Gender and Politics – serie

Women and American Politics brings together leading scholars in the field of women and politics to provide an account of recent developments and the challenges that the future brings for the study of gender and American Politics. The book examines women's participation in the electoral arena and the emerging scholarship on the relationship between the media and women in politics, the participation of women of colour, and women's activism outside the electoral arena. This volume demonstrates both the wealth of knowledge about women and American politics by the current generation of scholars and the vast number and range of important research questions, which pose a challenge for the next generation.

Women and American Politics brings together leading scholars in the field of women and politics to provide an account of recent developments and the challenges that the future brings for the study of gender and American Politics. The book examines women's participation in the electoral arena and the emerging scholarship on the relationship between the media and women in politics, the participation of women of colour, and women's activism outside the electoral arena. This volume demonstrates both the wealth of knowledge about women and American politics by the current generation of scholars and the vast number and range of important research questions, which pose a challenge for the next generation.

Gender and Welfare State Regimes focuses on the interrelationships between aspects of the welfare state and labour market policies in structuring and transforming gender relations across a broad spectrum of countries. The book examines the construction of gender in various government welfare policies and illustrates how the specific qualities of the welfare state reinforce or counteract gender inequalities. The book argues that policy variation across the countries surveyed can be attributed to a variety of factors, including differing strategies and demands of the women's movements, the organisational strength of labour movements and industrial relations frameworks, the constellation of parties supporting equality measure, traditional values and state structures. Series Gender and Politics edited by Professor Karen Beckwith at the Department of Political Science, College of Wooster and Professor Joni Lovenduski, Department of Politics, University of Southampton.

This is a major new assessment of the impact of women members of the US Congress on public policy and Congress itself. Drawing on three key case studies (reproductive health, women's health, and health policy) from the 103rd and 104th Congresses, Dodson highlights the complex forces that shape what women members do and their influence on the institution.

While existing literature provides compelling evidence that women in public office make a difference, the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation of women in political institutions long the domain of men is neither simple nor certain. Embracing New Institutionalists' warnings of the dangers of studying behaviour in an institutional vacuum, this book uses two strikingly different yet consecutive congresses - the Democratically controlled 103rd Congress elected during the 'Year of the Woman' and the Republican-controlled 104th Congress elected during the 'Year of the Angry White Male' - as laboratories to explore the complexity of the relationship between women's presence and impact. In-depth interviews with hundreds of staff, lobbyists, and women members of Congress, along with other quantitative and archival data, are the foundation for case studies of three highly visible policy areas (reproductive rights, women's health, and health care policy) important to women, but with strikingly different outcomes across the two Congresses. The inquiry is quickly moved beyond the simple question 'Do women make a difference?' Dodson confronts the contested issues surrounding difference which often lurk beneath the surface - the probabilistic rather than deterministic relationship between descriptive and substantive representation of women, the contested legitimacy of women representing women, and the disagreement about what it means to represent women. The analysis moves the literature toward a better integrated understanding of how gendered forces at the individual, institutional, and societal levels combine to reinforce and redefine gendered relationships to power in the public sphere. The results can be generalized over time and across settings, are meaningful even in periods when the answer to the question of whether women make a difference seems to be more frequently 'no' than 'yes,' and point to strategies that may bolster the impact of women's presence for substantive representation of women.

Abortion Politics, Women's Movements and the Democratic State examines the impact of women's movements since the 1960s on the policy-making processes determining abortion laws. The impact of women's movements is assessed in terms of their success in increasing the democratic representation of women generally and movement organizations specifically. Rather than asking 'how many women are in political office' this study asks 'to what extent are women included in the day to day process of making decisions?' Of special interest in this project is the extent to which states, through establishment of women's policy agencies, have assisted, opposed, or ignored the demands of movement activists for access to power and for feminist abortion policies. Researchers have examined these questions in policy debates over the last four decades in 11 advanced industrial democracies: Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. The findings of this cross-national longitudinal study document that women's movements have been successful in gaining both substantive and descriptive representation on abortion policy in a majority of the 32 debates studied. The ability of women's policy offices to provide a necessary and effective linkage between women's movement activism and increased democratic representation in policy- making varies both cross-nationally and over time. The openness of policy subsystems and the status of the parties on the left are factors that interact with variations in movement cohesion and resources to account for these variations.

