Dilemmas in engendering Citizenship

The ungendered nature of much of mainstream literature on citizenship is, by now, well established. The articla review some of the mai dilemmas associated with development of a feminist conception of citizenship in relation to both republic an and social rights formulations. Among the questions it poses are: how useful is a concept associatedwith the nation-state as a time when the nation-state is becoming less pivotal economically and politically and when migration and asylum-seeking are on the increase? Can a concept based on the ideal of universality adequately take a account of difference and diversity? Can women - and different groups of women - be successfully incorporated into a status originally predicated on thie exclusion? Is the aim a gender-neutral or a gender-differentiated notion of citizenship,or does te answer lie in a gdndered, woman-friendly conception of citizenship which represents a synthesis of the two? The process of synthesis is seen as key in resolving these dilemmas.Nevertheless, an a;ppreciation of the differences within and of the interdependence between binary categories must not be at the expenseof a gendered analysis of the power relations which still underpin these categories and which thereby serve to perpetuate women's exile as a group from full citizenship.