Chairs:

• Eleonora Bottini
• Alma Beltrán y Puga
• Imer B. Flores
• María Daniela Díaz Villamil

As Catherine MacKinnon reminds us, “historically, constitutions have been made almost exclusively by men—and it shows.” Feminist movements have sought to change this reality, making the role of gender in constitutional change one of the most dynamic issues in contemporary constitutionalism. Around the world, feminist legal claims and social movements have emerged as key actors in shaping both the process and the substance of constitutional change, whether through formal amendment procedures or through new constitution-making processes. From France’s 2024 adoption of a constitutional guarantee of abortion freedom to Chile’s attempts to enshrine gender parity and inclusivity as foundational principles of a new constitutional order, these developments highlight how struggles for gender equality seek not only to secure specific rights for women and sexual minorities but also to redefine the very grammar and content of constitutional law.

This workshop invites discussion of comparative perspectives on how feminist movements and gender-based claims interact with constitutional change. We also welcome work employing historical and qualitative methodologies to analyze the dynamics of social movements, gender equality, and constitutional reform. In addition, the workshop seeks to promote debates on the influence of feminist thought and methodologies in constitutional legal education. Finally, although the workshop aims to map constitutional change projects from a global perspective, we encourage abstracts that promote transnational dialogues—not only between the Global North and South, but also within the scholarship of the Global South itself.

Among the cross-cutting questions guiding these inquiries, we propose: Are we witnessing a new constitutional paradigm in which gender inclusion becomes a structural principle of modern constitutions? How have feminist movements mobilized constitutional law to secure fundamental rights and transform social institutions? What forms of resistance have they encountered, and what lessons can be drawn from different contexts?

We welcome contributions from a broad range of geographical, methodological, and theoretical perspectives, including but not limited to:

• The 2024 French constitutional revision and its implications for reproductive rights in Europe.
• Gender parity and inclusion reforms in Chile’s constitutional processes (2021–2023).
• The impact of the post-Dobbs era in the United States and state-level constitutional amendments on reproductive rights.
• Feminist strategies in litigation and social mobilization to drive constitutional change, including the Green Wave in Latin America.
• The 2024 European Citizens’ Initiative and its consequences for the role of the European Commission in shaping future legislation.
• Constitutional reforms in Mexico that strengthened gender equality and parity, leading to a presidential election primarily between two women candidates and resulting in the country’s first woman president in 2024.
• Advisory Opinion No. 31 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on the human right to care—with its three dimensions: caring, being cared for, and self-care—and its constitutional impacts within and beyond Latin America.
• Comparative experiences of the constitutionalization of gender equality, parity, the right to care, sexual and reproductive rights, and the inclusion of minorities.
• The backlash against gender-sensitive constitutional reforms and its implications for democratic legitimacy.
• Theoretical reflections on whether feminist movements have fundamentally changed how constitutions are imagined, drafted, and amended in the twenty-first century.
• Feminist pedagogies that promote transformative approaches to teaching constitutional law.

By bringing together case studies and diverse conceptual approaches, we aim to map the intersection of gender, social movements, and constitutional law within a rapidly evolving global landscape.