This volume examines the impact of women's movements on the policy making processes determining abortion laws. It comprises the results of a cross-national research project on abortion politics in 11 democratic states between the 1960s and 2000. The authors have developed a comprehensive research design to examine whether or not women's policy agencies (institutional machineries intended to improve the status of women) have functioned as necessary and effective allies of women's movements in their efforts to gain access to power arenas and secure abortion laws that coincide with feminist goals. The impact of women's movements is assessed in terms of their success in increasing the democratic representation of women generally and movement organizations specifically. The findings constitute a rigorous application of comparative methodology to assess explanations from social movement and democratic theory pertaining to variations in state feminism and movement success.The book aims to show the extent to which states, through establishment of women's policy agencies, have assisted, opposed, or ignored the demands of movement activists for access to power and for feminist abortion policies. Researchers have examined these questions in policy debates over four decades in 11 advanced industrial democracies: Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States.

Theorizing Feminist Policy avoids the usual clash between feminist analysis and non-feminist social science in mapping out the new field of feminist comparative policy. Instead, it intersects empirical feminist policy analysis with non-feminist policy studies to define and contribute to this new and emerging field of study. Consulting a wide sweep of empirical and theoretical work, the book first defines Feminist Comparative Policy showing how it dialogs with the adjacent non-feminist areas of Comparative Public Policy, Comparative Politics, and Public Policy Studies. Theorizing Feminist Policy seeks then to strengthen one of the weakest links of this new area - the study of explicitly feminist government action. In the remaining chapters, the books defines feminist policy as a separate sector, with eight sub sectors - blueprint, political representation, equal employment, reconciliation, family law, reproductive rights, sexuality and violence, and public service delivery. It develops a qualitative and comparative framework for analysing the profiles and styles of feminist policy in post industrial democracies and uses the framework to examine twenty seven different cases of feminist policy formation across thirteen different countries. The initial empirical study makes a case for feminist policy as a new sector of state action, concluding tentatively that successful feminist policy formation is a subtle combination of feminist strategic partnerships, non feminist support, institutions, culture, and international influences. These tentative findings also shed new light on the perennial questions of comparative politics and policy: do politics, institutions, national policy style, sector, institutions, or culture matter the most in determining policy processes and outcomes? The books finishes by suggesting the next steps in developing comparative theories of feminist policy formation. Theorising Feminist Policy, therefore, goes beyond just describing the dimensions of feminist policy from existing literature, it seeks to systematically contribute to comparative theories of how the contemporary post-industrial state has taken on social change at the beginning of the 21st century.

This book considers women's access to formal positions of powers in the newly formed democracies of post communist Europe. While acknowledging the relevance of recent history, this book takes an important step away from the communist legacy and explicitly argues for a framework based on causal variables identified in the existing literatures from industrialized democracies on women and politics and legislative recruitment After a brief introduction, the second chapter sets forth a general theoretical framework, which posits that the level of female legislative representation in a given country is a function of the relative supply of and demand for female candidates. After a chapter considering a broad overview of public opinion on women and politics in Eastern Europe, thirteen country chapters, spanning the spectrum of Eastern European democracies, address and test hypotheses about the key variables affecting the supply and demand sides of the equation in individual countries. Relevant aspects of the communist cultural and developmental legacy are addressed, but authors give particular attention to political factors, such as electoral rules and the characteristics of the emerging party systems, that vary within the Eastern European countries. The new democracies of Eastern Europe provide a novel context in which to test and extend our theories about the consequences of political institutions for the quality of democracy. Since institutional arrangements are more malleable than developmental or cultural characteristics, those variables also offer the greatest promise to scholars and practitioners wondering what can be done to improve women's access to formal arenas of political power? How can we build democracies that are stable, lasting and representative? A careful analysis of the post-communist context can help us to address issues concerning institutional design and development that has relevance well beyond the Eastern European context.

