ABSTRACT
The past several decades have brought worldwide agendas about rights and
justice to the forefront of international policy debates. Throughout the 1990s, UN
conferences reflected these areas in opening space for discourse on issues such as
women’s rights and the environment. While the economic and political crises of
the new millennium have slowed the pace of commitments to the pursuit of
equality for all, debates about how best to promote equality and justice continue
with increasing awareness at local, national and global levels that gender theory
and policy is critical in alleviating poverty and promoting economic growth. These
features of the global context led to ‘Gender Justice and Development: Local and
Global’ as the theme for the biennial conference of the Ninth International
Development Ethics Association (IDEA) hosted 911 June 2011 at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, USA, at which about 100 papers were presented by
participants from around the world. This special issue of Ethics and Social Welfare
collects a small number of the conference papers, many of which were keynote
addresses and all of which address the theme of Gender Justice. The authors
reflect diverse theoretical, conceptual, empirical and practical perspectives
from research areas that include the humanities, social sciences, law and policy. The theme, ‘Gender Justice and Development: Local and Global’, is especially
timely with recent trends toward diminishment of social welfare and social
justice, continuing oppression of women and increasing attention to global
issues. In addition to discussions of ethics, values and principles this issue covers
practical applications and highlights the at times tragic real-world problems
resulting from lack of gender justice locally and globally. The authors in this issue
offer new ways of thinking for a discourse to reduce discrimination against
women, to strengthen communities toward sustainability and development and
to promote caring relationships among people within and across borders even
while some nations are reducing supports toward these ends.