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Call for Papers: Feminist Legal Studies at Queen's University

By Lawrence Solum

QUEEN?S UNIVERSITY
FEMINIST LEGAL STUDIES
Call for papers for workshop on
Women and Equality ? Gender-based Analysis, Law, and Economic Rights
Sex equality in the twenty-first century

Long before the 2008 global economic crisis occurred, women in large economies began to see the promise of equality eroding. ?Crisis? policies have done nothing to reverse that trend. A decade ago, Canada and the US were ranked first and third on the UN gender-related development index; by 2009, they had already fallen to fourth and nineteenth respectively, and are ranked even lower on equality-specific indexes (e.g., 25 and 31 on the World Economic Forum index, 74 and 105 on the UN gender disparity measure). Similar patterns can be seen in the UK and many European countries.

At the same time, countries such as South Africa continue to demonstrate that ?feminism works? as they accelerate their movement toward increased sex equality. For women in those countries, the question is still ?when will women achieve equality?? But for growing numbers of women, the question is now becoming ?will women ever achieve equality??

This workshop will examine current developments affecting the status of women with particular concern for legal, economic, and equality rights. What roles do race, immigration status, Aboriginal heritage, education, family composition, and other factors play in shaping the current issues facing women? Can specific roadblocks to the attainment of further equality be identified? Are there better policies that governments can enact? What role have neoliberal, neoconservative, and economic ?crisis? politics played? Can international obligations such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women counter sexist politics? And what impact are emerging environmental, security, budgetary, and regulatory issues having on women as compared with men and across class and race lines?

Call for papers:
This workshop invites paper and panel submissions on equality issues grounded in law, public policy, economic rights, international and transnational gender studies, foreign affairs, health/medicine, women?s studies, and other multidisciplinary studies.

Date and location:
The conference will be held at Queen?s University Faculty of Law, Kingston, Ont. on Saturday October 23, 2010, with an informal reception/discussion on Friday evening.

Submitting paper topics:
If you are interested in presenting a paper at this conference, or in organizing a panel on specific issues, please email your proposal and a short description to Bita Amani at amanib@queensu.ca or Kathleen Lahey at kal2@queensu.ca. This can be sent any time until approximately September 25, 2010. Participation is being confirmed on a rolling basis.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on August 30, 2010 (boomark / email).