Gender Inequality, Structural Injustice, and Political Responsibility

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Abstract In Chapter 14, ‘Gender Inequality, Structural Injustice, and Political Responsibility’, Serena Parekh argues that there is a philosophical basis for the claim that states can be held responsible for structural injustices relating to gender discrimination and violence. Parekh argues that this claim can be detected in international human-rights discourses but that such a claim has not gained much normative force. Part of the problem is that women’s rights violations often take place in the private sphere and are committed by non-state actors. Parekh’s analysis draws on Iris Marion Young’s notion of a forward-looking political responsibility that seeks not to find fault with the state for past wrongs but rather encourages the state to address future injustices. Despite Young’s suspicions that the state is inadequately equipped to address structural injustice, Parekh argues that it is able to take up political responsibility in a more systematic way than individuals can. Indeed, international women’s rights documents have recognized this—for instance, Article 5 of the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) demands states take responsibility for the root causes of violence and discrimination against women, including beliefs, customs, and attitudes surrounding women’s inferiority. Parekh concludes by arguing that the state ought to readjust its focus from cataloguing abuses to changing the conditions of society in such a way that human-rights violations are less likely to occur in the first place.