Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia
Thirty five years have lapsed since the first United Nations World Conference on Women in 1975 acknowledged women's rights and gender equality as critical components in addressing social equality and justice within the international community and by national governments. Since then, women's movements, both globally and locally have lobbied governments and stakeholders in society to take active steps to overcome all forms of discrimination against women. With slow progress and many challenges in the initial stages, the United Nations in the early 1990s introduced the strategy of ‘gender mainstreaming' so that governments and organisations could implement more effective and transformational programmes to counter the diluted versions of projects which merely ‘integrate women' in the development process.
Despite these notable efforts gender inequalities continue to persist and could even worsen during this period of unstable political and economic environment. Gender mainstreaming has been criticised as being ineffective in providing redress in the face of gender injustices. The 2010 Asia-Pacific Human Report (UNDP, 2010) which fore-grounded gender equality as its main theme noted that "in every country across Asia and the Pacific, pervasive gender inequality remains a barrier to progress, justice and social stability". It underscored the point that despite growth in the region, gender inequality has cut even deeper for poorer and marginalised groups.
We currently live in a period of crisis, uncertainty and possibly, epochal changes. Social and gender justice has been stalled as the period of neo-liberal globalisation saw a shift from the politics of redistribution to that of recognition, with a focus on identity and difference rather than social solidarity based on justice and respect (Fraser, 2003). Can and should the two struggles be reconciled? What would be the implications on power relations of various social forces in society - from those based on class to those groups organised under the banner of ethnicity, culture, gender and sexuality to name but a few? How can one demand justice from the state, one which is mediated by different elements, and within different political contexts - from democratic to authoritarian regimes?
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