This collection examines the human rights to social security and social protection from a women's rights perspective. The contributors stress the need to address women's poverty and exclusion within a human rights framework that takes account of gender. The chapters unpack the rights to social security and protection and their relationship to human rights principles such as gender equality, participation and dignity. Alongside conceptual insights across the field of women's social security rights, the collection analyses recent developments in international law and in a range of national settings. It considers the ILO's Social Protection Floors Recommendation and the work of UN treaty bodies. It explores the different approaches to expansion of social protection in developing countries (China, Chile and Bolivia). It also discusses conditionality in cash transfer programmes, a central debate in social policy and development, through a gender lens. Contributors consider the position of poor women, particularly single mothers, in developed countries (Australia, Canada, the United States, Ireland and Spain) facing the damaging consequences of welfare cuts. The collection engages with shifts in global discourse on the role of social policy and the way in which ideas of crisis and austerity have been used to undermine rights with harsh impacts on women.

1. Introduction: Interpreting and Advancing Women's Rightsto Social Security and Social Protection Beth Goldblatt and Lucie LamarchePART I: GENDER TRANSFORMATION:EQUALITY AND PARTICIPATION2. Engendering Social Welfare Rights Sandra Fredman3. Participatory Inclusion and Women's Rights to Social Security Hester LessardPART II: GENDER, POVERTY AND RIGHTSIN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE4. Unpacking the ILO's Social Protection Floor Recommendationfrom a Women's Rights Perspective Lucie Lamarche5. Social Protection in China: Is there a Gender Equality Problem? Mankui Li6. Evaluating Reforms for Bolivian Women's Rightsto Social Security and Social ProtectionLorena Ossio Bustillos7. Recent Coverage Developments in Social SecurityProtection for Chilean Women Pablo Arellano OrtizPART III: MARKETS, EMPLOYMENT AND WELFARE:POOR WOMEN IN RICH COUNTRIES8. Rethinking Social Protection Beyond Waged Work:A United States Perspective Lucy A Williams9. Human Capital and the Post-Scripting of Women's Poverty Janet E Mosher10. What Would an Engendered Human Rights Approach to SocialSecurity Mean for Sole Parents in Australia? Belinda SmithPART IV: CRISIS AND AUSTERITY: SHAPING WOMEN'SRIGHTS TO SOCIAL SECURITY11. Gendering the Right to Social Security in the Era of CrisisGovernance: The Need for Transformative Strategies Dianne Otto12. A Gendered Right to Social Security and Decent Work?The Debate in the Context of Irish Austerity Mary P Murphy and Camille Loftus13. Testing Women's Right to Social Security In Australia:A Poor Score Beth Goldblatt14. Mainstreaming Gender in Spanish Labour and PensionReforms and in European Social Policies Núria Pumar Beltrán