by CAROLE PATEMAN
If we look back over the past century, there have been very many improvements in women’s social and economic position and in their political, legal and civil standing since 1911. Nevertheless, the question can still be raised whether women today are full citizens in any country of the world.
How this question is answered, of course, depends on what “full citizenship” is taken to mean. The suffrage is the emblem of citizenship and if that is taken as the measure, the contrast with 1911 is very marked. A century ago women were part of only three national electorates: New Zealand, Australia and Finland. In 2011 the right to vote is almost universal – the vast majority of women and men now take part in their countries’ elections – with Saudi Arabia still being a notable exception. However, important and necessary though it is, the right to vote is only one part of citizenship.
Other basic political and legal rights are also required; if citizenship is to be more than formal, if it is to be meaningful in everyday life and of equal worth to all citizens, then every individual has to be accepted on an equal footing as a participant in all areas of social and political life. Citizens must all be seen as, and accepted as, equal members of their polities in a substantive rather than merely a formal sense. It can be argued that citizenship is not just a problem for women; not all men are full and equal members of their polities either. Poor men and men from a variety of racial and ethnic groups are pushed to the margins or persecuted in many countries of the world. But women are faced with some specific problems about citizenship, although some of the matters I shall discuss are also relevant to men.
The contrast with 1911 is not nearly so dramatic if aspects of citizenship other than the suffrage are considered. Many problems that existed a century ago are still with us, albeit in a very different context.
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