write an essay on the politics of gender and work

Gender and Politics

Gender and Politics Research Paper Topics

• The gender gap in political representation: causes and consequences
• Gender quotas in politics: pros and cons
• Women’s rights and political participation in the Middle East
• Women’s representation in local government: a case study of a specific country or region
• Masculinity and political leadership: how gender affects perceptions of leadership qualities
• Women’s access to political power in post-conflict societies
• Gender and political violence: how violence affects men and women differently
• The impact of gender on voting behavior
• The role of women in peacebuilding and conflict resolution
• Gender mainstreaming in international development policy: successes and challenges
• Intersectionality in politics: how race, class, and gender intersect to shape political outcomes
• The gendered impact of globalization on the labor market and political participation
• Gender and environmental politics: exploring the links between gender, environmentalism, and politics
• The impact of gender on political ideology and party affiliation
• Gender and political rhetoric: how gendered language affects political discourse
• The role of men in promoting gender equality in politics
• Feminism and political theory: historical and contemporary debates
• The impact of gender on political socialization and political attitudes
• The gendered nature of political scandals: how men and women are affected differently
• Women’s role in authoritarian regimes: case studies of specific countries
• The gendered impact of austerity policies on welfare states and social programs
• Gender and political participation in online spaces: how digital platforms are changing the landscape of political participation
• Women’s representation in the judiciary: a comparative analysis
• The impact of gender on media coverage of political campaigns
• Gender and international security: exploring the links between gender, security, and conflict
• The gendered impact of immigration policies and migration flows
• Gender and political corruption: how gender affects perceptions of corruption and ethics in politics
• Women’s role in political parties: a comparative analysis
• The impact of gender on political trust and legitimacy
• The gendered impact of economic liberalization and privatization policies
• Women’s representation in international organizations: a case study of the United Nations
• The role of gender in the formation of public policy and political decision-making
• Gender and political communication: how gender affects political messaging and public opinion
• The impact of gender on the formation and implementation of foreign policy
• Gender and the politics of social movements: exploring the role of women in movements for social change
• Gender and the politics of reproductive rights: a comparative analysis of policy and activism
• Women’s access to education and its impact on political participation
• The gendered nature of political institutions and processes: a comparative analysis
• Gender and the politics of identity: exploring the links between gender, race, and ethnicity in political discourse
• The impact of gender on the politics of healthcare and healthcare policy
• Women’s participation in local community governance: a case study of a specific region or country
• The impact of gender on political accountability and transparency
• Gender and political decision-making in the private sector: a comparative analysis
• The gendered impact of natural disasters on political outcomes and policy responses
• Women’s role in the politics of climate change: exploring the links between gender, the environment, and politics
• The impact of gender on political violence and terrorism
• Gender and the politics of nationalism: exploring the links between gender, nationalism, and identity
• Women’s role in the politics
• The Role of Intersectionality in Women’s Political Participation: An Analysis of Racial, Ethnic, and Class Differences in Political Mobilization.
• Women’s Representation in Political Leadership: Examining the Glass Ceiling in Parliaments and Executive Offices.

Women have historically been excluded from political decision-making, with men dominating positions of power in most political systems. This has led to a lack of representation of women’s perspectives and experiences in political decision-making, resulting in policies that do not adequately address the needs of all members of society. While progress has been made in increasing the number of women in political leadership roles in many countries, women continue to face unique challenges in accessing and exercising political power. These challenges include gender bias, discrimination, and social norms that prioritize men in political leadership.

Academic Writing, Editing, Proofreading, And Problem Solving Services

Get 10% off with 24start discount code.

One way to address these challenges is through the use of quotas and affirmative action policies to increase the representation of women in political decision-making. Quotas have been implemented in many countries around the world, with varying degrees of success. Some argue that quotas are necessary to overcome the structural barriers that prevent women from accessing political power, while others argue that quotas are unfair and can lead to the selection of less qualified candidates. Regardless of the effectiveness of quotas, it is clear that increasing the representation of women in political decision-making is essential to creating more equitable and inclusive policies.

Feminist movements have also played a critical role in shaping political discourse and pushing for gender equality in political systems. Feminist movements have highlighted the ways in which gender shapes political systems and policies, and have worked to mobilize women to become more active in political decision-making. These movements have also pushed for policy changes to address gender-based violence, discrimination, and other issues that disproportionately affect women. By bringing attention to these issues, feminist movements have helped to shape political discourse and create more space for women to participate in political decision-making.

Despite these efforts, women continue to face significant challenges in accessing and exercising political power. Women remain underrepresented in political decision-making in many countries, and face unique challenges in accessing the resources and support needed to succeed in these roles. Addressing these challenges will require a sustained effort to increase the representation of women in political decision-making and to create more supportive and inclusive political environments.

In conclusion, gender and politics is a critical area of inquiry in political science, exploring the ways in which gender shapes political systems, policies, and outcomes. Women have historically been excluded from political decision-making, resulting in policies that do not adequately address the needs of all members of society. Quotas and affirmative action policies, as well as feminist movements, have been instrumental in addressing these challenges and increasing the representation of women in political decision-making. However, significant challenges remain, and continued efforts will be needed to create more equitable and inclusive political systems.

ORDER HIGH QUALITY CUSTOM PAPER

Background Essay: Women in the Political World Today

Directions:

Keep these discussion questions in mind as you read the background essay, making marginal notes as desired. Respond to the reflection and analysis questions at the end of the essay.

Discussion Questions

• Skim the quotes shown in Appendix B: Timeline and Quotes and select for discussion a few that most powerfully express the pathway toward legal equality for women.
• Regarding the principle of equality, have we achieved the promise of the Declaration of Independence? Are we there yet?

Before and after they won the right to vote, women have played an active role in American politics and public life. In the 1920s, the newly enfranchised women did not agree how to take the next steps towards legal equality. From the beginning of American history to the present, women of all backgrounds and political persuasions have exercised their First Amendment rights, voicing concerns that reflect their understandings of what constitutes the best way of life for a free people.

What historians call First Wave Feminism encompassed the period from the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention to 1920 when the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteed the right of American women to vote. The focus during this period was on removing legal barriers to women’s participation in political life. Even before the Nineteenth Amendment had been ratified, NAWSA President Carrie Chapman Catt founded the League of Women Voters, whose initial purpose was to provide non-partisan education for women’s new civic responsibility of voting. Just as they had advocated several different approaches to win the vote, the newly enfranchised women did not all agree on the next steps they should take in pursuit of full legal equality. State laws limiting women’s property rights, opportunity to serve on juries, education and job prospects, and other roles in society continued to be barriers to women’s civil, economic, and social goals.

Equal Rights Amendment Proposed 1923

The National Woman’s Party advocated an equal rights amendment to the Constitution, requiring that men and women would be treated exactly the same under all U.S. laws. In 1923, Alice Paul proposed an amendment stating, “Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction.” The amendment had many prominent supporters among professional women.

But many others did not support this idea. In particular, many “labor feminists” disagreed, arguing for “specific bills for specific ills.” In other words, these women argued that not all laws that treated men and women differently were bad. Discriminatory laws that hurt women should be repealed, of course, but they believed others, such as laws aimed at protecting women from especially long work hours, or laws requiring maternity leave should remain. About fifty years later, another equal rights amendment proposal would again fail to gain sufficient traction and fall in defeat.

As large numbers of women entered the work force during World War II, some in Congress spoke up to ensure equal pay for equal work. Republican Representative Winifred C. Stanley proposed a bill banning wage discrimination based on sex in 1942, but the bill failed. The 1944 Republican Party platform included support for an equal rights amendment.

By the end of World War II, a generation had passed since the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. Many women of child-bearing age who worked outside the home during the war returned home, but others remained in the workforce. According to Department of Labor statistics, the labor force participation rate of women ages 16 – 24 declined slightly and leveled off through the 1950s, but labor force participation rates of women older than that have continued to rise throughout the succeeding decades.

Photograph of President Kennedy and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, 1962. National Archives and Records Administration.

The President’s Commission on the Status of Women 1963

Just as the suffrage movement had gained strength alongside other social and legal reforms, the women’s movement of the 1960s developed alongside a Civil Rights Movement. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925 directing federal contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” This gave rise to what came to be called “affirmative action,” or taking steps to ensure greater numbers of minorities (and, later, women) were provided opportunities and access to various settings like college and the workplace.

President Kennedy was concerned about protecting equal rights for women. However, the proposed equal rights amendment stirred up fears of threats to women’s traditional roles among some conservatives across the country, and he needed to walk carefully in order to avoid angering those tradition-minded Democrats. Kennedy’s solution was the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, whose goal was to make recommendations for, “services which will enable women to continue their role as wives and mothers while making a maximum contribution to the world around them.”

Run by Esther Peterson, Assistant Secretary of Labor, and chaired by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the committee of 20 lawmakers and philanthropists examined employment practices, labor laws, tax regulations, and other factors that they believed contributed to inequality. The commission issued its report in 1963, calling for a number of reforms including:

• Equality of jury service
• Reform of property and family laws that disadvantaged women
• State laws guaranteeing equal pay for equal work
• Tax deductions for child care for working parents
• Expansion of widow’s benefits under Social Security
• Expanded adult education
• Taxpayer-funded maternity leave
• Taxpayer-funded universal day-care

One immediate response to the commission report was that Congress passed the Equal Pay Act (1963), prohibiting wage discrimination based on gender within the same jobs. The commission also likely heightened the sense among Americans that the national government should play an active role in promoting women’s equality.

Eleanor Roosevelt and others at the opening of Midway Hall, one of two residence halls built for female African American government employees, 1943. National Archives and Records Administration.

The Feminine Mystique and Second Wave Feminism

The express goal of the president’s commission had been to safeguard the important role of wives and mothers in the home, while expanding their opportunity to pursue additional roles and responsibilities in society. As did most of the earlier advocates for women’s equality, the commission valued the work of homemakers and wished to protect mothers’ vital role in the family. A new, “second wave” of feminism was about to gain strength and it challenged the assumption that this was necessarily the most vital role of women.

The same year that the commission released its report, Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, a critique of the middle-class nuclear family structure. Friedan pointed to what she called “the problem that has no name,” or the pervasive, below-the-surface dissatisfaction of middle-class housewives that she herself had experienced. Friedan argued these homemakers whose husbands provided a comfortable living for their families had been lulled into a false consciousness, believing themselves happy when they were actually bored and unfulfilled. This delusion was the “mystique.” If Friedan believed there was a cultural “myth” of a happy housewife, she created a new, competing narrative alongside it of frustrated wives held captive in what she called “a comfortable concentration camp.” While not every woman agreed that housewives were being fooled into believing themselves happy, this landmark book drew many white, middle-class women to what was called Second Wave Feminism

Second Wave Feminists rejected the idea that gender roles or morality flowed out of natural law. They believed gender roles were purely social constructs, and that morality, especially as it related to sexual conduct, was subjective. In their view, it was generally the consent or lack of consent between adults that made an act right or wrong.

Second Wave Feminists went beyond the legal equality as defined by earlier reformers to advocate also for measures intended to bring about equality of outcome. Groups such as the National Organization for Women, which Friedan helped found, lobbied for taxpayerfunded day care, no-fault divorce, legalized abortion (including taxpayer-funded abortions through Medicaid), and other reforms.

Photograph of Betty Friedan, 1960. Library of Congress.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965

The momentum for civil rights and women’s rights would converge again a year later. President Kennedy had asked Congress to pass legislation “giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments.” Congress began claiming authority under the Interstate Commerce Clause to regulate private businesses, reasoning that discriminatory practices by “public accommodations” such as restaurants and hotels affected citizens’ abilities to travel between states.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited racial segregation in private businesses that served the public, and banned discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. It also banned discrimination in places receiving federal funds such as public universities.

Congress passed the Voting Rights Act the next year banning racial discrimination in voting. This federal law helped protect the rights of African American men and women in places where legal barriers such as literacy tests had been erected to prevent them from voting.

The Story Continues

Social scientists debate the effects of the cultural changes brought about by Second Wave Feminism. Many point to the numerous objective measures showing women today enjoy greater autonomy than at any time in U.S. history, and perhaps that of the world: high standards of living, educational attainment, and broad career choices. Yet, the National Bureau of Economic Research found in 2009 that subjective assessments of happiness were not keeping up:

“ By many objective measures, the lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years, yet we show that measures of subjective well-being indicate that women’s happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to men. [Women] in the 1970s typically reported higher subjective well-being than did men.”

Second Wave Feminism was followed in the 1990s by Third Wave Feminism, which focused on layers of oppression caused by interactions between gender, race and class. And as has happened with all social movements fought in the name of women, many women rejected the movement and held more conservative views.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 2009. Department of State.

What effect has women’s suffrage had on politics?

It should be noted that, just as there are class, ethnic, and racial divisions among males, as well as other specific issue positions that influence an individual’s political choices, the same divisions exist among women. Women do not generally vote as a block. However, given that important caution, there are some identifiable differences between the voting trends of women compared to those of men. The Center for the American Woman and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers

University tracks those trends. Beginning in the 1920s, women were a little more likely than men to favor the Republican Party, but that trend began to reverse by 1980, and women since then have continued to be more likely to favor the Democratic Party. In presidential elections since that time, women have preferred the Democratic candidate over other parties by four to ten percentage points. Since 1980, women’s turnout rate has been a little higher than that of men. Further, women are more likely than men to favor a more active role for the federal government in expanding health care and basic social services, to advocate restrictions on guns, to support same-sex marriage, and to favor legal abortion without restrictions.

In addition to making their mark as voters, women have gradually made their mark as successful candidates. In 1916, the first female member of Congress, Jeannette Rankin, won her bid to represent her district in Montana. In 1968, Shirley Chisholm of New York became the first African American congresswoman (though it should be noted that she did not want to be remembered by that description, but as a person who “had guts.”) According to CAWP data, in 1971 women made up three percent of people elected to U.S. Congress, seven percent of statewide elective offices, and 0 in state legislatures. In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton became the first female presidential candidate of a major party. In November 2018, women comprised 20% in U.S. Congress, 23.4 % in statewide elective offices, and 25.5 % in state legislatures. In the November 6 midterm elections, voter turnout across the nation was the highest in any midterm election in 100 years, with 50.1% of the voting-eligible population casting their ballots. As of January 2019, a record 121 women serve in the 116th United States Congress, 102 years after Jeannette Rankin was elected. Following the midterm election, women comprised 23.6 % in U.S. Congress, 27.6 % in statewide elective offices, 28.6 % in state legislatures.

