Part II Ideas, Ch.19 Gender in Constitutions

Constitutions found nations, define states, and ground and bind governments.1 Largely absent from official constituting processes and decisive interpretations until recently—flags of democracy flying notwithstanding—have been the voices and concerns of women,2 a group that comprises over half of most populations worldwide. Historically, constitutions have been almost exclusively man-made, and it shows. Women and men are socially organized as such—into sexes—by cultures that attribute that designation and assignment to the biology of their sex. Gender is the social...