WHY WOMEN AND INTERNATIONAL LAW?

Abstract

This is the first chapter in the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Women and International Law. 

This Chapter discusses both the challenges and opportunities inherent in creating and compiling an Oxford Handbook on Women and International Law, as well as the contributions of the Handbook to existing literature. Among the challenges are determining who are the women we chose to study, unpacking women as a category, and evaluating the costs and benefits of focusing on international law’s norms and institutions as a locus for emancipatory change for women. The Chapter explains the Handbook’s contributions to both broadening and deepening our understanding of the complex relationship between women and international law.  It includes the voices of women who participate directly in the machinery of international law-making, enriching more quantitatively oriented work describing gender imbalance in the field, adding interdisciplinary perspectives, and highlighting international law actors who have received little scholarly attention. Its chapters examine various domains of international law, including those that remain understudied from a feminist or gendered perspective, drawing innovative connections between women and international law, and formulating new analytical tools for understanding the reach and potential of international law, while also considering emerging threats to equality. The Handbook brings together a diverse set of theorists to provide a range of perspective examining the challenges that girls, women, and queer and feminist approaches raise to prevailing understandings of international law and institutions.   

Keywords: Women, International Law and Institutions, Feminist Approaches to International Law