Introduction

This chapter explains women's invisibility in theories of how politics is done and highlights the continuity between the international and domestic spheres of politics. The package of United Nations (UN) gender norms is presented with a view to establishing how these can be made useful for women pursuing political agenda-setting after the genocide in Rwanda. A transnational women's movement (TWM) emerged that influenced our perception that women's rights are human rights. The idea of a TWM acknowledges the cooperation between women working from within and from outside governance institutions to effect change on behalf of women. It is made-up of various forms of organizing by women, such as national and transnational issue networks, local women's organizations and professionalized Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs). The parallel NGO conferences during the summit series are credited with opening-up the space of international politics to a wider circle of women than those nominated by their governments.