Forester 1 CEDAW, Citizenship and Family Law: Judging the Efficacy of International Treaties on State Level Policies Summer Forester Ph.D. Student Department of Political Science | Purdue University September 2, 2014 Abstract: The way in which international treaties influence state level policies has been widely debated in both the policy and international relations fields. I weigh in on this subject by examining the effects of ratifying the Convention to End Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on women’s domestic citizenship status. Specifically, in my project, I evaluate the relationship between CEDAW ratification and family law policies—a proxy for women’s citizenship status, to show the mechanisms whereby the international treaty elicits state level policy change. I use a large-N analysis to determine the generalizability of my theory, and juxtapose this with a case study of Jordan to illustrate the causal mechanisms involved in the policy change process. I argue that international treaties instigate domestic policy change by influencing domestic legal processes, altering national policy agendas, and legitimizing political mobilization. In conclusion, this project, by closely examining these causal mechanisms, sheds new light on the rarely acknowledged issue of CEDAW ratification on women’s civil, political, and social citizenship status. Preliminary working paper. Please do not cite without author’s permission.