How world conferences matter

The dissertation examines how the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) affected national women's movements in China and India from 1993 to 2000. The comparative case study illustrates when and how a routine international political event could have a major impact on domestic mobilization. The impacts were the result of a conjuncture of (1) antecedent shifts in domestic policy contexts that disrupted the domestic political opportunity structure in which each movement could employ their historically evolved repertoire of gender advocacy and (2) state enthusiasm toward the FWCW, which allowed each movement to draw on the international event to reinstate key elements in the disrupted domestic political opportunity structure. Consequently, the Platform for Action (PFA), the international policy agenda for gender equality adopted by the FWCW in 1995, also took on different meanings for the two movements. The Chinese movement embraced the PFA, arguing that it correctly identified the cause of gender inequality and its solution. In contrast, the Indian movement rejected the PFA, claiming that it incorrectly identified both the cause of gender inequality and its solution. The process also resulted in more formal organizations in the Chinese movement than in its Indian counterpart.