By Dyan Mazurana and Anne Bonds. 2000. Peace & Conflict, 6, 4, 325-332.
Our commentary focuses on feminist insights into concepts of equality, citizenship, democracy, and political discourse and how such a perspective may raise issues and questions not considered by Johnson and Johnson’s (this issue) theoretical model for civil political discourse. To illustrate our points, we draw on a number of cases from around the world to highlight some of the obstacles and challenges women face as they try to participate in civil political discourse. We argue that unless the real external influences that limit women’s ability to equally participate are addressed within a model of civil political discourse, in the end, such a model only will reinforce inequality.