What has been the impact of transitions to democracy on gender relations? What roles have women's mobilizations played in processes of democratization? In a new and over-arching thematic analysis, Engendering Transitions answers these questions by comparing the transitions from state socialism and authoritarianism that took place as part of the 'third wave' of democratization that swept the world from the mid 1970s onwards. Using empirical material drawn from eight case study countries in East Central Europe and Latin America as well as South Africa, Georgina Waylen explores the gendered constraints and opportunities provided by processes of democratization and economic restructuring. This book uses a sophisticated analytical framework that brings together the analysis of key actors and institutions and shows that, under certain conditions, transitions to democracy can result in some positive gender outcomes such as improvements in women's political representation and more 'gender sensitive' policy in areas such as domestic violence. Georgina Waylen argues that women's mobilization during transitions is no guarantee of success and change is easier to achieve in some areas than others. Understanding the roles that can be played by organized women's movements, key actors and the wider political environment is crucial in helping us to explain why these gender outcomes vary in different contexts. This book addresses important debates within the study of both comparative politics and gender and politics and substantially improves our understanding of the ways in which transitions to democracy are gendered.

What has been the impact of transitions to democracy on gender relations? What roles have women's mobilizations played in processes of democratization? In a new and over-arching thematic analysis, Engendering Transitions answers these questions by comparing the transitions from state socialism and authoritarianism that took place as part of the 'third wave' of democratization that swept the world from the mid 1970s onwards. Using empirical material drawn from eight case study countries in East Central Europe and Latin America as well as South Africa, Georgina Waylen explores the gendered constraints and opportunities provided by processes of democratization and economic restructuring. This book uses a sophisticated analytical framework that brings together the analysis of key actors and institutions and shows that, under certain conditions, transitions to democracy can result in some positive gender outcomes such as improvements in women's political representation and more 'gender sensitive' policy in areas such as domestic violence. Georgina Waylen argues that women's mobilization during transitions is no guarantee of success and change is easier to achieve in some areas than others. Understanding the roles that can be played by organized women's movements, key actors and the wider political environment is crucial in helping us to explain why these gender outcomes vary in different contexts. This book addresses important debates within the study of both comparative politics and gender and politics and substantially improves our understanding of the ways in which transitions to democracy are gendered.

Rethinking Contemporary Feminist Politics puts forward a timely analysis of contemporary feminism. Critically engaging with both narratives of feminist decline and re-emergence, it draws on poststructuralist political theory to assess current forms of activism in the UK and present a provocative account of recent developments in feminist politics.

Political institutions profoundly shape political life and are also gendered. This groundbreaking collection synthesises new institutionalism and gendered analysis using a new approach - feminist institutionalism - in order to answer crucial questions about power inequalities, mechanisms of continuity, and the gendered limits of change.

As leader of the Conservative party, David Cameron inherited a multi-faceted gender problem: only 17 women MPs; an unhappy women's organization; electorally uncompetitive policies 'for women'; and a party which was seemingly unattractive to women voters. This book is an account of the feminization of the party since 2005.

A discursive-sociological approach to the Europeanization of gender and other equality policies. Using largely unpublished empirical data covering twenty-nine European countries this book adopts a pluralistic perspective to explore the complex and often divergent gender and other equality policy outputs of Europeanization.

The favelas (slums) of Rio de Janeiro provide an ideal case study since they are renowned for high levels of police and gang violence resulting in high death rates among young black men, causing both outrage and fear. This book foregrounds women's experiences and how different forms of violence overlap and reinforce one another.

This book looks at the centerpiece of the international women’s rights discourse, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and asks to what extent it affects the lives of women worldwide. Rather than assuming a trickle-down effect, the author discusses specific methods which have made CEDAW resonate. These methods include attempts to influence the international level by clarifying the meaning of women’s rights and strengthening the Convention’s monitoring procedure, and building connections between international and domestic contexts that enable diverse actors to engage with CEDAW. This analysis shows that while the Convention has worldwide impact, this impact is fundamentally dependent on context-specific values and agency. Hence, rather than thinking of women’s rights exclusively as normative content, Zwingel suggests to see them as in process. This book will especially appeal to students and scholars interested in transnational feminism and gender and global governance.

This book examines the gender context of HIV and critiques the global policy response. Anderson contributes to the feminist task of de-invisibilising gender as structural violence and identifies how gendered power structures are responded to at the local level in Malawi.

