Karen Beckwith – författare

Historically, men have been more likely to be appointed to governing cabinets, but gendered patterns of appointment vary cross-nationally, and women's inclusion in cabinets has grown significantly over time. This book breaks new theoretical ground by conceiving of cabinet formation as a gendered, iterative process governed by rules that empower and constrain presidents and prime ministers in the criteria they use to make appointments. Political actors use their agency to interpret and exploit ambiguity in rules to deviate from past practices of appointing mostly men. When they do so, they create different opportunities for men and women to be selected, explaining why some democracies have appointed more women to cabinet than others. Importantly, this dynamic produces new rules about women's inclusion and, as this book explains, the emergence of a concrete floor, defined as a minimum number of women who must be appointed to a cabinet to ensure its legitimacy.Drawing on in-depth analyses of seven countries (Australia, Canada, Chile, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and elite interviews, media data, and autobiographies of cabinet members, Cabinets, Ministers, and Gender offers a cross-time, cross-national study of the gendered process of cabinet formation.

Historically, men have been more likely to be appointed to governing cabinets, but gendered patterns of appointment vary cross-nationally, and women's inclusion in cabinets has grown significantly over time. This book breaks new theoretical ground by conceiving of cabinet formation as a gendered, iterative process governed by rules that empower and constrain presidents and prime ministers in the criteria they use to make appointments. Political actors use their agency to interpret and exploit ambiguity in rules to deviate from past practices of appointing mostly men. When they do so, they create different opportunities for men and women to be selected, explaining why some democracies have appointed more women to cabinet than others. Importantly, this dynamic produces new rules about women's inclusion and, as this book explains, the emergence of a concrete floor, defined as a minimum number of women who must be appointed to a cabinet to ensure its legitimacy.Drawing on in-depth analyses of seven countries (Australia, Canada, Chile, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and elite interviews, media data, and autobiographies of cabinet members, Cabinets, Ministers, and Gender offers a cross-time, cross-national study of the gendered process of cabinet formation.

Karen Beckwith examines the patterns of mass-level political participation among American women from 1952 to 1976. Four distinct forms of political participation are focused upon: voting, electoral activism, conventional nonelectoral participation, and political protest. She then tests three explanations considered unique to the political participation of women in these areas: the nature of women's work; women's experience in political generations; and adherence to or support of feminism. Surprisingly, Beckwith's study indicates that such traditional explanations reveal more about men than about women, and that there is very little difference in participation between the sexes. However, Beckwith found that reported feelings of political efficacy among women were less than among men, even where actual participation differences were nonexistent.

This book examines the relationship between women's movements and states in West Europe and North America, as states have relocated their formal powers and policy-making responsibilities. Since the 1980s, North American and West European states have reduced the scope and volume of their national responsibilities, increasingly employing neoliberal free market rhetoric, and developed transnational economic and political authorities. Simultaneously, second wave women's movements have been transformed. Movements that were revolutionary in rhetoric, autonomous from states, and largely informally organized in the 1970s are, by the 1990s, employing moderate neoliberal rhetoric, entering state institutions as active participants, and creating more formal organizations. Utilizing a common theoretical framework, the contributors examine how movements have influenced the reconfiguration of nation-states and how these changes have influenced the goals, mobilization, tactics, success and rhetoric of women's movements in various Western European and North American countries.

What do we know about women, politics, and democracy in the United States? The last thirty years have witnessed a remarkable increase in women's participation in American politics and an explosion of research on female political actors, and the transformations effected by them, during the same period. Political Women and American Democracy provides a critical synthesis of scholarly research by leading experts in the field. The collected essays examine women as citizens, voters, participants, movement activists, partisans, candidates, and legislators. The authors provide frameworks for understanding and organizing existing scholarship; focus on theoretical, methodological, and empirical debates; and map out productive directions for future research. Political Women and American Democracy is an invaluable resource for scholars and students studying and conducting women and politics research.

This book examines the relationship between women's movements and states in West Europe and North America, as states have relocated their formal powers and policy-making responsibilities. Since the 1980s, North American and West European states have reduced the scope and volume of their national responsibilities, increasingly employing neoliberal free market rhetoric, and developed transnational economic and political authorities. Simultaneously, second wave women's movements have been transformed. Movements that were revolutionary in rhetoric, autonomous from states, and largely informally organized in the 1970s are, by the 1990s, employing moderate neoliberal rhetoric, entering state institutions as active participants, and creating more formal organizations. Utilizing a common theoretical framework, the contributors examine how movements have influenced the reconfiguration of nation-states and how these changes have influenced the goals, mobilization, tactics, success and rhetoric of women's movements in various Western European and North American countries.