Remaking Citizenship in Multicultural Europe: Women’s Movements, Gender and Diversity

Abstract

At a time when many are once more hoping that collective action by citizens might change the world for the better, this book turns our gaze on the difference that collective action by women has made to the landscape of contemporary citizenship. Over the past 40 years, women’s movements have radically transformed many of the laws and policies, and the public and personal practices of everyday life, that constitute our experiences of social and political inclusion and belonging. Inspired by feminist practice and theory, the book offers an expanded conceptualization of citizenship that is rooted in the challenges posed by women’s movements to all aspects of life — political, social, economic, cultural, bodily and intimate. It traces the ways in which women’s movements have been remaking citizenship in multicultural Europe, highlighting some of the most significant shifts that might be attributed to them. But, attending also to the vicissitudes and complexities of struggles for full, gender-fair citizenship, it argues that there is still much to be achieved, particularly for women from minoritized and racialized groups. Citizenship may be a political and scholarly buzzword, but citizenship also serves as a real ‘passport’ to rights and recognition, inclusion and belonging. The effects of citizenship affect us all.

How has citizenship been challenged and transformed by the collective action of women in recent decades? What difference have women’s movements made to the laws, policies and everyday lived experiences of citizenship? How might feminist practice and feminist theory combine to better grasp the gendered and racialized complexities of citizenship in an increasingly multicultural, diverse and unequal Europe? How can we assess the current state of citizenship in Europe from the perspective of women, particularly minoritized women? And is citizenship really a useful concept for feminist politics anyway?