Two conventional wisdoms dominate debates about why women's rights advance in some places but not others. While culture and religion are understood to be the primary barriers to gender equality, efforts by international institutions and women's groups to change social norms are often seen as the most effective way to reduce discrimination. This book introduces a third, often overlooked explanation - the core rights framework - to account for how, where, and why women's rights advance. It argues that female labor force participation and education serve as building blocks, or core rights, for the advancement of other women's rights. Cultivating core rights is believed to spur group consciousness, ease collective action problems, and render women in a politically relevant group, thereby increasing the prospects that women's rights are represented in the polity. In examining the advancement of women's rights across four major areas - political, nationality, reproductive, and property rights - this book shows that the conventional wisdom about the role of international norms and culture is usually overstated and often incomplete. It also presents systematic evidence evaluating the effectiveness of different prescriptions for improving women's lives across a broad range of rights.

About the Author
Feryal M. Cherif is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Loyola Marymount University.

Reviews
"Myths about Women's Rights is the rare, truly transformative book that changes how we think. Feryal Cherif's book is a masterful study, a true tour de force that offers deep insights into how to understand the actual implementation of women's rights and human rights more broadly. She shows us that core domestic values are considerably more decisive factors than treaty signing and other forms of lip-service. Cherif's data, theory, and rigorous tests identify general and robust results that lead to important practical policy prescriptions for advancing real rights. If you want to understand and advance women's rights then you absolutely must read this book." --Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Julius Silver Professor of Politics and Director of the Alexander Hamilton Center for Political Economy at NYU "Myths about Women's Rights: How, Where, and Why Rights Advance is an important and highly readable book on women's human rights. Bringing together theoretical perspectives, statistical analysis and case studies, Dr. Cherif provides a nuanced and systematic investigation of the significance of core rights in advancing gender equality and women's rights. This book is a significant contribution to the discipline of human rights. " --Clair Apodaca, Virginia Tech



Book Information
ISBN 9780190211172
Author Feryal M. Cherif
Format Hardback
Page Count 296
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 522g
Dimensions(mm) 163mm * 234mm * 25mm