Publication

This paper examines the role that transnational women’s NGOs played in the 1990s in the creation and implementation of international agreements related to reproductive and sexual rights. The author concludes that feminist groups have had a major impact in shifting dominant discourses in a direction that puts the ends of women’s health and empowerment above that of reducing population growth. Still the paper finds that the translation of this discursive shift into effective policies and programs has been limited by global economic processes, religious and cultural forces and by internal divisions and strategic short-sightedness among the women’s groups themselves.