An exploration of the ways that multiple inequalities are being addressed in Europe. Using country-based and region-specific case studies it provides an innovative comparative analysis of the multidimensional equality regimes that are emerging in Europe, and reveals the potential that these have for institutionalizing intersectionality.

An exploration of European integration as seen through a gender lens. This book looks at integration theories, institutional relationships, enlargement, the development of gender law and the role of formal actors, scholars and expert networks in the EU policy-making process. With a focus on gender mainstreaming as a new approach to gender policy.

The book analyses intersections between gender and diversity through cross-national studies of European public spheres. The approach confronts research on European democracy and the public sphere with gender and diversity research and reflections about European equality and diversity issues are based on new research from a large-scale EU project.

Parliaments around the world are still overwhelmingly populated by men, yet studies of male dominance are much rarer than are studies of female under-representation. In this book, men in politics are the subjects of a gendered analysis. How do men manage to hold on to positions of power despite societal trends in the opposite direction? And why do men seek to cooperate mainly with other men? Elin Bjarnegård studies how male networks are maintained and expanded and seeks to improve our understanding of the rationale underlying male dominance in politics. The findings build on results both from statistical analyses of parliamentary composition worldwide and from extensive field work in Thailand. A new concept, homosocialcapital, is coined and developed to help us understand the persistence of male political dominance.

This book traces the struggles over the institutions of political representation in Central and Eastern Europe, focusing on the factors that have held women back over the post-communist period, as well as on the growing evidence for change throughout the region. Post-communist Europe has long raised two puzzles for scholars of women’s representation in politics. First, why have women been under-represented in politics in every country in the region since communism’s collapse? Secondly, why are there relatively few cases where women’s advocates have been successful in pressing for change? This comparative study of Europe’s new democracies argues that these puzzles are best understood as questions about male dominance – that is, about the mechanisms that sustain, or, alternatively, change long-established patterns of male over-representation in politics over time. The author covers six EU member states – Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – during the period 1990-2016. The book will be of use to students and scholars in the fields of Comparative Politics, Democracy and Democratization, European Studies, Gender Studies, Post-Communist Studies, and Central and Eastern European Studies.

This book explores the gendered dynamics of institutional innovation, continuity and change in candidate selection and recruitment. Drawing on the insights of feminist institutionalism, it extends the 'supply and demand model' of political recruitment via a micro-level case study of the candidate selection process in post-devolution Scotland.

The past twenty years have witnessed a renewal of interest in feminist activism on both sides of the Atlantic. In part this has been a response to neoliberal and neoconservative attacks, both implicit and explicit, on the gains made by feminists during the 1960s and 70s. This study adds a comparative dimension to the ongoing analysis of feminism and feminist activism by mapping, analysing and theorising third wave feminisms in the US and Britain. A key addition to Gender and Politics literature, it explores third wave feminisms by situating them within a specific political context, neoliberalism, and in relation to feminist theories of intersectionality, both of which present radical opportunities and practical challenges for feminism and the feminist movement. Elizabeth Evans is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses on gender and politics, including engagement with formal processes and political activism. She has published widely on aspects of feminism, gender and politics, and her previous book, Gender and the Liberal Democrats, was published in 2011.

Differentiation from the Self has been a unifying feature of war stories since they were first told highlighting that war stories are about the production of identity. Based on analysis of military documents, this book aims to unravel some of the gendered ideologies that underpin the link between state identity and foreign security policy

This book analyses the diffusion of norms concerning gender-based violence and gender mainstreaming of aid and trade between the EU, South America and Southern Africa. Norm diffusion is conceptualized as a truly multidirectional and polycentric process, shaped by regional governance and resulting in new geometries of transnational activism.

Through compelling and insightful analysis of the Russian case, this book explores the role that social welfare plays in regime transitions. It examines the role that gender and social welfare has played in Russia's post-communist political evolution from Yeltsin's assumption of the presidency to Putin's return for a third term as president in 2012

Through a selection of in-depth interviews, a survey of experts working with the European Union and United Nations, and Qualitative Comparative Analysis of policy debates, this text rethinks our understanding of gender expertise and the circumstances that lead to expert success in public policy.