Summary

In an increasingly globalized world of collapsing economic borders and extending formal political and legal equality rights, active citizenship has the potential to expand as well as deepen. At the same time, with the rise of neo-liberalism, welfare state retrenchment, decline of state employment, re-privatization and the rising gap between rich and poor, the economic, social and political citizenship rights of certain categories of people are increasingly curtailed. This book examines the complexity of citizenship in historical and contemporary contexts. It draws on empirical research from a range of countries, contexts and approaches in addressing women and citizenship in a global/local world and covers a selection of diverse issues, both present and past, to include immigration, ethnicity, class, nationality, political and economic participation, institutions and the private and public spheres. This rich collection informs our understanding of the pitfalls and possibilities for women in the persistence and changes within the contours of citizenship.