Across the globe, a growing number of social movements, such as demonstrations in support of equal civil status or reproductive freedom and against sexualized violence, show that women's and gender rights are highly contested. Against the backdrop of a long history of unequal rights implementation, the contributors to this volume deal with the questions of why and in which ways gender equality has become contested in various political contexts. Local case studies examine the relevant structural, institutional, and socio-cultural causes of the global challenges to equality. This book follows an interdisciplinary approach and unites scholars from law, linguistics, cultural studies, history, social sciences, and gender studies in diverse contexts.

Alexandra Scheele is university lecturer for economic sociology and the sociology of work at Universität Bielefeld's Faculty of Sociology. She is member of the editorial board of the Femina Politica. Zeitschrift für feministische Politikwissenschaft. Julia Roth is a professor of American studies with a focus on gender studies and director of the Center for InterAmerican Studies (CIAS) at Universität Bielefeld, where she is also PI of the graduate school 'Experiencing Gender'. Her research interests are gender approaches, intersectionality theorising, gender and citizenship, right-wing populism and gender, migrant knowledges and new feminist movements. Heidemarie Winkel is a professor of sociology at Universität Bielefeld and senior research associate at the VHI/St. Edmund's College, Cambridge University (UK). She is a member of the editorial board of the ZRGP (Journal for Religion, Society and Politics) and is PI of the graduate school 'Experiencing Gender' at Universität Bielefeld.