Considers whether and how constitutions have affirmed women's equal citizenship status, from the birth of constitutionalism to the present.

In this landmark book, the historian Linda K. Kerber opens up this important and neglected subject for the first time. She begins during the Revolution, when married women did not have the same obligation as their husbands to be "patriots," and ends in the present, when men and women still have different obligations to serve in the armed forces.

Citizenship is the common language for expressing aspirations to democratic and egalitarian ideals of inclusion, participation and civic membership. However, there continues to be a significant gap between formal commitments to gender equality and equal citizenship - in the laws and constitutions of many countries, as well as in international human rights documents - and the reality of women's lives. This volume presents a collection of original works that examine this persisting inequality through the lens of citizenship. Distinguished scholars in law, political science and women's studies investigate the many dimensions of women's equal citizenship, including constitutional citizenship, democratic citizenship, social citizenship, sexual and reproductive citizenship and global citizenship. Gender Equality takes stock of the progress toward - and remaining impediments to - securing equal citizenship for women, develops strategies for pursuing that goal and identifies new questions that will shape further inquiries.

Constitutions and gender is a new and exciting field, attracting scholarly attention and influencing practice around the world. This timely handbook features contributions from leading pioneers and younger scholars, applying a gendered lens to constitution-making and design, constitutional practice and citizenship, and constitutional challenges to gender equality rights and values. It offers a gendered perspective on the constitutional text and record of multiple jurisdictions, from the long-established, to the world’s newly emerging democracies. Constitutions and Gender portrays a profound shift in our understanding of what constitutions stand for and what they do.

That a constitution should express the will of 'the people' is a long-standing principle, but the identity of 'the people' has historically been narrow. Women, in particular, were not included. A shift, however, has recently occurred. Women's participation in constitution-making is now recognised as a democratic right. Women's demands to have their voices heard in both the processes of constitution-making and the text of their country's constitution, are gaining recognition. Campaigning for inclusion in their country's constitution-making, women have adopted innovative strategies to express their constitutional aspirations. This collection offers, for the first time, comprehensive case studies of women's campaigns for constitutional equality in nine different countries that have undergone constitutional transformations in the 'participatory era'. Against a richly-contextualised historical and political background, each charts the actions and strategies of women participants, both formal and informal, and records their successes, failures and continuing hopes for constitutional equality.

One of the major issues this book examines is what the African experience and identity have contributed to the debate on citizenship in the era of globalisation. The volume presents case studies of different African contexts, illustrating the gendered aspects of citizenship as experienced by African men and women. Citizenship carries manifold gendered aspects and given the distinct gender roles and responsibilities, globalisation affects citizenship in different ways. It further examines new forms of citizenship emerging from the current era dominated by a neoliberal focus. The book is not exclusive in terms of theorisation but its focus on African contexts, with an in-depth analysis taking into consideration local culture and practices and their implications for citizenship, provides a good foundation for further scholarly work on gender and citizenship in Africa.