Politics of Women's Rights in Family Law: Religion, the State, and the Barriers to Reform

Abstract

Sex discrimination in property rights, marriage and divorce, inheritance, and parenting thwarts women’s quest for equal rights, violates international conventions, and contradicts many national constitutions. While many countries have reformed family and personal status laws to promote equality, dozens continue to enforce discriminatory provisions. What explains variation in the degree of sex equality in family law? Analyzing an original dataset of family law in 70 countries between 1975 and 2005, we show that the degree of sex equality reflects the degree to which political institutions uphold religious authority. The mutual reinforcement of political and ecclesiastical power renders state law and religious doctrine more resistant to challenge and change, obstructing the struggle for reforms demanded by feminist movements and implied by international conventions such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). These dynamics are particularly acute in nations with high levels of societal religiosity (though on its own, religiosity does not provide much explanatory leverage). The prospects for future reform are not dismal, however. Evidence is emerging that women’s movements, international feminist networks and conventions, and women in government can overcome the barriers to change, especially when they work to reform religion from within.