Questions of gender, injustice and equality pervade all our lives, and as such, the capabilities or 'human development' approach to understanding well-being and basic political entitlements continues to be debated. In this thought-provoking book, a range of authors provide their unique reflections on the capabilities approach and, specifically, Martha C. Nussbaum's contributions to issues of gender, equality and political liberalism. Moreover, they tackle a broad range of development issues, including those of religion, ecological justice, social justice, child care, disability and poverty. This is the first book to examine Nussbaum's work in political philosophy in such depth, bringing together a group of distinguished experts with diverse disciplinary perspectives. It also features a unique contribution from Nussbaum herself, in which she offers reactions to the discussion and her latest thoughts on the capabilities approach. Capabilities, Gender, Equality will interest a wide-range of readers and policy-makers interested in new human development policies.

Preface Introduction: capabilities, challenges, and the omnipresence of political liberalism Martha Nussbaum Part I. The Capabilities Approach: 1. Perfectionist liberalism and political liberalism Martha Nussbaum 2. Rawlsian social-contract theory and the severely disabled Henry S. Richardson 3. Logos, pathos and ethos in Martha Nussbaum's capabilities approach to human development Des Gasper 4. Building capabilities: a new paradigm for human development Flavio Comim 5. Capabilities or functionings? Anatomy of a debate Marc Fleurbaey 6. From humans to all of life: Nussbaum's transformation of dignity Jeremy Bendik-Keymer Part II. Gender: 7. Questioning the gender-based division of labour: the contribution of the capabilities approach to feminist economics Ulrike Knoblock 8. Primary goods, capabilities, and the millennium development target for gender equity in education Elaine Unterhalter and Harry Brighouse 9. The weight of institutions on women's capabilities: how far can microfinance help? Muriel Gilardone, Isabelle Guerin and Jane Palier 10. The capabilities of women: towards an alternative framework for development Santosh Mehrotra 11. Applying the capabilities approach to disability, poverty, and gender Patricia Saleeby 12. Educational transformation, gender justice and Nussbaum's capabilities Melanie Walker 13. The social contract, unpaid child care and women's income capability Hilde Bojer Part III. Equality: 14. Lists and thresholds: comparing the Doyal-Gough theory of human need with Nussbaum's capabilities approach Ian Gough 15. Nussbaum, Rawls, and the ecological limits of justice: using capability ceilings to resolve capability conflicts Breena Holland 16. Social justice and Nussbaum's concept of the person John M. Alexander 17. God and Martha Nussbaum: towards a reformed Christian view of capabilities Jonathan Warner Index