Women’s Empowerment and Its Limits

Bringing together a range of scholarship, this edited volume investigates the limits and boundaries of women’s empowerment toward shaping sustainability by unpacking power relationships that affect women’s inclusive citizenship; analyzing concrete examples of limits across different regions; and exploring the rise of new technological innovations that may (or may not) contribute to dissolve those limits. Chapters focus on different dimensions related disempowerment (such as historical, cultural, socio-economic, and normative) to frame a new understanding of how achieving equality around the world. Integrating transnational and interdisciplinary perspectives at domestic and international levels, this book looks at ways to provide new opportunities for removing invisible and visible barriers to ensure gender parity and to make sustainable change irreversible.

This book will be of interest to scholars, students, and policymakers across Law, Sociology, Gender Studies, Politics,and Economics.

This book is an excellent contribution to the literature on women’s empowerment and development. It takes seriously its claim to be both interdisciplinary and transnational including contributions from perspectives often overlooked. The startling set back to women’s empowerment witnessed during the Covid19 pandemic is brilliantly covered. I strongly recommend this book to all scholars interested in gender equality and development.

– Elspeth Guild, School of Law, Queen Mary University of London

“In no area of life can sustainability be fully achieved if half of the population is left behind. Women’s empowerment is, thus, a crucial precondition for any viable concept of sustainability. The book casts light on many different forms that such empowerment can take on, helpfully combining general analyses with concrete case studies. It will easily find readers among scholars in international relations, international law or sustainability theories as well as among all other readers interested in the future of our common world."

–Veronika Bílková, Department of Public International Law, Faculty of Law, Charles University, Prague

"A book of great importance in the context of academic studies on gender equality, focused on interesting and original topics, consistently analysed from a multidisciplinary perspective and with a gendered approach"

– Adele Del Guercio, Department of Human and Social Sciences, International Law at University of Naples L'Orientale.

Elisa Fornalé is Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Professor at the World Trade Institute in Bern, Switzerland, where she leads the SNSF Project Gender Equality in the Mirror. She is the Co-Rapporteur of the ILA Committee on Sea Level Rise and International Law). Her main research includes international migration law, human rights and climate change.

Federica Cristani is a senior researcher at the Centre for International Law of the Institute of International Relations in Prague (CZ) and Visiting Senior Researcher at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland (FI). She is also Co-Chair of the Coordinating Committee of the Interest Group on International Economic Law of the European Society of International Law (ESIL). Her main research interests include international economic law and international law of cyberspace.