Conclusion: Towards a Feminist Theory and Praxis of Citizenship

Abstract

In the Introduction I posed a two-fold question: whether a concept, originally predicated on the very exclusion of women can be reformulated so as satisfactorily to include (and not simply) append them; and in doing so, whether it can give full recognition to the different and shifting identities which women simultaneously hold. In other words, is the very idea of a ‘woman-friendly citizenship’ contradictory both because citizenship is inherently woman-unfriendly and because the category ‘woman’ itself represents a false universalism which replicates that of traditional constructions of citizenship? When I started working on the issue of women’s citizenship I was unsure as to the answer I would reach. As will have become clear, and perhaps unsurprisingly having committed myself to a book on the subject, my conclusion is that it is possible to conceive of a woman-friendly conceptualisation of citizenship at both the theoretical and policy level. Citizenship, I believe, provides an invaluable strategic theoretical concept for the analysis of women’s subordination and a potentially powerful political weapon in the struggle against it. Moreover, it throws a searching light on difference, despite its universalist roots.