Did she choose that?’ Or, more normatively, ‘Why would she choose that?’ This book critiques and offers an alternative to these questions, which have traditionally framed law and policy discussions circulating around controversial genderized practices. It examines the simplicity and incompleteness of choice-based rhetoric and of presumptions that women’s conduct is shaped, in an absolute way, either by choice or by coercion. This book develops an analytical framework that aims to discern the meaning and value that women may ascribe to morally ambiguous practices. An analysis of law’s approach to polygamy, surrogacy and sex work, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, provides a basis for evaluating the choice-coercion binary and for contemplating alternate modes for assessing, from a law and policy standpoint, the palatability of social practices that appear pernicious to women. Weaving together interdisciplinary research, an innovative analytical framework for assessing choices ostensibly harmful to women, and a critique of the legal rules governing such choices, this book bears relevance for students, scholars, practicing jurists and policymakers seeking a richer understanding of conduct that moves women to the margins of law and society.
The ways in which gender is central to the occurrence, detection and prevention of elder abuse are analyzed in this volume. Drawing on their own research, the authors identify the gendered nature of elder abuse in the following areas: most of the very elderly victims are women; in both domestic and institutional settings, women abuse women; a significant number of older women are abused by their sons; a significant number of older men are abused by their female partners and daughters; and abuse by nonrelatives and noncarers of both sexes occurs. Gender Issues in Elder Abuse considers why much of the research on elder abuse has failed to engage with these facts. The authors call for a reframing of the issue of elder abuse, specifically in professional guidelines for dealing with abuse, which they insist, should include gender awareness. They argue for elder abuse to be considered as a human rights issue rather than a private problem.
Using her experience of living under apartheid and witnessing its downfall and the subsequent creation of new governments in South Africa, the author examines and compares gender inequality in societies undergoing political and economic transformation. By applying this process of legal transformation as a paradigm, the author applies this model to Afghanistan. These two societies serve as counterpoints through which the book engages, in a nuanced and novel way, with the many broader issues that flow from the attempts in newly democratic societies to give effect to the promise of gender equality. Developing the idea of ‘conditional interdependence’, the book suggests a new approach based on the communitarian values which underpin newly democratic societies and would allow women’s rights to gain momentum and reap greater benefits. Broad in its thematic approach, the book generates challenging and complex questions about the achievement of gender equality. It will be of interest to academics interested in gender and human rights, international and comparative law.
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