In Search of Gender Justice

Focusing on Malawi, Johnson proposes a shift in emphasis to gender justice as an alternative to human and women's rights.

Johnson here calls for a shift in focus from human rights to justice in the study of gender relations as she examines the stories of ordinary Malawians striving to resolve disputes and achieve successful gender and marital relations.What might gender justice look like in matrilineal Malawi? Ideas about gender and human rights have exerted considerable influence over African policy makers and civil society organisations in recent years, and Malawi is no exception. There, concerted efforts at civic education have made the concepts of human and women's rights widely accessible to the rural poor, albeit in modified form. In this book, Jessica Johnson listens to the voices of ordinary Malawian citizens as they strive to resolve disputes and achieve successful gender and marital relations. Through nuanced ethnographic description of aspirations for gender and marital relationships; extended analysis of dispute resolution processes; and an examination of the ways in which the approaches of chiefs, police officers and magistrates intersect, this study puts relationships between law, custom, rights, and justice under the spotlight.