Women's Rights and Public Confidence: The Connection Between International Human Rights Norms and Public Confidence in Women's Organizations

Since the UN Declaration of Human Rights in 1949, human rights has been a constant concern. Women, in particular, are particular objects of distress in that they still face the most inequality globally. Despite the need for better women's rights, public confidence in women's organizations is varied widely. This paper explains the variations in public confidence of women's organizations. I argue that the variation in confidence is a function of the state's level of internalization of international norms of basic women's rights. This paper uses the Convention to End Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as the foundation for international women's rights. For the empirical analysis, I utilize CIRI data that operationalizes CEDAW through aspects of women's political and economic rights and measures of public confidence in women's organizations featured in the World Values Survey. This paper hopes to find a strong correlation between CEDAW scales of human rights and levels of confidence in women's organizations.