CEDAW and Culture: Contesting the Script of Hegemonic Masculinity in Coming to Birth by Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye

Abstract

This paper flows from the domain of literature to that of policy and presumes a contiguous relationship between the history and literature especially as concerns social justice and human rights agenda. Through a reading of narrative closure of a novel, the paper offers an overview of the challenges involved in deconstructing cultural scripts around marriage and motherhood in order to achieve the full objectives of CEDAW. Specifically the paper looks at how these challenges are represented in the literary medium and argues that such representations mirror the terrain that policy makers have to navigate as they look into ways of realizing CEDAW’s goals. It demonstrates that it is difficult to cut loose from the script of gender discrimination by deploying the same narratives that have been used by masculinity and patriarchy to render discrimination tacit and normative.