ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines what a feminist framework might be and then uses the perspective to analyse feminist engagements with the theory and practice of democratization. It assesses the nature and outcomes of democratization debates and initiatives from a gendered perspective. Feminists argued that public political life was built upon the absence of women from it; that the exclusion of the private sphere was essential for the primacy of the public. Feminists have theorized on democracy with regard to the meta-framework of patriarchy. Feminist insights have insisted upon de-mythologizing an ‘essential woman’ through the study of difference – between men and women and among women – as a theoretical strategy that underpins women’s struggles for empowerment. Feminist scholars have long challenged the view that there is a positive correlation between political and economic liberalization. Feminists’ interventions in struggles for democratization have alerted them to viewing democratization as a context-bound process.
