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.