Dissertation Information

My dissertation examines how international organizations that work on reproductive issues assess advocacy and goals in relation to how they are inclusive of local and/or diverse views and women in interpreting universal reproductive rights’ norms. I utilize neo-institutionalism and feminist theories of globalization to compare and contrast the organizations along with human rights, gender, demography and reproduction literatures. I implement a multi-method qualitative approach, including participant observation at United Nations’ meetings, in-depth interviews with organizational representatives and content analysis of organizations’ websites. I have four main findings. First, not all organizations that work on reproductive issues are self-defined “gender” or “feminist” organizations. Second, organizations have multiple sources of legitimacy, which affects how they do their work and how inclusive they are of local and/or diverse views. Third, organizations must make trade-offs between universality and inclusivity in their work as no organization can be completely inclusive of all women. Fourth, even though some organizations are more inclusive than others, this does not mean that they do not add to the reproductive rights agenda, as we need organizations that both work pragmatically on immediate problems such as HIV/AIDs and organizations that work to change how the world views human and reproductive rights by including more voices.

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