Women's Rights to Social Security and Social Protection

From a women's rights perspective, this collection examines the human right to social security and social protection. The book's contributors stress the need to address women's poverty and exclusion within a human rights' framework that takes account of gender. The chapters unpack the rights to social security and protection and their relationship to human rights principles, such as gender equality, participation, and dignity. Alongside conceptual insights across the field of women's social security rights, the collection analyzes recent developments in international law and in a range of national settings. It considers the International Labor Organization's Social Protection Floors Recommendation and the work of UN treaty bodies. The book explores the different approaches to expansion of social protection in developing countries (China, Chile, and Bolivia). It also discusses conditionality in cash transfer programs, a central debate in social policy and development. Contributions consider the position of poor women, particularly single mothers, in developed countries (the US, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and Spain) facing the damaging consequences of welfare cuts. The book engages with shifts in global discourse on the role of social policy and the ways in which ideas of crisis and austerity have been used to undermine rights with harsh impacts on women. (Series: Onati International Series in Law and Society)

Beth Goldblatt is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology, Sydney.Lucie Lamarche is Professor in the Faculty of Political Science and Law at the University of Quebec in Montreal.