Horace Greeley wrote in 1848, “When a sincere republican is asked to say in sober earnest what adequate reason he can give, for refusing the demand of women to an equal participation with men in political rights, he must answer, none at all. However unwise and mistaken the demand, it is but the assertion of a natural right, and such must be conceded.” Frederick Douglass in 1869 asked Susan B. Anthony whether she believed granting women the vote would truly do anything to change the inequality under the law between the sexes. She replied, “It will change the nature of one thing very much, and that is the dependent condition of woman. It will place her where she can earn her own bread, so that she may go out into the world an equal competitor in the struggle for life.” The political environment has changed considerably since the early days of women’s struggle for suffrage and equality. The participation of women in the public sphere has helped make the American republic more representative, and has removed many of the restrictions that formerly stood between individuals and the enjoyment of their natural rights.

Women of all backgrounds and political persuasions act on their understandings of what constitutes the best way of life for a free people, and suffrage is one of many important ways that they participate in public life. The principle of freedom of speech, press, and assembly, enshrined in the First Amendment, ensures the legal right to express one’s opinions freely, orally or in writing, alone or through peaceable assembly, no matter how offensive their point of view may seem to others. These First Amendment guarantees have been and will continue to be integral to the efforts of those seeking social and legal reforms in America.

REFLECTION AND ANALYSIS QUESTIONS

• What action did Alice Paul’s National Woman’s Party advocate after women won the right to vote?
• What was the goal of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women?
• In the years leading up to the Commission, most women were married in their early 20s. Families had more children during this time than any other in American history (known as the Baby Boom), but they spaced their children more closely together so mothers were finished having babies at a younger age than other generations. What effect might this have had on women’s concerns at the time?
• What is Betty Friedan’s connection to Second Wave Feminism?
• Betty Friedan wrote, “The feminist revolution had to be fought because women quite simply were stopped at a state of evolution far short of their human capacity.” How does this view compare to that of early advocates for equality and suffrage such as Abigail Adams, Angelina Grimké, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, or Carrie Chapman Catt?
• In what ways did the principle of freedom of speech, press, and assembly empower Second Wave Feminists, as well as their opponents?
• Consider the “official” and “unofficial” methods of change. Direct action aimed at winning the vote had an impact, but so did opportunity to participate more fully in the workforce. How might expanding opportunities for work outside the home have reinforced – or hindered- the movement to win the vote?
• Use the Principles and Virtues Glossary as needed and give examples of ways the varying approaches to post-1920s efforts to expand rights for women reflected any three of the constitutional principles below. Further, give examples of how such reform efforts require individuals to demonstrate any three of the civic virtues listed below.

Principles : equality, republican/representative government, popular sovereignty, federalism, inalienable rights

Virtues: perseverance, contribution, moderation, resourcefulness, courage, respect, justice

Gender, Politics, and Women's Empowerment

Cite this chapter.

• Valentine M Moghadam 3  

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

6018 Accesses

11 Citations

The literature on gender, women, and politics has examined both the gendered nature of political processes and women's participation patterns. Whether cast in terms of a variable or as an integral element of the social structure, gender is seen as pervading the realm of politics in that it reflects the distribution of power and reinforces notions of masculinity and femininity, and it influences the patterns of political participation by women and by men. Thus it is the social relations of gender — and the ways in which gender dynamics operate in the family, the labor market, and the polity — that explain why women have been historically marginalized from the corridors of political power, why feminists refer to “manly states” and “patriarchal politics” (Enloe 1990, 2007; Tickner 1992; Peterson and Runyan 1993), and why an essential policy prescription for enhancing women's political participation at both national and local levels is the electoral quota. By the same token, the operations of gender help us recognize the strategies for women's political empowerment, such as the formation of women's movements and organizations that have become prominent in civil society.

Download chapter PDF

Similar content being viewed by others

Feminists Reshaping Gender

Gender, Representation, and the Politcs of Exclusion: Or, Who Represents, Who Is Represented, What Is at Stake?

Gender, Power, and Networks: Women’s Organizing and Changing Gender Relationships in Africa and Latin America

• Civil Society
• Political Participation

Local Governance

• Democratic Transition
• Parliamentary Seat

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This chapter takes a global perspective to examine the gendered nature of politics and patterns of women's political participation in formal politics and in civil society, including involvement in web-based “virtual activism.” It presents research findings and policy debates on gender and politics, and provides data on women's political participation. It comes in four parts. In the first, we survey the feminist literature on gender and politics, including the identification of enabling factors and persistent obstacles. In the second, we examine the patterns of women's political participation in national and local government, political parties, and as heads of government or state. In the third, we review research on women and gender in civil society, social movements, transnational advocacy, and democratic transitions. The fourth section discusses the broad implications and impact of women's political participation.

Gendering Politics: What is at Stake?

Political scientists have developed a prodigious body of work arguing that in order for historically marginalized groups to be effectively represented in institutions, members of those groups must be present in deliberative, or decision making, bodies (Weldon 2002 ). These would include political parties, parliaments, and national and local governments. And yet, across history, culture, and societies, women as a group have been excluded from key decision making arenas in the government sector (national and local government) and the leadership of political parties, as well as in the other domains. Footnote 1 This is indicative of the gendered nature of politics.

Gender refers to a structural relationship between women and men — which historically has manifested itself as a relationship of asymmetry, domination and subordination — or to unequal power relations between men as a group etc. women in decision making would suggest that the changes in gender relations constitute a structural shift. Here we distinguish the structural/collective from the individual. Across recorded history, individual women may have been more powerful than individual men, but in no society were women as a group more powerful than men as a group. It stands to reason, therefore, that the involvement of larger numbers and proportions of women in decision making both reflects and reinforces the changes in gender relations as a structural shift, one characterized by the empowerment of women as a group .

As this chapter will demonstrate, women's participation in formal politics has been increasing, though in variable ways. There was, for example, a precipitous decline in the Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union following the collapse of communism and the emergence of liberal democracies in the early 1990s. In a number of regions, quotas — constitutional, electoral, and political party quotas — have been installed to ensure equitable representation by women. Women have been elected heads of government or state, and across the globe their proportion of parliamentary seats is about 18–20%. And yet, formidable obstacles remain, although these are being addressed by the global women's rights agenda, Footnote 2 women's movements, and some national governments. Today, feminist social scientists argue that a polity is not fully democratic when there is not adequate representation of women (Phillips 1991, 1995; Eschle 2000; Moghadam 2004). The Beijing Platform for Action (UN 1996, para 181) states that: “Achieving the goal of equal participation of women and men in decision- making … is needed in order to strengthen democracy and promote its proper functioning.”

If women's representation in the corridors of formal politics has been limited, their involvement in extraparliamentary politics has been extensive. Women have played important and visible roles in the great social revolutions (French, Russian, Chinese, Iranian), in Third World liberation and revolutionary movements (e.g., Vietnam, Algeria, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Northern Ireland, South Africa), and in all manner of social movements (e.g., the Civil Rights movement in the United States, and the peace, environmental, anti-nuclear, and animal rights movements). With few exceptions, women's roles were long unacknowledged in official histories or popular accounts. Since the 1970s, however, this historical amnesia and women's political marginalization have been corrected first by feminist scholarship across the disciplines (e.g., history, sociology, political science); secondly by the recog-nition of women as major political actors, voters, constituents, and candidates in numerous countries; and thirdly by the emergence of feminist movements, women's non governmental organizations (NGOs) of all kinds, and transnational feminist networks, along with the visibility of women leaders in the global justice movement. In turn, this contributes further to women's empowerment.

The literature has tended to view power in a largely negative way, that is, in terms of the power of some over others, or the capacity of the powerful to exert their will over those without power. Footnote 3 In the second edition of his classic study on power, political philosopher Steven Lukes (2005) argues for a broader definition of power that should not be limited to asymmetric power relations, and admits that not all power is negative and zero-sum. He updates his definition of power to include agents' abilities to bring about significant effects, specifically by furthering their own interests or affecting the interests of others, whether positively or negatively. Lukes' position parallels one argued by feminist scholars who emphasize the empowerment of previously marginalized or powerless people (Carroll 1972 ; di Marco 2005). In order for democracy to be broadened and deepened, Graciela di Marco argues, the norms, values, and social relations on which unequal power relationships are based must be deconstructed, delegitimized, and finally reconstructed in a democratic form. This requires the acquisition of women's authority in the polity, as well as in the family, the community, and the workplace. In other words, women's empowerment serves not only women as a group, but the entire society. It is essential to democratization and development as well as to gender equality.

In this connection, gendering democracy and political participation matters, in at least three ways. First, as Ann Phillips (1995) has explained, women have interests, experiences, values, and expertise that are different from those of men, due principally to their social positions. Thus, women must be represented by women. Second, if the core of democracy is the regular redistribution of power through elections, then attention must be paid to the feminist argument that gender is itself a site and source of power, functioning to privilege men over women, and to favor masculine traits, roles and values over feminine equivalents in most social domains. Footnote 4 Third, women are actors and participants in the making of a democratic politics. One can hypothesize a connection between women's participation and rights, on the one hand, and the building and institutionalization of democracy on the other. Evidence comes from Latin America and South Africa, where women's participation was a key element in the successful transitions. Footnote 5 Indeed, it has been suggested that the longstanding exclusion of women from political processes and decision making in the Middle East and North Africa may be key to understanding why the region has been a “laggard,” when compared with the other regions, in democratization's third wave (Moghadam 2004). Footnote 6 Attention to women's participation and rights, therefore, could speed up the democratic transition in the region.

Enabling Factors and Persistent Obstacles

Data from the fourth wave of the World Values Survey (WVS 1999—2004) — a large international dataset based on public opinion polls surveying attitudes toward women's participation and rights as well as an array of political and cultural issues — suggest a “rising tide” of gender equality transforming many aspects of men's and women's lives and cultural values. On the basis of their interpretation of the results of various waves of the World Values Survey, and in a new version of modernization theory, Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris ( 2003 ), who have been closely associated with the WVS, argue that the gender gap in political participation is often the greatest in poorer developing nations and often diminished or reversed in the post-industrial societies. Footnote 7 The more developed — indeed, post-industrial — a country, the more likely that value orientations in general, and gender equality norms in particular, move in an egalitarian direction. By extension, the more developed a country, the greater the likelihood of women's political representation and participation. Testing this hypothesis through international datasets reveals that the greater a country's human development (as measured, for example, by the UNDP's Human Development Index), the more likely that women are able to attain higher decision making positions (as measured by the Gender Development Index, or GDI and the Gender Empowerment Measure, or GEM). Footnote 8 Expanding further on this thesis, one could argue that the contemporary shift of the global economy toward a service and knowledge-based economy may be more conducive to women's involvement in decision making, inasmuch as it rewards educational attainment with well-remunerated opportunities for professional women. The world economy does not benefit all countries or citizens in the same way, but the “Fordist” regime of manufacturing and industrial production arguably was more advantageous to men as a group than to women as a group , in terms of economic participation and access to power.

By the same token, a country's adherence to “world culture” or the “world polity” creates a national and policy environment conducive to women's participation and rights (Paxton and Hughes 2007 ). When governments ratify international treaties and conventions, and when international organizations are present in countries, an enabling climate is created which affects an array of outcomes, including women's access to civil society, the public sphere, and leadership roles across domains.

At the same time, the data suggest a lag effect in the arena of political participation and representation. Women continue to be less politically active in most countries. Broad, longterm structural change is certainly a major determinant of women's political participation, but policy also matters. This is why some developing countries have higher rates of women's political participation in formal political structures than does the United States. The application of quotas — whether constitutional, policy party, or electoral quotas — explains why Argentina has a 35% female share of parliament, when compared with the 16% share found in the United States (data for 2008).

Besides quotas, other institutional changes and reforms are needed to expand women's public presence. Childcare centers, paid maternity leaves, and paternity leaves could level the playing field, allow women to catch up to men, and compensate for past marginalization and exclusion (Phillips 1995; Lister 1997). Research shows that women need to be at least a large minority to have an impact, and women's issues receive more support when women attain a “critical mass”. The UN now recommends a benchmark of at least 30% female representation.

Research and advocacy have thus focused on a number of factors enabling women to advance within organizations and social institutions, be these political parties, parliaments, or governments: the nature of legislative structures and electoral systems; the strength of civil society organizations; the adoption of women-friendly work policies; electoral quotas; and social capital and women's networking. The macro- and meso-level factors appear to work in tandem: the broad structural changes have resulted in a growing population of educated and employed women with the capacity to enter the political process or to organize and mobilize around specific grievances or goals; and women's movements and organizations lobby governments and advocate publicly for women-friendly policies, more rights, and equitable representation. At least two transnational feminist networks, along with numerous nationally based women's groups, have launched campaigns for gender parity in the political process globally. The Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) joined forces with another U.S.-based international network, the Women's Learning Partnership for Development, Rights, and Peace (WLP) to launch the 50/50 campaign, whose objective is to increase the percentage of women in local and national politics worldwide to 50%. Since its inception in June 2000, the campaign has been adopted by 154 organizations in 45 countries (Paxton and Hughes 2007 : 179). Footnote 9

The confluence of the global women's rights agenda and women's movements has created a global opportunity structure conducive to the adoption of policies, programs, and resources in support of women's participation in decision making. And yet the persistence of obstacles and challenges cannot be denied. For many parts of the world, the chief macro-level barriers are economic, political, and cultural. Underdevelopment, poverty, and conflict are barriers to women's political participation, and prevent the creation of an adequate supply of women political actors or leaders. Gender-based gaps in educational attainment, employment, and income impede women's access to economic resources, creating obstacles to funding political campaigns. Another barrier lies in the nature of political systems: authoritarian regimes are more likely to be shaped by patriarchal norms and less likely to involve women in political participation. In such countries, discriminatory laws may prevent women from attaining leadership positions in governance. Social and cultural views about women in society — or traditional gender ideology — continue to exert a strong influence on women's access to leadership and decision making. The persistence of the sexual division of labor — as both ideology and a form of social organization — is remarkable, given women's increasing educational attainment and social participation. Family responsibilities are consistently cited as major stumbling blocks for women's career advancement in politics and in other domains, especially in the absence of adequate institutional policies.

Last but not the least, risks associated with public and leadership roles should be noted. In many countries, ascension to positions of power or public visibility carries with it various risks, from harassment and loss of privacy to physical attacks, kidnapping or assassinations. In the most conservative societies, women who dare to enter the public domain without conforming to certain patriarchal norms may face substantial risks.

