Defying Convention US Resistance to the UN Treaty on Women's Rights Problems of International Politics Series

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) articulates what has now become a global norm. CEDAW establishes the moral, civic, and political equality of women; women's right to be free from discrimination and violence; and the responsibility of governments to take positive action to achieve these goals. The United States is not among the 187 countries that have ratified the treaty. To explain why the United States has not ratified CEDAW, this book highlights the emergence of the treaty in the context of the Cold War, the deeply partisan nature of women's rights issues in the United States, and basic disagreements about how human rights treaties work.

1. Introduction; 2. A scaffolding for women's rights, 1945–70; 3. Geopolitics and the drafting of CEDAW; 4. An evolving global norm of women's rights; 5. CEDAW impact: process, not policy; 6. Why the United States has not ratified CEDAW; 7. CEDAW and domestic violence law in the United States?; 8. Conclusions.

Lisa Baldez is Associate Professor of Government and Chair of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies at Dartmouth College. She holds a BA from Princeton University and a PhD from the University of California, San Diego. She is the author of Why Women Protest: Women's Movements in Chile (Cambridge, 2002) and the co-editor of Political Women and American Democracy (Cambridge, 2008). Her articles have appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Latin American Politics and Society, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and the Journal of Legal Studies. She and Karen Beckwith co-founded the journal Politics and Gender.