The Global Promotion of Gender Equality -- A Propaganda Approach

In: Human rights review: HRR, Band 5, Heft 3, S. 103-116

Abstract

This paper proposes a new way of measuring progress in international politics, an approach that focuses on the symbolic & ideological work of international organizations. Although such a strategy is not entirely new to the study of International Relations, it has not been a common, accessible way of assessing how well international organizations work to effect change. The more famous methods have been legalistic -- investigations of how international organizations have created new international law in the issue-areas under investigation -- & bureaucratic -- studies of how international organizations create machinery to deal with the problems. But in a world where domestic & international discourse is more mediated than ever before by television, radio, the Internet, newspapers, & other means of mass communication, the argument here is that propaganda is a third arena that must be taken into account when exploring the work of international organizations. The international organization in question here is the United Nations, & the issue area examined is gender equality, a topic that is also variously described as "women's rights," "women's issues," or the "women's movement." The paper explains first why the topic of the UN & women's rights is important, I then examine the propaganda role of the UN in the struggle for gender equality, & the paper concludes with a critical analysis of the UN's propaganda work in relation to this issue. Adapted from the source document.