Electoral Politics and Women'S Participation: Governments, Parliaments, and Parties

A large literature now exists that examines women's roles in formal politics, especially in national parliaments, and women's political participation and representation are measured in a number of international datasets, including those of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the UNDP's Human Development Report , and the UN's statistical database, The World's Women: Trends and Statistics . Footnote 10 These datasets provide general support for the hypothesis linking women's political participation to high human development or to the application of quotas, at least since the early 1990s. Thus, the Nordic countries have consistently ranked highest in terms of both human development and women's political participation — and most of them also have adopted quotas to ensure women's participation in political parties, parliamentary elections, and cabinets. In contrast to the United States' 16–17% female parliamentary participation, the Nordic countries have had a roughly 41% female share for at least a decade and up to December 2008. Research on Latin America shows that the wave of national quota legislation since the 1990s improved women's political situation in some countries. In 2007, Argentina, the first country in the world to adopt a national quota law, led the region with 36% women in its lower house.

At the opposite end of the spectrum lie the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, with historically low levels of female participation in formal politics. The average 10% female representation is evidence of the masculine nature of the region's political processes and institutions. Yet even there, differentiation should be noted; according to IPU data for 2008, Tunisia had the highest female proportion in the region, with a 23% female share of parliamentary seats. Comparing Tunisia to other countries, Tunisia's share was higher than that of Uruguay and Chile (12%), Mexico (16%), the Philippines (18%), and Israel (13%), though lower than Argentina's (36%) or South Africa's (30%). Enabling factors in Tunisia included a relatively high rate of female labor force participation, the existence of strong women's organizations and networks, and a government that, while authoritarian, presents itself as a champion of women's rights (Moghadam 2003). Footnote 11

Elsewhere in the so-called Muslim world, variations in women's parliamentary representation suggest differences in political histories, social structures, and state policies; hence the disparate rates, as of 2008, of Azerbaijan (11.4%), Indonesia (11.6%), Tajikistan (17.5% lower house; 23.5% upper house), Pakistan (22.5%), and Nigeria (7.0%). Interestingly, Muslim women do better in the parliaments of the European democracies. Research by Melanie Hughes ( 2008 ) shows that while minority women's political representation is generally low across the globe, women of Muslim and especially North African extraction are over-represented in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden. Among other factors, Hughes explains, quotas help the minority women.

The election of women as heads of state or government does not seem to follow any particular pattern. Of course, the Nordic countries have had strong representation of women at the highest levels of government, including president, prime minister, and cabinet members.

But, when one considers other women leaders — e.g., Indira Gandhi of India, Golda Meir of Israel, Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Violeta Chamorro of Nicaragua, Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom, Tansu Ciller of Turkey, or Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines — there appears to be no correlation with economic/human development or the strength of the women's movement. Instead, such women leaders come up the ranks through dynastic family connections (Gandhi, Bhutto, Chamorro) or through exceptional pathways in a political party (Meir, Thatcher, Ciller, Arroyo). On the other hand, the election of women presidents in Finland, Ireland, Chile, and Sierra Leone is at least partially explained by the strength of women's mobilizations in those countries, along with the prominence of the individual women elected as leaders. Increasingly, one observes prominent women in political party leadership, from Segolène Royale, who was the French Socialist Party's presidential candidate in 2006, to Louisa Hanoun, who leads the Socialist Workers' Party in Algeria and has been her party's presidential candidate. In the United States, Hillary Clinton's attempt to be the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in 2008 reflected a number of influences: family ties (her husband was former president Bill Clinton), white women's mobilizations, and her own record as senator from New York.

The arena of local governance and of women's roles within it is less researched than that of the national politics and governance. Participation of women in local governance is important, however, because decisions are made regarding everything from taxation and social spending to quality of life, including local schools, street lighting, housing, sanitation, zoning, transport, and policing. These are decisions that directly affect women, children, men, and families; as such, it is important that women be well represented. Data collected by the United Cities and Local Governments, a network created at a meeting in the Republic of Korea in 2004, suggest that women are largely excluded from mayoralties, though they do better as local councilors. Footnote 12 Other sources of data for participation in local governance come from the United Nations' regional commissions and from the country reports submitted to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Footnote 13

Some countries show a large gap between women's representation in local and national governance. In South Korea, women's participation in local governance is almost negligible; the 2002 local elections resulted in a 3.1% female share in the regional councils and a 1.9% female share in the city/county/district councils. In contrast, at the national level, women were 13.7% of those elected to the 2004–2008 National Assembly. Footnote 14 In Brazil, between 1999 and 2003, just one out of 27 Governors was a woman (4%), and between 1997 and 2001, some 303 out of 2,205 mayors were women (3.4%). In 2000, just 11% of municipal councils in Brazil were made up of women (Htun 2000 ). At the national level in 2008, Brazilian women had 9% of parliamentary seats in the lower house and 12.3% in the upper house.

Available data for Sub-Saharan Africa shows high levels of women's representation in local governance in South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda, which are consistent with their national-level representation and appear to be related to the presence of quotas. In Tanzania, for example, women constituted 35.5% of councilors at the local level in 2004. At the federal level, their share was 30.4%. In both cases, high representation was the result of “special seats” reserved for women. Footnote 15

Among the Arab countries, while a growing number of women are running for local (as well as national) office, only Tunisia and Yemen appear to have registered a significant female presence in the local governance. In Yemen's first-ever local elections held in February 2001, some 120 women ran as candidates with 35 winning seats, representing a surprising 29% female share in this conservative and low-income country. Footnote 16 In 2004, Tunisia's female share of municipal seats was about 20%. Footnote 17

Elsewhere in the Middle East, Iran appears to be one case whereby women are more active at the municipal than at the national level. While women occupy only 8 out of 286 parliamentary seats, or a mere 2.8% share, the municipal elections of December 2007 brought more than 5,000 women to local governance in about 3,300 councils across the country. Women did exceptionally well, and better than male candidates, in Shiraz, Arak, Hamedan, Zanjan, and Ardebil; and they won a large number of seats in Urumiyeh and Qazvin (Ghammari, 2008 ).

India represents a striking example of high female representation in local governance, due to a 33% “reservation” or quota that was established for women's participation across Indian states. While efforts to achieve reserved seats at India's state and national levels have stalled, two constitutional amendments passed in 1992 require that one-third of all seats in both rural and urban councils must be filled by women. The 73rd Amendment also granted more powers over governmental services and projects to the three tiers of the rural councils — panchayats , at the village, block and district level (Nanivadekar 2005 ). Footnote 18 While most Indian states have at least 33% women as a direct consequence of reservation, some states have even exceeded the 33% quota. Footnote 19 In 2005, Karnataka had a representation as high as 45%, 42% and 38% in the village, taluk/block and district panchayats respectively. In Kerala and West Bengal, 35–36% of elected women representatives at the local bodies were women. In Uttar Pradesh, 54% of the Zilla Parishad Presidents, and in Tamil Nadu, 36% of the Chairpersons of Gram Panchayats were women. Footnote 20 In contrast, the female share of parliamentary seats at the federal level was just 9.1% in 2008.

In Europe, data for the period 2000–2005 from the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) show that only in Moldova is women's participation at the local governance level very high — and at 57%, perhaps the highest in the world. In Latvia, Finland, Norway, and France, women represent 30–42% of municipal councils and local governing bodies. Everywhere else, for which there are data, the figures are below 30%.

Given the data inadequacies, it is difficult to draw conclusions about women's participation in local governance. The world average for women's parliamentary representation is 21% (IPU, circa 2008) and for women councilors it is similarly 21% (UCLG, circa 2003–2004). Regionally, women are less represented at the local than the national level in the Middle East and North Africa (2.1% versus 9.7% female shares), and in the Nordic countries (Finland has the highest percentage of women councilors, but at 34% it is less than the Nordic parliamentary average of 41% female share). For other regions there appears to be more symmetry, although it may be the case that in sub-Saharan Africa, women are actually better represented at the local level than at the national (as Fallon (2008) found for Ghana), at least as far as councilors are concerned. This is clearly an area that requires further investigation

Women in Movement: Civil Society, Transnational Networks, and Democratic Transitions

The arena of civil society is a democratic space for the flourishing of associational life that also acts as a buffer between the citizenry, on the one hand, and the state and the market on the other. This is where much of women's modern public activity and their “social capital” have been observed, in charities, churches/religious institutions, parent-teacher associations, neighborhood clubs, and local initiatives. In recent decades, the exponential growth of women's presence in various NGOs, professional associations, and of course women's organizations has seen significant collective impacts, as women's organizations have become highly effective pressure groups. Civil society experience can be a pathway to senior positions in other domains, including national and local governance. And increasingly, women are found in what has become known as the sphere of global civil society, as they have become politically active in social movements, international organizations, and advocacy networks of all kinds.

Using World Values Survey data, Inglehart and Norris ( 2003 , Table 5.2) show that women's participation in civic associations exceeds that of men. Reported participation rates are 53% female and 47% male (data for 2001 ). Those where women are 50% or more are the following: conservation, environment or animal rights; third world development or human rights; education, arts, music or cultural activities; religious or church organizations; voluntary organizations concerned with health; social welfare for the elderly, handicapped, or deprived people; women's groups. Women make up between 42 and 49% of members of peace movements, professional associations, labor unions, local community action groups, and groups working with youth.

Feminist scholars of the Middle East and North Africa have analyzed the “gradual feminization of the public sphere” and have noted the growing involvement of women in an array of civic associations (Moghadam and Sadiqi 2006 ). Footnote 21 Seven types of women's organizations have been identified: women-led charitable associations; women's wings of political parties; professional associations (e.g., associations of women lawyers); development research centers and women's studies institutes; development and service-delivery NGOs; women's rights organizations; worker-based women's organizations associated with trade unions (Moghadam 1998). Examples are feminist organizations such as l'Association Tunisienne des Femmes Démocrats, l'Association Démocratique des Femmes Marocaines (ADFM), Algeria's SOS Femmes en Détresse, Iran's Cultural Center for Women and the Change for Equality Campaign, and Turkey's Women for Women's Human Rights International; development NGOs such as Egypt's Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW); think tanks such as CAWTAR and CREDIF of Tunisia, and the Palestinian Women's Research and Documentation Center; and women's studies centers and institutes at universities such as Birzeit in Ramallah, the West Bank; the Lebanese American University in Beirut; and the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. As a whole, these groups and units engage in research and advocacy for egalitarian family laws, nationality rights for women, criminalization of domestic violence, greater economic participation, and political rights.

A major objective of Lebanese women's organizations has been increased political representation in parliament. Jordanian women have protested impunity of men in the so-called honor killings. Turkish women leaders in civil society secured amendments to the Civil Code and protested loudly when the government wanted to return adultery to the criminal code. Egyptian women's groups campaigned for the issuance of individual identity cards for women and for women's right to a khul divorce. Footnote 22 In 2008 a major campaign revolved around sexual harassment of women in the streets, with women's groups insisting on prosecution. Iranian feminists seek an overhaul of the penal code and an end to the punishment of stoning for adultery. They also desire what their sisters in Morocco obtained in 2004, which was a more egalitarian family code. The One Million Signature Petition drive, so important to the Moroccan women's movement in the early 1990s, has been adopted in Iran as well (Joseph 2000; Moghadam 2003; Naciri 2003 ). In demanding an end to discrimination, gender inequality, and human rights violations, such women's groups draw on what we might call world values (including the global women's rights agenda) as well as their own cultural understandings.

In the countries of the Persian Gulf, where women have been long excluded from political decision making, there has been a significant increase in women's NGO leadership roles. In turn, these roles have led to engagement with the political process. Research on Kuwait has shown that women's networking and involvement in professional associations is a strong predictor of engagement with the political process (Meyer et al. 2002 ).

In some cases, the growth of women's participation in NGOs is the result of state or development failures. Mary Osirim ( 2001 ) discusses the important role of women's NGOs in Zimbabwe in addressing women's social welfare and human rights concerns — in particular, HIV/ AIDS and gender-based violence — and in establishing social networks as a way to empower women in an otherwise untoward economic and political situation. Despite the increasing participation of women in civic associations throughout the world, decision making roles outside of women's own organizations remains largely the province of men. This is especially poignant in countries where women played important roles in the democratic transitions. Sociologist Seungsook Moon ( 2002 ) documents the marginalization of South Korean women from civil society leadership, despite the important roles they played in the 1970s labor movement and the 1980s democracy movement. In the Philippines, women's NGOs were active in the anti dictatorship movement of the 1970s and 1980s and thus assumed an important role in the post-Marcos period in shaping the state policies to further women's status and rights. When aid agencies entered the country after Marcos, women's NGOs were already prominent and well placed to access official ODA and to take the lead in a number of civil society organizations, including women's organizations (Angeles 2003 ). However, a mixed picture emerges with respect to professional associations and the other civic associa-tions. Footnote 23

Despite the obstacles, women civil society leaders have become agenda setters, inserting feminine voices and women's issues onto the public sphere. Along with the increase in women's parliamentary representation, women's civic activism has led in some cases to changes in the “gendered balance of power”. For example, in South Africa, many women involved in the anti-apartheid struggle went on to leadership roles in local and national government and in the judiciary. In Rwanda, after the war and the 1994 genocide subsided, activist women were well positioned to assume leadership and decision making roles (Paxton and Hughes 2007 : 170). In many Latin American countries, electoral quotas and legislation on domestic violence have followed women's civic activism. In Northern Ireland, the Women's Coalition entered the political process, and the other political parties adopted quotas for gender parity. In Algeria, the feminist movement that emerged in the 1980s first to protest the government's introduction of a new and very conservative Muslim family law and then to oppose the rising Islamist movement went on to demonstrate remarkable resilience during the 1990s civil conflict and terrorist campaigns. For this, activist women were rewarded in the summer of 2002 with an unprecedented five cabinet posts, representing 25% of cabinet seats at the time (Moghadam 2003).

The arena of conflict, peace, and security — long considered a male domain — has seen notable interventions by women's groups. Of course, women have been long involved in peace movements. The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was founded in 1915 by 1,300 women activists from Europe and North America opposed to what became known as World War I (Enloe 2007 : 14). Two WILPF leaders were awarded Nobel Peace Prizes: Jane Addams in 1931 and Emily Greene Balch in 1946. WILPF remains active to this day, and recently formed PeaceWomen as an information and monitoring website — a form of virtual activism — on women, peace, and security issues. Footnote 24 The activities of anti-militarist and human rights groups such as WILPF, Women Strike for Peace (U.S.), the Women of Greenham Common (U.K.), and the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Argentina) are well known. Research has documented women-led peace initiatives in Northern Ireland (for which Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan received the Nobel Peace Prize), Bosnia and Herzegovina (which saw activism by Women in Black), Israel-Palestine (through the Jerusalem Link as well as Women in Black), and Rwanda (through the Rwandan Women's Network) (Moghadam 2007). In the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, women were both the majority of peace activists and the first to lead protests against the war (Hunt 2004; Paxton and Hughes 2007 : 170). In Burundi, women's presence at the Arusha peace talks was facilitated by Nelson Mandela; in Northern Ireland, the Women's Coalition, which crossed sectarian lines to press for peace, took part in the first post-conflict elections (Fearon 1999; Burke 2001). In the 1990s and into the new millennium, transnational feminist networks such as Women for Women International emerged to focus on conflict, peace, and security. After the invasion of Iraq, anti war U.S. women took leading roles in new peace movements and organizations, such as United for Peace and Justice, and they created Code Pink: Women for Peace. Other important transnational feminist networks working on conflict, peace, and security issues are MADRE, the Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP), and the newly formed Nobel Women's Initiative (Moghadam 2009 ).

