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Women’s Legal Agency in Colonial and Post-Colonial Contexts: Implications for Gender-Responsive Governance in the United States

Identification

Clé publique

doi:10.65150/ep-jsshrs/v2e8/2026-02

Auteurs

Rosemary Effiong Akpan

Année déclarée

2026

Langue déclarée

en

Type source

article

Première détection

2026-11-09T19:04:47.907212+00:00

Dernière observation des métadonnées

2026-11-09T19:04:47.907212+00:00

Dernière vérification HTTP

Non effectuée

Institutions déclarées par la source

Marquette University

Pays d’affiliation déclarés

US

Résumé documentaire — langue originale

In the United States (U.S.), women’s legal and political positioning in contemporary governance is shaped by historical processes rooted in colonial and settler-colonial rule. These histories produced legal systems organized around racial hierarchy, patriarchal authority, and gendered exclusions that continue to influence access to power, rights, and political participation. Understanding women’s legal agency therefore requires an approach that situates present conditions within their historical and institutional origins. This review found that many precolonial societies recognized women’s authority through collective leadership, relational governance structures, and community-based decision-making. These systems were disrupted through the imposition of Eurocentric legal norms, Christian patriarchal ideology, and colonial political economies. Colonial law and early U.S. jurisprudence formalized women’s exclusion from political life, restricted legal personhood, and entrenched structural barriers to governance participation. Contemporary mechanisms of control persist through gendered violence, reproductive governance, epistemic marginalization, and fragmented accountability structures, with particularly severe effects on Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and structurally marginalized women. Dominant gender governance frameworks continue to privilege technocratic and Western forms of knowledge, often sidelining Indigenous, experiential, and community-based epistemologies. Women’s agency is expressed through collective organization, community governance, legal mobilization, and decolonial feminist leadership, which challenge dominant models of authority and generate alternative forms of political participation and leadership. The findings indicate that gender-responsive governance cannot be achieved through formal inclusion alone. It requires structural reform, institutional accountability, and the integration of decolonial feminist approaches into governance design in order to advance substantive equality and democratic legitimacy in the U.S.

Identifiants

OPENALEX

W7172487684

DOI

10.65150/ep-jsshrs/v2e8/2026-02

Repères documentaires

Famille documentaire

Doctrine

Types déclarés par les sources

article

Juridictions étudiées — sources explicites

US

Les mentions d’entités ne constituent pas une preuve de reconnaissance juridique. La juridiction étudiée est distincte du pays d’affiliation des auteurs.

Sources

OpenAlex · Document 1 · Document 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.65150/ep-jsshrs/v2e8/2026-02
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W7172487684

Statut documentaire

Pertinence à examiner

Bibliothèque

Cette identité n’est pas encore intégrée à la Bibliothèque juridique.