Gender Justice, Citizenship and Development

Here, formal citizenship is understood as the relationship between the state and the citizen, whereas substantive citizenship is that which goes beyond the confines of formal politics and law to encompass the economic, social and political relationship between social groups and structures of power that mediate the standing of individuals in the polity. [...] In subordinating these relationships to the power of the colonial state, the codification of practices Gender Justice, Citizenship and Development 9 and the construction of religious and customary law were used as instruments for defining the specificities of particular groups. [...] Since the state is one of the key social actors involved in the construction of citizenship and gender justice, its power to affect changes in gender relations and to promote formal and substantive equality is dependant Gender Justice, Citizenship and Development 11 on the extent to which the state in question is autonomous of kin-based structures in society. [...] The essay shows that the constitution of gendered rights and privileges can be read off from the basic contracts (formal or implicit) that shape membership in a range of social institutions—the family, the community, the market, the state, and the institutions of establishment religion. [...] Therefore, the terms and conditions of membership of national communities, the entitlements and obligations of citizens, become part of the debate on the meaning of gender justice.