The role of women and feminist issues in the global justice movement and the World Social Forum (WSF) has been the subject of some discussion (Eschle 2005 ; Vargas 2005 ; Moghadam 2009 ). Studies now show that women are probably the majority of attendees at the WSF, and that the Feminist Dialogues attract a large number of participants. Transnational feminist networks such as DAWN and the Marche Mondiale des Femmes are among those represented on the WSF's International Council. The global justice movement and the WSF is known at least partially for their prominent women, including Arundhati Roy, Vandana Shiva, Naomi Klein, Virginia Vargas, Susan George, and Medea Benjamin. In calling for peace, economic justice, women's human rights, and human development, the women of the global justice movement also help to engender the path to global democracy.

Engendering Democracy

Historically, paths to democracy have differed, and, as Barrington Moore (1966) showed, there were varied and divergent paths in the Western world. Moore famously identified a modernizing — or revolutionary — bourgeoisie as key to the advent and sustainability of democracy. Even so, democratization was a slow, gradual process in the Western world. In the United States, for example, democracy was enjoyed first by property-owning white males, then extended to all men, and finally to women. In the southern states, blacks remained disenfranchised until well into the second half of the twentieth century, when the civil rights movement and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended the infamous Jim Crow laws that prevented American blacks from exercising political rights of citizenship. By that time, most of the world's women had received formal political rights, that is, the right to vote and stand for elections; in terms of international law, this was codified in the 1954 UN Convention on the Political Rights of Women. However, women remained a small proportion of those who enjoyed the benefits of democracy, such as political participation and representation. Moreover, despite the political rights, the gap between formal and substantive equality has been large — and especially large for women.

Democracy is assumed to serve women well, but the historical record shows that democratic transitions do not necessarily bring about women's participation and rights. Relevant examples are Eastern Europe in the early 1990s; Algeria and the elections that brought about an Islamist party (FIS) in 1990/1991; and Iraq and the Palestinian Authority, where elections in early 2006 brought to power governments committed more to religious norms than to citizen or women's rights. One reason for this “gender-based democratic deficit” is that existing definitions and understandings of democracy tend to focus on procedures and institutions. Liberal democracy is the model that is being touted in the contemporary era of globalization, as it is presumed to be the most compatible with liberal capitalism. Here, a high degree of political legitimacy is necessary, as is an independent judiciary and a constitution that clearly sets out the relationship between state and society, and citizen rights and obligations. In practice, however, “democracy” is often equated with “free and fair elections”. The problem is twofold. First, the distribution of political resources or power through competitive elections is an overly narrow definition of democracy; it obscures the importance of institutions, state capacity, and constitutional guarantees of rights no matter which party wins an election. Secondly, it occludes the gendered nature of politics and the longstanding exclusion of half the population. “Free and fair elections” may perpetuate the inequitable representation. Footnote 25

When and where are women's interests served by democratization, and democratization served by women's participation? Democratic transitions, like other types of social change, are influenced by internal and external factors and forces. How women fare during and after the transition similarly depends on a number of factors, including social structure, collective action, and the dominant ideology. Drawing on the gender and revolution literature (Moghadam 1997; Kampwirth 2002; Shayne 2004), one can identify the following: pre-existing gender relations and women's legal status and social positions before the transition; the extent of women's mobilizations before and during the transition, including the number and type of women's organizations and other institutions; the ideology, values, and norms of the ruling group; and the state's capacity and will to mobilize resources for rights-based development. This analysis finds its complement in Georgina Waylen's ( 2005 , 2007) discussion of key variables shaping women's experiences with democratic transitions: the nature of the transition; the role of women activists; the nature of the political parties and politicians involved in the transition; and the nature and institutional legacy of the non-democratic regime. In addition, research has found that party-list proportional representation systems, and countries where one of the primary political parties is leftist, have significantly more women in political decision making positions (Htun 2000 ; Paxton and Hughes 2007 ).

World polity theory can be helpful in explaining the salience of external factors: transnational links or the promotion of women by international organizations, for example, can positively affect the gender outcomes. World polity research has demonstrated that connections to the world society, which may be measured through treaty ratification or through the presence of international NGOs, impact a range of state-level outcomes including women's political citizenship (Ramirez et al. 1997 ).

These factors may help explain the variable outcomes for women in a number of democratic transitions. In Latin America, women's movements and organizations played an important role in the opposition to authoritarianism and made a significant contribution to the “end of fear” and the inauguration of the democratic transition. Here, women organized as feminists and as democrats, but also as mothers of the disappeared, and often allied themselves with left-wing parties. Especially in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, women's groups met, marched, and demonstrated for human rights, women's rights, and democracy. Though they were not the key actors in the negotiated transitions, they received institutional rewards when democratic governments were set up and their presence in the new parliaments increased. As Jane Jaquette ( 2001 : 114) observes:

“[F]eminist issues were positively associated with democratization, human rights, and expanded notions of citizenship that included indigenous rights as well as women's rights. This positive association opened the way for electoral quotas and increased the credibility of women candidates, who were considered more likely to care about welfare issues and less corrupt than their male counterparts.”

In contrast, East European women were not able to influence the transition and lost their key rights, as well as levels of representation, when the democratic governments were set up (Heinen 1992 ; Matland and Montgomery 2003). East European feminists coined the terms “male democracy” and “democratization with a male face” to describe the outcome of the transition from communism to liberal democracy, when women's representation in parliaments dropped dramatically from an average of 30% to 8–10%. The East European case showed that liberal democracy is not necessarily women-friendly and could in fact engender a male democracy, privileging men and limiting women's representation and voice. Although women had been mobilized before and during the transitions, the dominant ideology of the opposition movements and the new states were not consistent with an expanded definition and inclusive form of democracy.

In Algeria, the quick transition unsupported by strong institutions did not serve women well. Algeria had been ruled by a single party system in the “Arab socialist” style since its independence from France in 1962. The death of President Boumedienne in December 1978 brought about political and economic changes, including the growth of an Islamist movement that was intimidating unveiled women, and a government intent on economic restructuring. The urban riots of 1988 were followed quickly by a new constitution and elections, without a transitional period of democracy building. The electoral victory of the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) alarmed Algeria's feminist organizations. That the FIS went on to initiate an armed rebellion when it was not allowed to assume power following the 1991 elections only confirmed the violent nature of that party (Bennoune 1995; Cherifati-Merabtine 1995; Messaoudi and Schemla 1995; Moghadam 2001).

A more positive example comes from Morocco, where women's groups were central actors in the country's democratization during the 1990s. Indeed, the feminist campaigns for the reform of family laws, which began in the early 1990s, should be regarded as a key factor in the country's gradual liberalization during that decade. When Abdelrahman Yousefi, a socialist and former political prisoner, was appointed prime minister in 1998 and formed a progressive cabinet, women's groups allied themselves to the government with the goal of promoting both women's rights and a democratic polity (Sadiqi and Ennaji 2006 ; Skalli 2007 ). Footnote 26 Subsequently, Moroccan feminist organizations strongly endorsed the truth and justice commissions that were put in place to examine the years of repression. A number of Moroccan women leaders previously associated with left wing political groups (e.g., Latifa Jbabdi) gave testimony about physical and sexual abuse (Slyomovics 2005). In Morocco, these developments have enhanced the prominence of women activists. More generally, the Moroccan case confirms the democratic nature of women's movements.

Another positive example comes from Turkey. In the 1980s, at a time when Turkey's civil society was under tight military control, the new feminist movement helped to usher in democratization through campaigns and demands for women's rights, participation, and autonomy (Arat 1994 ). The important role of women in the anti-apartheid and democratic movement of South Africa is yet another historic example (Tripp 2001 ). In South Africa as well as in Northern Ireland, Burundi, and Rwanda, women's roles in the democratic transitions were acknowledged and rewarded with political party quotas, gender budgets, and well-resourced women's research and policy centers. In turn, such initiatives to support and promote women's participation and rights reinforce and institutionalize the democratic institutions.

Women, Gender and Politics in the Middle East

There is a lively debate among political scientists regarding the relations among Islam, attitudes toward women and gender equality, and the democracy deficit. The World Values Survey's fourth wave included a number of Muslim-majority countries, and among its principal findings were high support for democracy and for Islam, but low support for gender equality. Footnote 27 The Muslim Brothers of Egypt, for example, call for “the freedom of forming political parties” and “independence of the judiciary system”, but they also call for “conformity to Islamic Sharia Law,” which is not conducive to gender equality or the equality of Muslim and non Muslim citizens in all domains (Brown, Hamzawy, and Ottaway 2006).

Commentators emphasize the need to establish “the core of democracy — getting citizens the ability to choose those who hold the main levers of political power and creating checks and balances through which state institutions share power” (Carothers and Ottaway 2005: 258). Such commentators envisage a scenario in which political parties are allowed to form and compete with each other in elections, and they have focused on the participation (and transformation) of Islamist parties as key to the transition to democracy. However, they tend to overlook what are in fact a key constituency, a natural ally, and social base of a democratic politics — women and their feminist organizations. In the Arab region and Iran, questions of democratization and questions of women's rights have emerged more or less in tandem. They are closely intertwined and mutually dependent, and the fate of one is closely bound to the fate of the other. There are at least two reasons for this claim.

One is that women in MENA — and especially the constituency of women's rights advocates — are the chief proponents of democratic development and of its correlates of civil liberties, participation, and inclusion. The region's feminists are among the most vocal advocates of democracy, and frequently refer to themselves as part of the “democratic” or “modernist” forces of society. For example, a Tunisian feminist lawyer has said: “We recognize that, in comparison with other Arab countries, our situation is better, but still we have common problems, such as an authoritarian state. Our work on behalf of women's empowerment is also aimed at political change and is part of the movement for democratization.” Footnote 28 In 2008, a prominent Tunisian feminist organization, AFTURD, issued a statement declaring “that no development, no democracy can be built without women's true participation and the respect of fundamental liberties for all, men and women.” Footnote 29

A second reason is that women have a stake in strong and sustainable democracies, but — as we have seen — they can be harmed by weak or exclusionary political processes. Women can pay a high price when a democratic process that is institutionally weak, or is not founded on principles of equality and the rights of all citizens, or is not protected by strong institutions, allows a political party bound by patriarchal norms to come to power and to immediately institute laws relegating women to second class citizenship. This was the Algerian feminist nightmare, which is why so many educated Algerian women opposed the FIS after its expansion in 1989. Thus, Middle Eastern feminists are aware that they can be harmed by an electoral politics that occurs in the absence of a strong institutional and legal framework for women's civil, political, and social rights of citizenship. Hence, their insistence on egalitarian family laws, criminalization of domestic violence, and nationality rights for women — along with enhanced employment and political participation.

There is evidence that women, and more precisely employed women, have different political preferences from men, with a tendency to vote in a more leftward direction, in particular supporting public services (Manza and Brooks 1998 ; Huber and Stephens 2000 ; Inglehart and Norris 2003 ). A plausible connection also may be made between the sustained presence of a “critical mass” of women in political decision making and the establishment of stable and peaceful societies. If the Nordic model of high rates of women's participation and rights correlates with peaceful, prosperous, and stable societies, could the expansion of women's participation and rights in the Middle East also lead the way to stability, security, and welfare in the region, not to mention an effective democratic governance?

Whereas the modernizing bourgeoisie was the lynchpin of democracy in Barrington Moore's schema on the transition from agrarian to industrial society, an argument can be made that today it is the “modernizing women” of the Middle East and North Africa who are the principal agents of democratization (and of cultural change) in the region. An increase in their social participation, especially in decision making, may very well accelerate the democratic transition. As Ann Phillips has theorized and women's rights groups have argued, a democratic system without women's human rights and gender equality is an incomplete and inferior form of democracy.

There is evidence that those in and around the Arab Human Development Report understand this, even though the 2004 report on freedom lacked strong gender insights while the 2005 report on women lacked attention to the democratic deficit. Footnote 30 Nonetheless, the 2004 Report's definition of “good governance” (a term it prefers to “democracy”) is consistent with the argument made above, as it underlines the importance of “first-rate institutions”, the safeguarding of freedoms, “full representation of the public at large”, and a separation of powers. Footnote 31

And what of women's groups in the region? How do they view opportunities for political participation and for democratic development? A workshop that took place in Amman, Jordan in December 2005 assembled women's rights activists from an array of countries in the Gulf, the Maghreb, and the Mashrek, some of whom were current members of parliament (e.g., in Iraq's National Assembly) and others were preparing to run in upcoming elections (e.g., in Kuwait and in Jordan). Footnote 32 Below are some representative quotes:

“The community gives women the role of sister and mother. We say that yes, we are sisters and mothers, but we are more than this.” [Kuwait] “Women have allies in the government, sometimes. But the government also defends violent Islamists who attack women. The government is never a strategic ally for women — it is not committed to women's rights. Governments work with the Islamist movements against us.” [Kuwait] “We are in favor of democracy. All countries went through a difficult stage of building democracy. Islamists should come to power and show themselves to be capable of doing good or of being incompetent. Let the Islamists join the parliamentary process. They will get exposed as having no program or plan. The problem in our country, though, is that too many people are selected and appointed.” [Jordan] “The performance of both men and women in the parliaments has been inferior. In general the political parties are weak. Only the Islamic ones are strong. We need and we want a culture of democracy.” [Jordan] “Too often, the wives of kings, presidents and sheikhs take a leading role, rather than grassroots organizations. In my country we have a façade of change, but no real change. Women have been going backwards, in terms of family, education, religion, and political participation.” [Egypt] “Democracy should be discussed at all levels — micro, meso, macro. Not just national politics, but also family, organizations, enterprises.” [Morocco] “My party [YSP] did not nominate me even though I'd been with them for 35 years. Instead, it nominated a man. So I decided to run as an independent. This needed to be endorsed by 300 people. But in one week I got 450 signatures. Some said I should start a new political party, which by law requires a minimum of 250 people.” [Yemen] “My political party list includes a cross-section of society. I am in my party's central committee, but the party does not have women in senior political positions.” [Kurdestan, Iraq] “Women's rights and children's rights are not a priority in the national agenda. Many of the women who came to parliament did not have political experience. We could not form a women's lobby because the process was so rushed. And in the National Assembly, we did not have any rooms to work in and meet as a caucus.” [Iraq] “In our country the judiciary will be important, because it will make many of the major decisions. But at the moment there are only 8 women judges compared with 468 male judges.” [Iraq]

The same group discussed strategies for building democracy with women, and emphasized the following: working within the political parties to integrate women's rights into party platforms; coalitions between women's organizations, political parties, and trade unions; engaging in Islamic ijtihad ; advocating for true democracy; working for equality clauses in constitutions; reform of family laws to ensure gender equality; working with media; advocating for a quota system; support for women candidates; international linkages.

