Making the law work for women: Standard-setting through a new Gender Legislative Index

Abstract

This article is premised on the fact that every area of law needs a gender perspective. It discusses the prospects for a Gender Legislative Index, a tool to enable us to evaluate and score legislation, by placing laws on a scale from gender-regressive to gender-responsive, when set against global benchmarks from international law – primarily CEDAW. In doing so, this article defines and defends the need for gender-responsive legislation, showing how a common set of standards for global good practice can be developed and the shortcomings, but also advantages, of an online tool to benchmark, score and rank laws.