ABSTRACT
Introduction Women’s rights, including women’s reproductive rights, did not require a globalized world to be marginalized in national law and society. Violations of the rights of women were very well and widely tolerated before the connectivity and mobility of globalization were so pervasive. Women’s subordination as mothers, as workers, as members of households and as decision-makers about sex and reproduction has a long history. But has globalization made it harder to apply human rights protections and promote human rights norms with respect to these forms of subordination (particularly looking at the Global South experience versus that of the Global North), or has globalization enhanced women’s opportunities for realizing rights related to motherhood and work? Do the forms of globalized motherhood described in this volume exemplify gender-based subordination deepened by globalized realities, and might they also represent opportunities for bringing global rights violators to account?