Eric Hobsbawm ( 2005 ) has correctly noted that the conditions for effective democratic governance are rare: an existing state enjoying legitimacy, consent, and the ability to mediate conflicts between domestic groups. But, how to establish those conditions? How to prevent “democracy without democrats” (Salamé 1994), “autocracy with democrats” (Brumberg 2002 ), or “illiberal democracy” (Zakaria 2003 )? The argument made here is that the road to democracy must be paved with programs for women's empowerment, institutions for gender equality, and policies to increase women's political participation in government, in political parties, in the judiciary, and in the civil society.

A gender analysis is needed for a deeper understanding of democracy and of the democratic transitions. Women arguably may need democracy in order to flourish, but the converse is equally true: democracy needs women if it is to be inclusive, representative, and enduring. If exclusion — including the exclusion of women — is part of the logic of the authoritarian state, as in the Middle East, then enhancing women's roles in the political process could help to change the nature of the state.

The Impact of Women'S Representation and Participation

The question of what “difference” can be made by women's presence has been a subject of studies in the areas of management and organizational behavior, and has been popularized by Carol Gilligan's work on women's “different voice(s)”. Hypotheses may be termed “optimistic” and “pessimistic.” Gender standpoint theory would suggest that women — because of their social positions — bring a different experience and perspective into decision making and leadership. Hughes ( 2008 ) notes that a growing body of research shows that female legislators around the world articulate different policy priorities, introduce different bills, and vote differently than their male counterparts. On the other hand, and in a more pessimistic vein, feminizing an institution or increasing the number of women in political positions could simply reinforce the prevailing power structure. Feminist legal scholar Catherine MacKinnon (1983) argues that such incorporation without transformation is inevitable under conditions of patriarchy (or capitalism or authoritarianism), and especially in the domains of law and the judiciary. In other words, rather than transforming institutions, the women within those institutions would feel obligated to conform to the prevailing norms. This line of thinking is consistent with the theory of “the power elite” and with Marxian notions of class privilege (Zweigenhaft and Domhoff 2006).

Nevertheless, an observed impact of women's leadership roles has been in the area of policy and legal changes, institutional changes, and normative shifts. Three examples are offered here: (1) development policy decisions, (2) national and international legislation pertaining to violence against women, and (3) social dialogues and legislation pertaining to women, work, and family. We also examine research on attitudinal changes.

Development Policy Decisions

A growing literature has drawn attention to the impact of research and advocacy by transnational feminist networks and their allies in women's policy agencies on broad policy dialogues and decisions pertaining to the role of women in development and specifically on gender, structural adjustments, and poverty (Meyer and Prugl 1999 ; O'Brien et al 2000 ; Moghadam 2005). Both “efficiency” and women's rights arguments have framed the debates on women-in-development and gender-and-development, and a consensus now exists that economic and social development suffers when women are marginalized or insufficiently involved at various levels of the development process (Blumberg 1989; Karshenas 2001). International organizations and many government agencies acknowledge that the impacts of economic policy decisions are gender-differentiated and gender-specific, and that women as a group tend to bear heavy burdens in the realms of production and reproduction alike. Institutions such as the World Bank ( 2001 ) and the UNDP have integrated gender analysis into their own research products and policy advice. Gender budgets, gender audits, and gender mainstreaming are now standard discourses and mechanisms in international development circles and in many national contexts, and gender equality units exist in government agencies across the globe.

Impact on Violence-Against-Women Policy Decisions

Another body of research documents the impact of women's participation and representation on legislation pertaining to violence against women (Keck and Sikkink 1998 ; Weldon 2002 ). A turning point came with the UN's third World Conference on Women, which took place in Nairobi in 1985. The outcome document, The Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies , included violence against women as a priority for the international community, and the UN's Commission on the Status of Women subsequently took on the issue. An expert group meeting convened in 1991 in Vienna, Austria and proposed a draft declaration on the elimination of violence against women. The confluence of women in decision making positions at the level of government (e.g., the women represented in the UN's Commission on the Status of Women, as well as feminists in various government ministries across the globe) and at the level of the women's movement and movement agencies (e.g., the U.S.-based Campaign for Women's Global Leadership, spearheaded by the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University) greatly influenced the deliberations at the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993. The results included both international legislation and nationally based laws to criminalize domestic abuse, sexualized aggression at times of war, and the other forms of violence against women. On the international front, Security Council Resolution 1325 on women and peace and security, adopted in October 2000, was a milestone in addressing violence against women in situations of armed conflict.

In Argentina, Chile, Brazil and elsewhere, women leaders have led the way with legislation on violence against women. Footnote 33 In November 2003, a law was enacted requiring both public and private health services throughout Brazil to notify the authorities of all cases of violence against women they treat. In March 2004, an Interministerial Working Group was established, with members representing both civil society (including women's groups) and government, to draft a law and set up additional instruments to tackle domestic violence against women. The Group drew up a legislative proposal that was submitted by the Executive Branch to the National Congress in the late 2004. In August 2006, Law 11.340 (also known as the Maria da Penha law) was adopted, establishing the measures for prevention, assistance and protection for women suffering from violence. It provides for the creation of Courts for Domestic and Family Violence against Women, with both civil and crimination jurisdiction, as well as a specialized police service for women, in particular at Women's Police Stations that offer a variety of services to abused women (Jaquette 2009).

Elsewhere, Spain's Protection from Violence Act ( Ley Integral ) of 2004 was developed with strong involvement from women's organizations and contains a wide definition of violence including psychological forms of violence, such as sexual aggression, threat, compulsion, coercion and deprivation of free will. The law covers preventive and educational measures, as well as protection and assistance for victims and new sanctions against perpetrators. Mongolia's Domestic Violence Law, enacted in May 2004, was the result of a collaboration between two prominent Mongolian women's NGOs and the parliamentary domestic violence legislative task force. Footnote 34

Algerian women's rights activists associated with the country's main trade union, along with the results of a survey conducted by women's groups that highlighted the problem of domestic violence, helped effect a law to penalize sexual harassment, and established the country's first centre d'écoute, or counseling center, under the auspices of the country's main trade union, the UGTA. In India, women lawyers have presented arguments in the country's constitutional court pertaining to violence against women. They have argued for greater enforcement of laws criminalizing domestic violence, including the so-called dowry deaths (Saxena 2006 ).

Social Dialogues and Legislation Pertaining to Women, Work, and Family

Women's civic and political leadership has “engendered” public discourses, or inserted feminine voices or “women's issues” in social dialogues and policy debates. These include reproductive health and rights (e.g., in Latin America and the U.S.), women's rights to equality in the family and in family law (e.g., the Middle East and North Africa), the right to work and earn a living (e.g., Bangladesh), the right to inherit property (Uganda and some other African countries), violence against women (all regions), and political participation and representation (all regions). Social dialogues have addressed the need for mechanisms to ban workplace sexual harassment, bring about a more “level playing field” for employed women, “break the glass ceiling”, ensure work family balance, and redistribute care work through paternity leaves, longer paid maternity leaves, and quality child care centers. In South Africa, hours for parliamentary debates were changed to accommodate the growing number of women MPs. Even in the United States, where social policies for working families are far less generous than in Europe, one analyst points to progress at the level of public discussions. She notes, for example, that every year, Fortune magazine names the “100 Best Companies to Work Force” while Working Mother magazine ranks the “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers.” Benefits geared toward the family are at the heart of both lists. Footnote 35

Attitudinal Changes

The impact of women in politics also has been felt in terms of societal values and changes in public opinion pertaining to gender relations and to women's political leadership. Results of the World Values Survey show a broad societal support for gender equality, albeit more so in some regions than in others. Thus, one impact of the trend toward greater participation and representation by women has been to change attitudes in a broadly egalitarian direction. For example, on the WVS question: Men make better political leaders than women do , the strongest disagreement — from other than Europe and North America — comes from Latin America, where nearly 60% of those surveyed either disagree or strongly disagree with the statement. Among women in the Latin American countries surveyed, the total in disagreement came to 66.6%.

Responses in Sub-Saharan Africa were notably different, and most of the publics surveyed agreed that men make better political leaders: total 60.6%, women 62%. The exception was South Africa, where 55% of those surveyed disagreed or strongly disagreed, and among women, fully 66% disagreed. Responses in Asia tended to be on the conservative side, too, with more respondents agreeing (58%) than disagreeing. The most conservative responses on the question came from the Middle East and North Africa, where between 70% and 80% of the publics in Iraq, Jordan, Egypt; and Saudi Arabia agreed or strongly agreed that men make better political leaders than women. What these response patterns suggest is a certain causal relationship: as more women enter into positions of leadership, a positive impact on attitudinal changes follows.

The analysis of the World Value Survey's data by political scientists Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris finds that in many societies, women hold more left leaning values than men do in their attitudes toward the appropriate role of the state versus the market, favoring an active government intervention in social protection and public ownership. Employed women are more likely to support a kind of social democracy. The data also suggests a generational gap in which the younger generation is more “modern”, open to social change and left leaning. If this continues to be the case, the process of generational population replacement will continue toward more leftward values and decisions.

Women in National and Local Government: Making a Difference?

Some scholars argue that at a tipping point of 10% or 15%, women legislators feel free to express their distinctive concerns (Paxton and Hughes, 2007 : 209). Others argue that issues of special concerns to female representatives permeate the legislative bodies as women's representation nears parity (30% or 40%). According to one view,

“Greater female political participation consistently leads to more even-handed policy-making. In Rwanda, where women hold nearly half of the seats in parliament, a desperately poor nation is close to achieving full healthcare coverage for its citizens. Across Scandinavia, the presence of women in prominent political roles has led to unprecedented investments in education and job training. World Bank studies now indicate that female political empowerment often leads to less corruption” (Ramdas 2008 : 69).

In the mid 1980s, when the United States under president Ronald Reagan was well into a very conservative era in domestic and foreign policy and the Equal Rights Amendment had been defeated, groups of feminists in various locales decided to enter local politics to make a difference. For example, the Santa Barbara Women's Political Committee (SBWPC) has fielded candidates for local office since 1987. According to a recent article by a founding member, “women were more likely than men to vote for social programs, gun control, and arms and were against military expenditures and nuclear power” (Lindemann 2008 ).

One study of British female MPs found that nearly half of them spoke directly about women's concerns. As one female MP explained, “I've become increasingly aware that there are issues that affect women disproportionately and that unless women pursue them nobody else will.” About a third of the women interviewed said they felt their female constituents were more comfortable talking to them about women's issues. And what of the type of bills that female legislators support? The fairly limited research in this area shows that women may prioritize issues differently from their male colleagues. In Sweden, female members of parliament are more likely than men to give high priority to family policy, elder care, and health care. Similarly, in a survey of 292 MPs from Argentina, Columbia, and Costa Rica, 65% of female legislators stated “women's equality” as a very high priority, compared with only 25% of male legislators. And 43% of female legislators felt children's and family issues are a very priority, compared with 28% of men. In contrast, male legislators were more likely to prioritize agriculture and employment issues (Paxton and Hughes 2007 : 193). However, one U.S. based study found that gender appears more important for “feminist” bills and less so for the bills categorized as “social welfare bills” (Swers 2002 ). Political culture continues to matter.

Conclusions

Feminists long have criticized the gap between formal and substantive equality, along with women's exclusion from political decision making. Since at least the Beijing conference, these issues have been placed on the global agenda, and various mechanisms, such as gender-based quotas, have been proposed to ensure and enhance women's political participation and representation.

Why women's political participation matters may be summarized as equity and impact . Social justice and gender equity require greater participation by marginalized or under represented social groups, one of which is women . Contemporary notions of equity have coincided with the emergence of social movements of various types, of which the women's movement has been especially prominent. The demands of the global women's movement have included greater access to economic and political decision making to achieve equality, but also to make a difference in societies and in the world.

As for the impact that women in politics have made, the evidence shows that women's extraparliamentary political activism has contributed to major political, policy, and legal changes. From the democratic transitions to family law reform, women's political participation in civil society has indeed made a difference. Across the world, women's movements have been the vehicles by which states have become more democratic as well as more gender-equitable. In the realm of formal politics, the evidence is mixed: in some countries and in some periods, women legislators prioritize social welfare and the social dimensions of “hard” issues. This is especially true in the domain of local politics, but also appears to be the case in a number of European and Latin American countries. Elsewhere, however, women legislators and their voting patterns may reflect party positions — as well as the wider political culture.

In defense of the equity argument, however, political theorist Ann Phillips has explained that women have interests, experiences, values and expertise that are different from those of men, due principally to their social positions. At the very least, therefore, women must be represented in formal politics. As political philosopher Nancy Fraser has noted (Fraser and Naples 2004 ), the contemporary emphasis on women's involvement in decision making reflects the evolution of women's own demands from redistribution to recognition to representation. In fact, these three demands are not separate or mutually exclusive; certainly, today's call for representation is also a call for redistribution (of power and resources) as well as recognition.

Other domains include civil society (including professional associations and trade unions), the judiciary, academia, the media, and corporate boards.

The global women's rights agenda is found in a number of international instruments sponsored by the United Nations. The key ones are the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (adopted in 1979, in force in 1981); the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (September 1995), which calls for women's empowerment and human rights in the family, economy, and polity; and Security Council Resolution 1325, on women, peace and security (October 2000). Goal 3 of the eight Millennium Development Goals, adopted by the international community in the year 2000, pertains to ending gender inequalities in literacy, employment, and decision-making.

This has been true of the major contributions on the subject, including of Machiavelli, Clauswitz, Max Weber, C. Wright Mills, and Steven Lukes. Michel Foucault viewed power largely pessimistically as almost totalitarian, while Karl Marx recognized power as a class phenomenon that was subject to change (e.g., the power of the bourgeoisie over the proletariat, and the capacity of the proletariat to empower itself through revolution).

Here power is understood not as an individual trait but in structural terms as deriving from and inhering in social relationships. See Mackinnon (1989); Connell (1987); Lorber (1994).

The literature is growing: Alvarez ( 1990 ); Waylen ( 1994 , 2007); Jaquette (1994, 2001); Jaquette and Wolchik (1998); Zulu (2000); Tripp ( 2001 ); Fallon (2008).

