ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author aims to describe and evaluate how women are placed within the major citizenship traditions in western societies. She focuses on the issue of participation and uses the Netherlands as her case-study. Citizenship discourses give various meanings to the term ‘participation’. In the bureaucratic decision-making bodies women’s participation is lower than in the political ones. Within classical liberalism citizenship is a status that provides equal civil and political rights to all those who are granted the title of citizen. The discourse of liberal citizenship is limited further by its premises regarding women’s participation. The author explores the ideas on (women’s) participation developed in the major citizenship traditions of liberalism, Marxism, communitarianism and republicanism, as well as in the feminist variations on each. She examines both the internal logic of each tradition and current Dutch debates on citizenship. The author aims to evaluate the citizenship traditions and provides some further thoughts on women’s participation and citizenship.
