy
93
A genderneutral or genderdifferentiated citizenship?
94
Beyond equality vs difference
96
Beyond an ethic of justice vs an ethic of care
101
Independence autonomy and interdependence
106
Across the binary divides
115
Conclusion
116
Across the PublicPrivate Divide Policy Practice and Politics
117
A different politics?
147
A more inclusive formal politics
153
towards a womanfriendly political citizenship
165
Womens Social Citizenship Earning and Caring
167
Women as actors on the political stage of the welfare state
168
The two sides of the welfare state for womens social citizenship
170
Gendered welfare regimes and the state
172
Who is a social citizen?
175
Shifting the sexual division of labour
178
The balance of public and private responsibility for care
182
the case of lone parents
190
Conclusion
194
Towards a Feminist Theory and Praxis of Citizenship
195
A feminist citizenship praxis
199
Notes and References
203
Bibliography
249
Author Index
314
Subject Index
316
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

Ruth Lister is Professor of Social Policy at Loughsborough University in England. She was formerly Director of the Child Poverty Action Group.