The Women’s Convention, Reproductive Rights, and the Reproduction of Gender

This article looks at the effects of ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on reproductive rights. The article describes CEDAW’s broad prohibition against the reproduction of gender including sexual division of labour based on biological differences which some feminist scholars have identifies as the bedrock for women’s subordination. The article also explains why the denial of reproductive rights reproduces gender hierarchy. The article looks at how this plays out transnationally by state and non-state actors. The article looks at the arguments of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Professors Sylvia Law, Reva Siegel and others who argue that reproductive rights should be grounded in equality rather than privacy. The article also discusses opposing views concerning whether CEDAW is abortion neutral.