For the prospects of democratization in the Middle East — but without attention to gender issues — see Diamond et al (2003); Brumberg ( 2002a ); Carothers and Ottaway (2005).

See also http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/

Since 1995, international datasets have sought to capture women's participation in decision-making, including involvement in formal political structures. The UNDP's annual Human Development Report contains such measures. In addition to its thematic discussion, each report includes statistical tables that rank countries according to levels of human development (HDI): high, medium, and low. In turn, these rankings are corrected for gender equality/inequality (GDI). The GEM is an index that measures women's empowerment in the economy and the polity.

See also www.wedo.org and www.learningpartnership.org

See: http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/world.htm; http://hdr.undp.org/en/; http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/ products/indwm/wwpub2005.htm

Some Moroccan parties have introduced a quota. Iraq introduced a 25% quota, which Iraqi women activists welcomed (though they had asked for 30%), but the continuing conflict and lack of security prevent women from fully participating in the political process.

See http://www.cities-localgovernments.org/uclg/index.asp?pag=wldmstatistics.asp&type=&L=EN&pon=1

The UN regional commissions are: Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), and Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA). CEDAW reports are submitted periodically to the committee charged with monitoring compliance, and may be obtained through the UN website.

CEDAW Report for Korea, C/KOR/6, 5 March 2007, p. 21.

CEDAW Report for Tanzania, C/TZA/6, 16 April 2007, p. 17

http://www.accessdemocracy.org

http://www.cities-localgovernments.org/uclg/index.asp?pag=wldmstatistics.asp&type=&L=EN&pon=1

These amendments also have provisions for representation of Scheduled Castes and Tribes in local assemblies; the 1/3 reservation for women also applies for these reserved seats.

CEDAW Report for India, C/IND/2–3, 19 October 2005, pp. 52–55. http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/572/16/PDF/N0557216.pdf?OpenElement, See also Government of India (2006).

CEDAW Report for India (ibid.)

See also Al-Raida , special issue on Women's Centers in the Arab World (vol. XVII–XVIII, no. 90–91, Summer/Fall 2000), published by the Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World, Lebanese American University, Beirut.

A khul divorce allows a woman to obtain a divorce but forfeit her mahr (the dower given by the groom).

According the 2004 CEDAW Report, 8 of the 22 national officers (36%) in the Philippine Medical Association are women, although the ratio is much lower at the provincial level. But in the Philippine Dental Association, only 9% of the officers are women, even if 68% of the total membership is female. CEDAW/C/PHI/5–6 (2004).

http://www.peacewomen.org

Recent history suggests that elections operate differently in mature democracies than in immature ones. For example, women lost out politically in the first set of “democratic” elections in post-communist Eastern Europe. In Algeria, an overly quick transition from “Arab socialism” to free elections in 1990 led to the victory of the Front Islamique du Salut, which promised to institute Sharia law, enforce veiling, and end competitive elections. In Iraq and Afghanistan, elections under conditions of conflict, occupation, and weak state capacity have hardly changed the “facts on the ground”, including Shia domination in Iraq, high illiteracy in Afghanistan, and women's insecurity in both countries. This also has rendered the gender quotas ineffectual in both countries.

The minister of women and family affairs in the Yousefi cabinet, Mohammad Said Saadi, a communist, was an ardent supporter of women's rights and of the reform of the family law that the feminist organizations were promoting.

See, for example, El-Braizat ( 2002 ); Tessler ( 2002 ); Inglehart and Norris ( 2003 ); Rizzo (2005); Jamal ( 2005 ). The Arab Human Development Report 2005 reported more encouraging findings, on the basis of its own survey — which, however, has been called methodologically flawed (Mark Tessler, personal communication, Washington D.C., 26 October 2008).

Bochra Ben Hmida of Femmes Democrates, in a conversation with the author, Helsinki, Finland, 9 September 2004.

AFTURD, Declaration: Fighting Against Attempts at Regression , issued on the occasion of Tunisian Women's Day, 26 September 2008. (Received by the author from the organization.)

See UNDP 2004, 2006. Sec also http://www.arab-hdr.org/about.asp

AHDR, 2004: Towards Freedom in the Arab World , p. 8.

Middle East Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, conference on “Strategizing Women's Role in Influencing Legislation”, Amman, Jordan, 2–5 December 2005.

For a listing of the relevant laws in Latin America and the Caribbean, see http://www.oas.org/cim/English/ LawsViolence.htm

In-depth study on all forms of violence against women: Report of the Secretary-General , A/61/122/Add.1 (6 July 2006), paragraphs 308–309.

Shelley MacDermid, director of the Center for the Study of Families at Purdue University, cited in Jugglezine, “The State of the Workplace: How much ‘family friendly’ ground have we gained?,” January 5, 2001 http://www. hermanmiller.com/CDA/juggle/0,1516,64,00.html

Alvarez, Sonia (1990). Engendering Democracy in Brazil: The Women's Movements in Transition Politics . Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Google Scholar  

Angeles, Leonora C. 2003. “Creating social space for transnational feminist advocacy: the Canadian International Development Agency, the National Commission on the role of Filipino women and the Philippine women's NGOs.” The Canadian Geographer , Volume 47, Number 3, pp. 283–302.

Article   Google Scholar  

Arat, Yesim (1994). “Toward a Democratic Society: The Women's Movement in Turkey in the 1980s”, International Women's Studies Forum , vol. 17, 241–48.

Bennoune, Karima (1995). “S.O.S. Algeria: Women's Human Rights Under Siege.” In Mahnaz Afkhami (ed.), Faith and Freedom: Women's Human Rights . Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press.

Blumberg, Rae Lesser. 1989. Making the Case for the Gender Variable . Washington, D.C.: USAID Office for Women in Development.

Brown, Nathan, Amr Hamzawy, Marina S. Ottaway. 2006. “Islamist Movements and the Democratic Process in the Arab World: Exploring Gray Zones”. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Paper No. 67 (March) http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/cp_67_grayzones_final.pdf

Brumberg, Daniel. 2002. “Democracy in the Arab World? The Trap of Liberalized Autocracy.” Journal of Democracy , vol. 13, no. 4 (October): 54–68.

Burke, E.D. 2001. Engendering Peace: Reflections on the Burundi Peace Process . Nairobi: UNIFEM.

Carroll, Berenice. 1972. “Peace Research: The Cult of Power.” The Journal of Conflict Resolution , vol. 16, no. 4: 585–616.

Carothers, Thomas and Marina S. Ottaway, eds. 2005. Uncharted Journey: Promoting Democracy in the Middle East . Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Cherifati-Merabtine, Doria. 1995. “Algerian Women at a Crossroads: National Liberation, Islamization, and Women”, pp. 40–62 in Valentine M. Moghadam, ed., Gender and National Identity: Women and Politics in Muslim Societies . London: Zed Books.

Connell, R.W. 1987. Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics . Cambridge: Polity Press.

Diamond, Larry, Marc F. Plattner and Daniel Brumberg (eds.). 2003. Islam and Democracy in the Middle East . Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Di Marco, Graciela, et al. 2005. Democratizacion de las familias . Buenos Aires: UNICEF.

El-Braizat, Fares. 2002. “Muslims and Democracy: An Empirical Critique of Fukuyama's Culturalist Approach.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 43: 269–99.

Enloe, Cynthia. 2007. Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link . Rowman & Littlefield.

— —. Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

Eschle, Catherine. 2005. “ ‘Skeleton Woman’: Feminism and the Antiglobalization Movement”, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society , vol. 30, no. 3: 1742–1769.

— —. 2000. Global Democracy, Social Movements and Feminism . Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Fallon, Kathleen. 2008. Democracy and the Rise of Women's Movements in Sub-Saharan Africa . Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Fearon, K. 1999. Women's Work: The Story of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition . Belfast: Blackstaff Press.

Fraser, Nancy and Nancy A. Naples. 2004. “To Interpret the World and to Change It: An Interview with Nancy Fraser”. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society , vol. 29, no. 4 (Summer): 1103–24.

Ghammari, Behrooz. 2008. “Municipal Elections and Democratic Change in Iran.” Unpublished paper.

Government of India. 2006. Women and Men in India 2006 . New Delhi: Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Central Statistical Organization. http://www.mospi.gov.in

Heinen, Jacqueline. 1992. “Polish Democracy is a Masculine Democracy.” Women's Studies International Forum . Vol. 15, no. 1:129–138.

Hobsbawm, Eric. 2005. “The Dangers of Exporting Democracy: Bush's Crusade is Based on a Dangerous Illusion and Will Fail”, The Guardian (UK), 22 January.

Htun, Mala N. 2000, Women's Leadership in Latin America: Trends and Challenges , New School University, Inter-American Dialogue (August).

Huber, Evelyne and John D. Stephens. 2000. “Partisan governance, women's employment, and the social democratic service state.” American Sociological Revie . Vol. 65: 323–342.

Hughes, Melanie. 2008. Politics at the Intersection: A Cross-National Analysis of Minority Women's Legislative Representation . Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University.

Hunt, Swanee. 2004. This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace . Durham, North Carolina and London: Duke University Press.

Inglehart, Ronald and Pippa Norris. 2003. “The True Clash of Civilizations.” Foreign Policy 135 (March/April): 63–70.

— —. 2003. Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change around the World (Cambridge University Press).

Jamal, Amaney. 2005. “Reassessing Support for Islam and Democracy in the Arab World? Evidence from Egypt and Jordan.” Paper presented at 2005 annual meetings of APSA (1–4 September).

Jaquette, Jane. 2001. “Regional Differences and Contrasting Views.” Journal of Democracy vol. 12, no. 3 (July): 11–125.

— —. (ed.). 1994. The Women's Movement in Latin America: Participation and Democracy (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2nd ed.).

— —. (ed.). 2009. Feminist Agendas and Democracy in Latin America . Duke University Press.

Jaquette, Jane and Sharon Wolchik (eds.). 1998. Women and Democracy: Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe . Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Joseph, Suad (ed.). 2001. Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East . Syracuse University Press.

Kampwirth (2002), Lister, Ruth. 1997. Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives . London: Macmillan.

Karshenas, M. 2001. “Economic Liberalization, Competitiveness, and Women's Employment in the Middle East and North Africa”, pp. 147–69 in Djavad Salehi-Esfahani (ed.), Labour and Human Capital in the Middle East . Reading, UK: Ithaca Press.

Keck, Margaret and Kathryn Sikkink. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics . Cornell University Press.

Lindemann, Barbara. 2008. “The Right Times for Feminism”, Independent (Santa Barbara), March 13, p. 13.

Lorber, Judith. 1994. Paradoxes of Gender . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Lukes, Steven. 2005. Power: A Radical View . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (2nd ed.).

Mackinnon, Catherine A. 1989. Toward a Feminist Theory of the State . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Manza, Jeff and Clem Brooks. 1998. “The Gender Gap in U.S Presidential Elections: When? Why? Implications?” American Journal of Sociology , vol. 103, no. 5: 1235–66.

Matland, Richard E. and Kathleen A. Montgomery (eds.). 2003. Women's Access to Political Power in Post-Communist Europe . London & NY: Oxford University Press.

Messaoudi, Khalida and Elisabeth Schemla. 1995. Unbowed: An Algerian Woman Confronts Islamic Fundamentalism . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Meyer, Katherine, Helen Rizzo, and Yousef Ali. 2002. “Women's Political Rights: Islam, Status and Networks in Kuwait. Sociology , 36, pp. 639–662

Meyer, Mary K. and Elisabeth Prugl (eds.). 1999. Gender Politics in Global Governance . Rowman & Littlefield.

Moghadam, Valentine M. and Fatima Sadiqi. 2006. “Women's Activism and the Public Sphere: Introduction and Overview.” Journal of Middle East Women's Studies , vol. 2, no. 2 (Spring): 1–7.

Moghadam, Valentine M. 2009. Globalization and Social Movements: Islamism, Feminism, and the Global Justice Movement . Rowman & Littlefield.

— — 2007. “Peace-building and Reconstruction with Women: Reflections on Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine.” Pp. 327–352 in V. M. Moghadam (ed.), From Patriarchy to Empowerment: Women's Participation, Movements, and Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia . Syracuse University Press.

— —. 2005. Globalizing Women: Transnational Feminist Networks . Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

— —. 2004. “The Gender of Democracy: Linking Women's Rights and Democratization in the Middle East.” Arab Reform Bulletin vol. 2, issue 7 (July).

— —. 2003. Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East . Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers. 2nd ed.

— —. 2001. “Organizing Women: The New Women's Movement in Algeria.” Cultural Dynamics , vol. 13, no. 2 (July): 131–154.

— —. 1998. Women, Work, and Economic Reform in the Middle East and North Africa . Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

— —. 1997. “Gender and Revolutions.” Pp. 137–165 in John Foran, ed., Theorizing Revolutions . London and New York: Routledge.

Moon, Seungsook. 2002. “Carving out space: civil society and the women's movement in South Korea.” The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 61, Number 2, pp. 473–500.

Moore, Barrington. 1966. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy . Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Naciri, Rabea. 2003. “The Women's Movement in the Maghreb: with emphasis on Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria.” Al-Raida , issue 100 (vol. XX, Winter): 20–28.

Nanivadekar, Medha. 2005. Indian Experience of Women's Quota in Local Government: Implications for future strategies , UNDAW, Expert group on the Equal participation of women and men in decision-making processes, with particular emphasis on political participation and leadership (24–27 Oct.).

O'Brien, Robert, Anne-Marie Goetz, Jan Aart Scholte, and Marc Williams. 2000. Contesting Global Governance: Multilateral Economic Institutions and Global Social Movements . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Book   Google Scholar  

Osirim, Mary Johnson. 2001. “Making good on commitments to grassroots women: NGOs and empowerment for women in contemporary Zimbabwe.” Women's Studies International Forum , Volume 24, Number 2, pp. 167–180.

Paxton, Pamela and Melanie Hughes. 2007. Women, Politics, and Power . Pine Forge. 2007: 209

Peterson, Spike V. and Anne Sisson Runyan. 1993. Global Gender Issues . Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Phillips, Anne. 1991. Engendering Democracy . University Park, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

— —. 1995. The Politics of Presence: The Political Representation of Gender, Ethnicity and Race . Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.

Ramdas, Kavita. 2008. “A Woman's Worth”, Foreign Policy (January/February).

Ramirez, Francisco, Yasemin Soysal, and Susanne Shanahan. 1997. “The Changing Logic of Political Citizenship: Cross-national Acquisition of Women's Suffrage Rights, 1890 to 1990.” American Sociological Review 62(October): 735–745.

Rizzo, Helen Mary. 2005. Islam, Democracy and the Status of Women: The Case of Kuwait . New York and London: Routledge.

