Extending Citizenship: Cultural Citizenship and Sexuality

In recent years various writers have critiqued both historical and contemporary accounts of citizenship for failing to acknowledge the gendered nature of citizenship. Feminist analyses in particular have examined the relationship between concepts of citizenship and gender, pointing out how, despite claims to universality, a particular version of the normal citizen/subject is encoded in dominant discourses of citizenship (Lister, 1990, 1996; Phillips, 1991; Walby, 1994; Williams, 1998). Just as women were excluded from the classic concept of citizenship, so too in contemporary accounts the paradigmatic citizen is male (Wilton, 1995). This has, in turn, prompted discussion about how gender can be integrated into citizenship. Much of this debate is focused around the question of ...