Constitutional Transformation and Gender Equality: The Case of the Post-Arab Uprisings North African Constitutions

Abstract

Abstract The recognition of gender equality has become one of the most important trends in contemporary constitutional law. Nonetheless, a crucial question lingers: is it leading to material constitutional transformation? In order to better understand it, this article presents a case study on the constitutional reconfigurations undergone in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt after the Arab uprisings. The main vectors of constitutional change are identified from a descriptive-analytical perspective. Even if they kept idiosyncratic elements of persistent discrimination, the new charters were inserted in the globalised trends of constitutional design, bringing about a strong formal expansion of gender equality rights. On the whole, however, little material progress has been made. This suboptimal material transformation is explained by means of research arguments framed in legal evolutionist theories. Finally, the article elucidates why the greater constitutional verbosity in the recognition of gender equality did not translate into greater parity.