Sadiqi, Fatima and Moha Ennaji. 2006. “The Feminization of Public Space: Women's Activism, the Family Law, and Social Change in Morocco.” Journal of Middle East Women's Studies vol. 2, no. 2 (Spring): 86–114.

Salamé, Ghassan (ed.). 1994. Democracy without Democrats? The Renewal of Politics in the Muslim World . London and New York: I.B. Taurus.

Saxena, Poonam. 2006. “The Menace of Dowry: Laaws, Interpretation, and Implementation.” Pp. 258–77 in V. M. Moghadam (ed.), From Patriarchy to Empowerment: Women's Participation, Movements, and Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia . Syracuse University Press.

Shayne, Julie. 2004. The Revolution Question: Feminisms in El Salvador, Chile, and Cuba . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Skalli, Loubna Hanna. 2007. “Women, Communications, and Democratization in Morocco.” In Valentine M. Moghadam, ed., Empowering Women: Participation, Rights, and Women's Movements in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia . Syracuse University Press.

Slyomovics, Susan. 2005. The Performance of Human Rights in Morocco . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Swers, Michele L. 2002. The Difference Women Make: The Policy Impact of Women in Congress . University of Chicago Press.

Tessler, Mark. 2002. “Islam and Democracy in the Middle East: the Impact of Religious Orientations on Attitudes Toward Democracy in Four Arab Countries.” Comparative Politics 34 (April): 337–54.

Tickner, Ann. Gender in International Relations: Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global Security . New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.

Tripp, Aili Marie. 2001. “The New Political Activism in Africa.” Journal of Democracy , vol. 12, no. 3 (July): 141–155.

UNDP. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. Arab Human Development Report . New York: United Nations Development Programme.

UNDP. 2004. Arab Human Development Report 2004: Towards Freedom in the Arab World . NY: United Nations Development Program, Regional Bureau for Arab States.

— —. 2006. Arab Human Development Report 2005: Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World . NY: United Nations Development Program, Regional Bureau for Arab States.

Vargas, Virginia. “Feminisms and the World Social Forum: Space for Dialogue and Confrontation.” Development , vol. 48, no. 2 (2005): 107–10.

Waylen, Georgina. 1994. “Women and Democratization: Conceptualizing Gender Relations in Transition Politics.” World Politics , vol. 46, no. 3: 327–354.

Waylen, Georgina. 2005. “Gender and Transitions: What do We Know”, http://web.uct.ac.za/org/agi/events/ gender&transitions.htm , accessed 13 July 2005.

— —. 2007. Engendering Transitions: Women's Mobilizations, Institutions, and Gender Outcomes . NY: Oxford University Press.

Weldon, S. Laurel. 2002. Protest, Policy and the Problems of Violence Against Women: A Cross-National Comparison . University of Pittsburgh Press.

World Bank, Engendering Development: Gender Equality in Rights, Resources, and Voice (Oxford University Press, 2001).

Zakaria, Fareed. 2003. The Future of Liberty: Illiberal Democracy in the United States and around the World .

Zulu, Lindiwe. 2000. “Institutionalizing Change: South African Women's Participation in the Transition to Democracy.” In Shirin Rai, ed., International Perspectives on Gender and Democracy . London: Macmillan.

Zweigenhaft, Richard L. and G. William Domhoff. 2006. Diversity in the Power Elite: How it Happened, Why it Matters . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Sociology and Women's Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

Valentine M Moghadam

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Department of Sociology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

Kevin T. Leicht

Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

J. Craig Jenkins

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Moghadam, V.M. (2010). Gender, Politics, and Women's Empowerment. In: Leicht, K.T., Jenkins, J.C. (eds) Handbook of Politics. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68930-2_16

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68930-2_16

Publisher Name : Springer, New York, NY

Print ISBN : 978-0-387-68929-6

Online ISBN : 978-0-387-68930-2

eBook Packages : Humanities, Social Sciences and Law Political Science and International Studies (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

2020 Theses Doctoral

Making Democracy Work for Women: Essays on Women's Political Participation in Pakistan

Khan, Sarah

The existence of stark and enduring gender inequalities in political participation and representation around the world is a well-documented phenomenon. What constrains women from participating in politics? How can we encourage more women to participate? What are the substantive implications of nominal equality in participation? In this dissertation, I explore these questions in the context of Pakistan: a developing democracy with high levels of gender inequality on various dimensions. An overarching goal of this work is to center the role of the household -- and the sexual division of household labor -- in our understanding of gender roles and gendered inequalities in political participation. In Paper 1, I develop an original behavioral measure of preference expression, embedded in a survey with 800 respondents in Faisalabad, to demonstrate that even when women participate in political communication, they overwhelmingly opt to communicate their spouse's political preferences to a political representative, rather than their own. The ability to express and communicate preferences is key to many definitions of democracy. While existing work studies external constraints on preference expression in the public sphere, in this paper I demonstrate the persistence of internal constraints on women's preference expression that operate in the private sphere. In Paper 2, coauthored with Ali Cheema, Asad Liaqat and Shandana Khan Mohmand, we use a field experiment conducted in 2500 households in Lahore to study what works to mobilize women's turnout. The design of the experiment relies on the understanding that women's participation in this context is shaped by household level constraints. We test whether targeting a canvassing treatment prior to the 2018 Pakistan National Election emphasizing the importance of women's vote works best when targeted to women, men, or both. We find that it is insufficient to target women, and necessary to target men, in order to increase women's electoral turnout. In Paper 3, I draw on the conceptual framework of role equity and role transformation to understand variation in public attitudes towards gender equality. I use survey data collected in Faisalabad and Lahore to demonstrate how abstract support for gender equality in various domains breaks down in the face of material costs and circumstances that pose a threat to status-quo gender roles.

Geographic Areas

• Political science
• Women--Political activity
• Women and democracy
• Political participation

More About This Work

• DOI Copy DOI to clipboard

• Search Menu
• Browse content in Arts and Humanities
• Browse content in Archaeology
• Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Archaeology
• Archaeological Methodology and Techniques
• Archaeology by Region
• Archaeology of Religion
• Archaeology of Trade and Exchange
• Biblical Archaeology
• Contemporary and Public Archaeology
• Environmental Archaeology
• Historical Archaeology
• History and Theory of Archaeology
• Industrial Archaeology
• Landscape Archaeology
• Mortuary Archaeology
• Prehistoric Archaeology
• Underwater Archaeology
• Urban Archaeology
• Zooarchaeology
• Browse content in Architecture
• Architectural Structure and Design
• History of Architecture
• Residential and Domestic Buildings
• Theory of Architecture
• Browse content in Art
• Art Subjects and Themes
• History of Art
• Industrial and Commercial Art
• Theory of Art
• Biographical Studies
• Byzantine Studies
• Browse content in Classical Studies
• Classical History
• Classical Philosophy
• Classical Mythology
• Classical Literature
• Classical Reception
• Classical Art and Architecture
• Classical Oratory and Rhetoric
• Greek and Roman Papyrology
• Greek and Roman Epigraphy
• Greek and Roman Law
• Greek and Roman Archaeology
• Late Antiquity
• Religion in the Ancient World
• Digital Humanities
• Browse content in History
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Diplomatic History
• Environmental History
• Genealogy, Heraldry, Names, and Honours
• Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
• Historical Geography
• History by Period
• History of Emotions
• History of Agriculture
• History of Education
• History of Gender and Sexuality
• Industrial History
• Intellectual History
• International History
• Labour History
• Legal and Constitutional History
• Local and Family History
• Maritime History
• Military History
• National Liberation and Post-Colonialism
• Oral History
• Political History
• Public History
• Regional and National History
• Revolutions and Rebellions
• Slavery and Abolition of Slavery
• Social and Cultural History
• Theory, Methods, and Historiography
• Urban History
• World History
• Browse content in Language Teaching and Learning
• Language Learning (Specific Skills)
• Language Teaching Theory and Methods
• Browse content in Linguistics
• Applied Linguistics
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Computational Linguistics
• Forensic Linguistics
• Grammar, Syntax and Morphology
• Historical and Diachronic Linguistics
• History of English
• Language Evolution
• Language Reference
• Language Acquisition
• Language Variation
• Language Families
• Lexicography
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Linguistic Theories
• Linguistic Typology
• Phonetics and Phonology
• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Translation and Interpretation
• Writing Systems
• Browse content in Literature
• Bibliography
• Children's Literature Studies
• Literary Studies (Romanticism)
• Literary Studies (American)
• Literary Studies (Asian)
• Literary Studies (European)
• Literary Studies (Eco-criticism)
• Literary Studies (Modernism)
• Literary Studies - World
• Literary Studies (1500 to 1800)
• Literary Studies (19th Century)
• Literary Studies (20th Century onwards)
• Literary Studies (African American Literature)
• Literary Studies (British and Irish)
• Literary Studies (Early and Medieval)
• Literary Studies (Fiction, Novelists, and Prose Writers)
• Literary Studies (Gender Studies)
• Literary Studies (Graphic Novels)
• Literary Studies (History of the Book)
• Literary Studies (Plays and Playwrights)
• Literary Studies (Poetry and Poets)
• Literary Studies (Postcolonial Literature)
• Literary Studies (Queer Studies)
• Literary Studies (Science Fiction)
• Literary Studies (Travel Literature)
• Literary Studies (War Literature)
• Literary Studies (Women's Writing)
• Literary Theory and Cultural Studies
• Mythology and Folklore
• Shakespeare Studies and Criticism
• Browse content in Media Studies
• Browse content in Music
• Applied Music
• Dance and Music
• Ethics in Music
• Ethnomusicology
• Gender and Sexuality in Music
• Medicine and Music
• Music Cultures
• Music and Media
• Music and Religion
• Music and Culture
• Music Education and Pedagogy
• Music Theory and Analysis
• Musical Scores, Lyrics, and Libretti
• Musical Structures, Styles, and Techniques
• Musicology and Music History
• Performance Practice and Studies
• Race and Ethnicity in Music
• Sound Studies
• Browse content in Performing Arts
• Browse content in Philosophy
• Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
• Epistemology
• Feminist Philosophy
• History of Western Philosophy
• Metaphysics
• Moral Philosophy
• Non-Western Philosophy
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Mind
• Philosophy of Perception
• Philosophy of Science
• Philosophy of Action
• Philosophy of Law
• Philosophy of Religion
• Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic
• Practical Ethics
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Browse content in Religion
• Biblical Studies
• Christianity
• East Asian Religions
• History of Religion
• Judaism and Jewish Studies
• Qumran Studies
• Religion and Education
• Religion and Health
• Religion and Politics
• Religion and Science
• Religion and Law
• Religion and Art, Literature, and Music
• Religious Studies
• Browse content in Society and Culture
• Cookery, Food, and Drink
• Cultural Studies
• Customs and Traditions
• Ethical Issues and Debates
• Hobbies, Games, Arts and Crafts
• Lifestyle, Home, and Garden
• Natural world, Country Life, and Pets
• Popular Beliefs and Controversial Knowledge
• Sports and Outdoor Recreation
• Technology and Society
• Travel and Holiday
• Visual Culture
• Browse content in Law
• Arbitration
• Browse content in Company and Commercial Law
• Commercial Law
• Company Law
• Browse content in Comparative Law
• Systems of Law
• Competition Law
• Browse content in Constitutional and Administrative Law
• Government Powers
• Judicial Review
• Local Government Law
• Military and Defence Law
• Parliamentary and Legislative Practice
• Construction Law
• Contract Law
• Browse content in Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure
• Criminal Evidence Law
• Sentencing and Punishment
• Employment and Labour Law
• Environment and Energy Law
• Browse content in Financial Law
• Banking Law
• Insolvency Law
• History of Law
• Human Rights and Immigration
• Intellectual Property Law
• Browse content in International Law
• Private International Law and Conflict of Laws
• Public International Law
• IT and Communications Law
• Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law
• Law and Politics
• Law and Society
• Browse content in Legal System and Practice
• Courts and Procedure
• Legal Skills and Practice
• Primary Sources of Law
• Regulation of Legal Profession
• Medical and Healthcare Law
• Browse content in Policing
• Criminal Investigation and Detection
• Police and Security Services
• Police Procedure and Law
• Police Regional Planning
• Browse content in Property Law
• Personal Property Law
• Study and Revision
• Terrorism and National Security Law
• Browse content in Trusts Law
• Wills and Probate or Succession
• Browse content in Medicine and Health
• Browse content in Allied Health Professions
• Arts Therapies
• Clinical Science
• Dietetics and Nutrition
• Occupational Therapy
• Operating Department Practice
• Physiotherapy
• Radiography
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Browse content in Anaesthetics
• General Anaesthesia
• Neuroanaesthesia
• Clinical Neuroscience
• Browse content in Clinical Medicine
• Acute Medicine
• Cardiovascular Medicine
• Clinical Genetics
• Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Dermatology
• Endocrinology and Diabetes
• Gastroenterology
• Genito-urinary Medicine
• Geriatric Medicine
• Infectious Diseases
• Medical Toxicology
• Medical Oncology
• Pain Medicine
• Palliative Medicine
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Respiratory Medicine and Pulmonology
• Rheumatology
• Sleep Medicine
• Sports and Exercise Medicine
• Community Medical Services
• Critical Care
• Emergency Medicine
• Forensic Medicine
• Haematology
• History of Medicine
• Browse content in Medical Skills
• Clinical Skills
• Communication Skills
• Nursing Skills
• Surgical Skills
• Browse content in Medical Dentistry
• Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
• Paediatric Dentistry
• Restorative Dentistry and Orthodontics
• Surgical Dentistry
• Medical Ethics
• Medical Statistics and Methodology
• Browse content in Neurology
• Clinical Neurophysiology
• Neuropathology
• Nursing Studies
• Browse content in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Gynaecology
• Occupational Medicine
• Ophthalmology
• Otolaryngology (ENT)
• Browse content in Paediatrics
• Neonatology
• Browse content in Pathology
• Chemical Pathology
• Clinical Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics
• Histopathology
• Medical Microbiology and Virology
• Patient Education and Information
• Browse content in Pharmacology
• Psychopharmacology
• Browse content in Popular Health
• Caring for Others
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Self-help and Personal Development
• Browse content in Preclinical Medicine
• Cell Biology
• Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Reproduction, Growth and Development
• Primary Care
• Professional Development in Medicine
• Browse content in Psychiatry
• Addiction Medicine
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Forensic Psychiatry
• Learning Disabilities
• Old Age Psychiatry
• Psychotherapy
• Browse content in Public Health and Epidemiology
• Epidemiology
• Public Health
• Browse content in Radiology
• Clinical Radiology
• Interventional Radiology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiation Oncology
• Reproductive Medicine
• Browse content in Surgery
• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Gastro-intestinal and Colorectal Surgery
• General Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Paediatric Surgery
• Peri-operative Care
• Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• Surgical Oncology
• Transplant Surgery
• Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
• Vascular Surgery
• Browse content in Science and Mathematics
• Browse content in Biological Sciences
• Aquatic Biology
• Biochemistry
• Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
• Developmental Biology
• Ecology and Conservation
• Evolutionary Biology
• Genetics and Genomics
• Microbiology
• Molecular and Cell Biology
• Natural History
• Plant Sciences and Forestry
• Research Methods in Life Sciences
• Structural Biology
• Systems Biology
• Zoology and Animal Sciences
• Browse content in Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Computational Chemistry
• Crystallography
• Environmental Chemistry
• Industrial Chemistry
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Materials Chemistry
• Medicinal Chemistry
• Mineralogy and Gems
• Organic Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry
• Polymer Chemistry
• Study and Communication Skills in Chemistry
• Theoretical Chemistry
• Browse content in Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Architecture and Logic Design
• Game Studies
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Mathematical Theory of Computation
• Programming Languages
• Software Engineering
• Systems Analysis and Design
• Virtual Reality
• Browse content in Computing
• Business Applications
• Computer Security
• Computer Games
• Computer Networking and Communications
• Digital Lifestyle
• Graphical and Digital Media Applications
• Operating Systems
• Browse content in Earth Sciences and Geography
• Atmospheric Sciences
• Environmental Geography
• Geology and the Lithosphere
• Maps and Map-making
• Meteorology and Climatology
• Oceanography and Hydrology
• Palaeontology
• Physical Geography and Topography
• Regional Geography
• Soil Science
• Urban Geography
• Browse content in Engineering and Technology
• Agriculture and Farming
• Biological Engineering
• Civil Engineering, Surveying, and Building
• Electronics and Communications Engineering
• Energy Technology
• Engineering (General)
• Environmental Science, Engineering, and Technology
• History of Engineering and Technology
• Mechanical Engineering and Materials
• Technology of Industrial Chemistry
• Transport Technology and Trades
• Browse content in Environmental Science
• Applied Ecology (Environmental Science)
• Conservation of the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Environmental Sustainability
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Environmental Science)
• Management of Land and Natural Resources (Environmental Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environmental Science)
• Nuclear Issues (Environmental Science)
• Pollution and Threats to the Environment (Environmental Science)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Environmental Science)
• History of Science and Technology
• Browse content in Materials Science
• Ceramics and Glasses
• Composite Materials
• Metals, Alloying, and Corrosion
• Nanotechnology
• Browse content in Mathematics
• Applied Mathematics
• Biomathematics and Statistics
• History of Mathematics
• Mathematical Education
• Mathematical Finance
• Mathematical Analysis
• Numerical and Computational Mathematics
• Probability and Statistics
• Pure Mathematics
• Browse content in Neuroscience
• Cognition and Behavioural Neuroscience
• Development of the Nervous System
• Disorders of the Nervous System
• History of Neuroscience
• Invertebrate Neurobiology
• Molecular and Cellular Systems
• Neuroendocrinology and Autonomic Nervous System
• Neuroscientific Techniques
• Sensory and Motor Systems
• Browse content in Physics
• Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Biological and Medical Physics
• Classical Mechanics
• Computational Physics
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Electromagnetism, Optics, and Acoustics
• History of Physics
• Mathematical and Statistical Physics
• Measurement Science
• Nuclear Physics
• Particles and Fields
• Plasma Physics
• Quantum Physics
• Relativity and Gravitation
• Semiconductor and Mesoscopic Physics
• Browse content in Psychology
• Affective Sciences
• Clinical Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Criminal and Forensic Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Health Psychology
• History and Systems in Psychology
• Music Psychology
• Neuropsychology
• Organizational Psychology
• Psychological Assessment and Testing
• Psychology of Human-Technology Interaction
• Psychology Professional Development and Training
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Browse content in Social Sciences
• Browse content in Anthropology
• Anthropology of Religion
• Human Evolution
• Medical Anthropology
• Physical Anthropology
• Regional Anthropology
• Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Theory and Practice of Anthropology
• Browse content in Business and Management
• Business Ethics
• Business Strategy
• Business History
• Business and Technology
• Business and Government
• Business and the Environment
• Comparative Management
• Corporate Governance
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Entrepreneurship
• Health Management
• Human Resource Management
• Industrial and Employment Relations
• Industry Studies
• Information and Communication Technologies
• International Business
• Knowledge Management
• Management and Management Techniques
• Operations Management
• Organizational Theory and Behaviour
• Pensions and Pension Management
• Public and Nonprofit Management
• Strategic Management
• Supply Chain Management
• Browse content in Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Criminal Justice
• Criminology
• Forms of Crime
• International and Comparative Criminology
• Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice
• Development Studies
• Browse content in Economics
• Agricultural, Environmental, and Natural Resource Economics
• Asian Economics
• Behavioural Finance
• Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics
• Econometrics and Mathematical Economics
• Economic History
• Economic Systems
• Economic Methodology
• Economic Development and Growth
• Financial Markets
• Financial Institutions and Services
• General Economics and Teaching
• Health, Education, and Welfare
• History of Economic Thought
• International Economics
• Labour and Demographic Economics
• Law and Economics
• Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
• Microeconomics
• Public Economics
• Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
• Welfare Economics
• Browse content in Education
• Adult Education and Continuous Learning
• Care and Counselling of Students
• Early Childhood and Elementary Education
• Educational Equipment and Technology
• Educational Strategies and Policy
• Higher and Further Education
• Organization and Management of Education
• Philosophy and Theory of Education
• Schools Studies
• Secondary Education
• Teaching of a Specific Subject
• Teaching of Specific Groups and Special Educational Needs
• Teaching Skills and Techniques
• Browse content in Environment
• Applied Ecology (Social Science)
• Climate Change
• Conservation of the Environment (Social Science)
• Environmentalist Thought and Ideology (Social Science)
• Natural Disasters (Environment)
• Social Impact of Environmental Issues (Social Science)
• Browse content in Human Geography
• Cultural Geography
• Economic Geography
• Political Geography
• Browse content in Interdisciplinary Studies
• Communication Studies
• Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences
• Browse content in Politics
• African Politics
• Asian Politics
• Chinese Politics
• Comparative Politics
• Conflict Politics
• Elections and Electoral Studies
• Environmental Politics
• European Union
• Foreign Policy
• Gender and Politics
• Human Rights and Politics
• Indian Politics
• International Relations
• International Organization (Politics)
• International Political Economy
• Irish Politics
• Latin American Politics
• Middle Eastern Politics
• Political Behaviour
• Political Economy
• Political Institutions
• Political Methodology
• Political Communication
• Political Philosophy
• Political Sociology
• Political Theory
• Politics and Law
• Public Policy
• Public Administration
• Quantitative Political Methodology
• Regional Political Studies
• Russian Politics
• Security Studies
• State and Local Government
• UK Politics
• US Politics
• Browse content in Regional and Area Studies
• African Studies
• Asian Studies
• East Asian Studies
• Japanese Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Middle Eastern Studies
• Native American Studies
• Scottish Studies
• Browse content in Research and Information
• Research Methods
• Browse content in Social Work
• Addictions and Substance Misuse
• Adoption and Fostering
• Care of the Elderly
• Child and Adolescent Social Work
• Couple and Family Social Work
• Developmental and Physical Disabilities Social Work
• Direct Practice and Clinical Social Work
• Emergency Services
• Human Behaviour and the Social Environment
• International and Global Issues in Social Work
• Mental and Behavioural Health
• Social Justice and Human Rights
• Social Policy and Advocacy
• Social Work and Crime and Justice
• Social Work Macro Practice
• Social Work Practice Settings
• Social Work Research and Evidence-based Practice
• Welfare and Benefit Systems
• Browse content in Sociology
• Childhood Studies
• Community Development
• Comparative and Historical Sociology
• Economic Sociology
• Gender and Sexuality
• Gerontology and Ageing
• Health, Illness, and Medicine
• Marriage and the Family
• Migration Studies
• Occupations, Professions, and Work
• Organizations
• Population and Demography
• Race and Ethnicity
• Social Theory
• Social Movements and Social Change
• Social Research and Statistics
• Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
• Sociology of Religion
• Sociology of Education
• Sport and Leisure
• Urban and Rural Studies
• Browse content in Warfare and Defence
• Defence Strategy, Planning, and Research
• Land Forces and Warfare
• Military Administration
• Military Life and Institutions
• Naval Forces and Warfare
• Other Warfare and Defence Issues
• Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution
• Weapons and Equipment

