The Gendered Politics of Belonging

Development summary

Cassadee Orinthia Yan’s The Gendered Politics of Belonging examines how nationality laws across the world translate patriarchal power into hierarchies of citizenship. Drawing on South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Africa, the Americas and Europe, it shows how rules on descent, marriage, religion and race shape who may transmit nationality, who may be excluded, and whose belonging remains conditional. The book argues that these regimes do not merely reflect “tradition” or “culture”; they produce second-class citizenship and, in many settings, people who are formally or functionally stateless.