Gender and Global Justice by Alison M. Jaggar

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I'm not going to lie.  This book was a higher level than I should have been reading on the subject.  I dabble with books here and there on women's studies.  And this one, describing the global impact, sounded interesting to me.  However, upon reading it, it is clearly a book that should be used in a higher level college class, and not something for a novice starting out in the studies.

Gender and Global Justice contains short essays on a few topics relating to gender inequality and global justice.  Global justice is an actual concept defined as "Global justice is an issue in political philosophy arising from the concern that the world at large is unjust."  Specifically this book looks at global injustice and how disparity between the genders continues to fuel injustice in the realms of care-giving, taxation, and work issues.  The chapters are broken into Transnational Cycles of Gendered Vulnerability, Transnational Women's Collectivities and Global Justice, The Moral Harm of Migrant Carework, Transnational Rights and Wrongs: Moral Geographies of Gender and Migration, Global Gender Injustice and Mental Disorders, Discourses of Sexual Violence in a Global Context, Reforming Our Taxation Arrangements to Promote Global Gender Justice, and Gender Injustice and the Resource Curse.

As said before, the overall tone of this book was textbook.  It was circular and the use of jargon so widespread that several times I'd think I was reading the same concept over and over in the paragraphs of the chapter as it didn't seem to go in a logical procession, but merely mixed up the words to spit the same idea out to me again.  Buzzwords abounded and combined with the jargon, anyone who isn't an expert in the field might have trouble following.  That being said, I'm sure if your studies to center around this topic this is probably a great book to read for short essays on these views.

I did enjoy some chapters more than others.  Particularly, Discourses of Sexual Violence in a Global Context, was full of good information and thoughts on the concept of consent and the definition of sexual violence and rape.  It was written quite a bit more clearly than some of the other topics which made it more approachable to the average reader.  It was surprising to see how the concept of consent can actually harm women in addition to helping them in cases of sexual violence.  Global Gender Injustice and Mental Disorders, while short, also was a more absorbing read, and again, not so full of jargon that the average person can understand.  The disparity between the sexes on depression and anxiety was surprising, as was the occurrence of post-partum depression in economically poor countries.

There's definitely good information in this book, but it is going to be unapproachable for most readers.  I can't say I would recommend it for anyone unless they have done extensive study on global justice, economics, or women's studies.

Gender and Global Justice
Copyright 2014
223 pages

Review by M. Reynard 2014