gender and justice in multicultural liberal states feb 2007

[...]... negotiation and compromise-based solutions INTERNAL MINORITIES AND DEMOCRATIC AGENCY The terms ‘internal minorities’ and ‘minorities within minorities’ are increas` ingly used to describe the position of vulnerable individuals or groups vis-avis more powerful members within cultural communities.37 Whether we are talking about Aboriginal women subject to discriminatory membership rules, or Catholic gays and. .. ‘attentive to how majority and minority cultures interact in hierarchy-reinforcing ways’, and mindful of the fact that ‘[m]ajority norms and practices also pose obstacles to the pursuit of gender equality within minority cultures’.32 Cultural conXicts about identities and practices may thus arise in response to new legal and political institutions that impact cultural arrangements in contentious ways The... examples may seem unique to the states in which they arise, these kinds of tensions are, arguably, likely to increase in scope and occurrence with eVorts to expand cultural rights and protections in liberal democracies Political theorists can help to illuminate the points of friction between cultural group norms and liberal democratic principles, and suggest some ways of mediating these We can also draw... name of protecting internal minorities—saving groups from themselves, as it were—that this heavy-handed approach to legislating against minority practices is advocated.11 Liberals such as Joseph Raz explicitly invoke the language of toleration, citing concerns about the harm of internal minorities to justify state restrictions against illiberal minorities But Raz, like other comprehensive liberals, also... Barry, Kymlicka, and Okin, all of whom have urged renewed assertion of liberal principles of individual equality and personal autonomy in the face of nonliberal cultural practices, adopt such a juridical approach to conXicts of culture.15 In practical terms, these thinkers support a strategy of reinforcing legislation that protects individual rights, including sex equality rights, and rejecting exemptions... religious schooling that only prepares girls for traditional lives Within both national minority and immigrant communities, the spectrum of vulnerable individuals is thus quite broad, and might include religious minorities within the group, gays and lesbians, individuals who resist particular conventions, and girls and women in general Against this political backdrop, calls by cultural minority groups... Gutmann (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992); Avigail Eisenberg, ‘Diversity and Equality: Three Approaches to Cultural and Sexual DiVerence’, Journal of Political Philosophy, 11/1 (2003), 41–64; and Spinner-Halev, ‘Feminism, Multiculturalism, Oppression.’ 36 Merry, ‘Changing Rights, Changing Culture’, p 46 37 See Green, ‘Internal Minorities and their Rights’, and Eisenberg and Spinner-Halev,... practices and foster broader inclusion of citizens in political deliberation and decision-making processes—particularly vulnerable members of already marginalized cultural and religious communities Crucially, this shift goes beyond merely including diverse citizens in existing political institutions; it requires that we expand our understanding of what constitutes democratic political activity, and proliferate... arrangements, and social activities and aYliations can have for citizens’ equality and political standing, we redeWne our understanding of democratic expression and contestation With this expanded conception of democratic activity in mind, I develop a deliberative democratic approach to evaluating and reforming cultural group practices which cause internal disputes or which conXict with the liberal constitutional... resolving disputes about the value and status of cultural practices will require that female members of cultural groups have a voice in evaluating and deciding the fate of their communities’ customs, both by including women in formal decision-making processes and developing new, more inclusive, forums for mediating cultural disputes.7 To accomplish this greater enfranchisement of women in both formal and . class="bi x0 y0 w0 h0" alt="" GENDER AND JUSTICE IN MULTICULTURAL LIBERAL STATES This page intentionally left blank Gender and Justice in Multicultural Liberal States MONIQUE DEVEAUX 1 3 Great. 1995), and Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Citizenship (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001); Okin, ‘Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?’; and Okin, ‘Feminism and Multiculturalism:. to writing in 2001; Williams College, for funding from the Class of 1945 World Fellowship, which made it possible to conduct interviews in Britain in 2001 and South Africa in early 2002, and for