Women and Multilateralism: BRICS and the Global South in Focus

This paper critically examines multilateralism through a feminist and Global South lens, arguing that while multilateral institutions remain essential for peace, development, and global cooperation, they are deeply shaped by patriarchal, state-centric, and neoliberal structures. Tracing the historical exclusion of women and the Global South from post World War II multilateral frameworks such as the UN and Bretton Woods institutions, the paper highlights how these bodies continue to marginalise feminist perspectives and reproduce unequal power relations. Drawing on feminist scholarship, historical analysis, and contemporary case studiesincluding BRICS, G20 South Africa, and regional groupings such as ASEAN, the African Union, and CELAC the paper explores women's sustained struggles for representation, voice, and accountability within multilateral spaces. It argues for a feminist ecological multilateralism rooted in care, justice, redistribution, and inclusion, positioning women of the Global South as critical agents in reimagining global governance beyond domination, extractivism, and exclusion.

DIGITAL RESOURCES

Author(s): Anuradha Chenoy
Date Published:
Author(s) Region of Origin: Asia
Language: English

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