• < Previous
• Next chapter >

An Essay on Women’s Political Representation

• Published: October 2020
• Cite Icon Cite
• Permissions Icon Permissions

The Introductory Essay asks readers to consider four vignettes—on prostitution, Muslim women’s dress, abortion, and Marine Le Pen. The vignettes illustrate what the authors term the poverty of women’s political representation , representational problematics experienced by women in established democracies. These are also core issues identified in contemporary gender and politics research: of women’s ideological and intersectional differences, skewed political and parliamentary agendas, and disconnect from political parties and electoral politics. The vignettes adopt a dialogical style to clarify and magnify core concerns of the book, highlighting the contemporary relevance and importance of the book to academic scholarship and democratic practice. The discussion of the vignettes weaves through reflection on “representation as it should be,” what women’s good representation might be. There would be significant change to political institutions, political representatives, political parties, and parliaments; elected representatives would be institutionally and systemically required to represent women.

Signed in as

Institutional accounts.

• Google Scholar Indexing
• GoogleCrawler [DO NOT DELETE]

Personal account

• Sign in with email/username & password
• Get email alerts
• Save searches
• Purchase content
• Activate your purchase/trial code

Institutional access

• Sign in with a library card Sign in with username/password Recommend to your librarian
• Institutional account management
• Get help with access

Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:

IP based access

Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.

Sign in through your institution

Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.

• Click Sign in through your institution.
• Select your institution from the list provided, which will take you to your institution's website to sign in.
• When on the institution site, please use the credentials provided by your institution. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.
• Following successful sign in, you will be returned to Oxford Academic.

If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.

Sign in with a library card

Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.

Society Members

Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:

Sign in through society site

Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:

• Click Sign in through society site.
• When on the society site, please use the credentials provided by that society. Do not use an Oxford Academic personal account.

If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.

Sign in using a personal account

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.

A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.

Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.

Viewing your signed in accounts

Click the account icon in the top right to:

• View your signed in personal account and access account management features.
• View the institutional accounts that are providing access.

Signed in but can't access content

Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.

For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.

Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.

• About Oxford Academic
• Publish journals with us
• University press partners
• What we publish
• New features  
• Open access
• Rights and permissions
• Accessibility
• Advertising
• Media enquiries
• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Languages
• University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

• Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
• Cookie settings
• Cookie policy
• Privacy policy
• Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

5 Powerful Essays Advocating for Gender Equality

Gender equality – which becomes reality when all genders are treated fairly and allowed equal opportunities –  is a complicated human rights issue for every country in the world. Recent statistics are sobering. According to the World Economic Forum, it will take 108 years to achieve gender parity . The biggest gaps are found in political empowerment and economics. Also, there are currently just six countries that give women and men equal legal work rights. Generally, women are only given ¾ of the rights given to men. To learn more about how gender equality is measured, how it affects both women and men, and what can be done, here are five essays making a fair point.

Take a free course on Gender Equality offered by top universities!

“Countries With Less Gender Equity Have More Women In STEM — Huh?” – Adam Mastroianni and Dakota McCoy

This essay from two Harvard PhD candidates (Mastroianni in psychology and McCoy in biology) takes a closer look at a recent study that showed that in countries with lower gender equity, more women are in STEM. The study’s researchers suggested that this is because women are actually especially interested in STEM fields, and because they are given more choice in Western countries, they go with different careers. Mastroianni and McCoy disagree.

They argue the research actually shows that cultural attitudes and discrimination are impacting women’s interests, and that bias and discrimination is present even in countries with better gender equality. The problem may lie in the Gender Gap Index (GGI), which tracks factors like wage disparity and government representation. To learn why there’s more women in STEM from countries with less gender equality, a more nuanced and complex approach is needed.

“Men’s health is better, too, in countries with more gender equality” – Liz Plank

When it comes to discussions about gender equality, it isn’t uncommon for someone in the room to say, “What about the men?” Achieving gender equality has been difficult because of the underlying belief that giving women more rights and freedom somehow takes rights away from men. The reality, however, is that gender equality is good for everyone. In Liz Plank’s essay, which is an adaption from her book For the Love of Men: A Vision for Mindful Masculinity, she explores how in Iceland, the #1 ranked country for gender equality, men live longer. Plank lays out the research for why this is, revealing that men who hold “traditional” ideas about masculinity are more likely to die by suicide and suffer worse health. Anxiety about being the only financial provider plays a big role in this, so in countries where women are allowed education and equal earning power, men don’t shoulder the burden alone.

Liz Plank is an author and award-winning journalist with Vox, where she works as a senior producer and political correspondent. In 2015, Forbes named her one of their “30 Under 30” in the Media category. She’s focused on feminist issues throughout her career.

“China’s #MeToo Moment” –  Jiayang Fan

Some of the most visible examples of gender inequality and discrimination comes from “Me Too” stories. Women are coming forward in huge numbers relating how they’ve been harassed and abused by men who have power over them. Most of the time, established systems protect these men from accountability. In this article from Jiayang Fan, a New Yorker staff writer, we get a look at what’s happening in China.

The essay opens with a story from a PhD student inspired by the United States’ Me Too movement to open up about her experience with an academic adviser. Her story led to more accusations against the adviser, and he was eventually dismissed. This is a rare victory, because as Fan says, China employs a more rigid system of patriarchy and hierarchy. There aren’t clear definitions or laws surrounding sexual harassment. Activists are charting unfamiliar territory, which this essay explores.

“Men built this system. No wonder gender equality remains as far off as ever.” – Ellie Mae O’Hagan

Freelance journalist Ellie Mae O’Hagan (whose book The New Normal is scheduled for a May 2020 release) is discouraged that gender equality is so many years away. She argues that it’s because the global system of power at its core is broken.  Even when women are in power, which is proportionally rare on a global scale, they deal with a system built by the patriarchy. O’Hagan’s essay lays out ideas for how to fix what’s fundamentally flawed, so gender equality can become a reality.

Ideas include investing in welfare; reducing gender-based violence (which is mostly men committing violence against women); and strengthening trade unions and improving work conditions. With a system that’s not designed to put women down, the world can finally achieve gender equality.

“Invisibility of Race in Gender Pay Gap Discussions” – Bonnie Chu

The gender pay gap has been a pressing issue for many years in the United States, but most discussions miss the factor of race. In this concise essay, Senior Contributor Bonnie Chu examines the reality, writing that within the gender pay gap, there’s other gaps when it comes to black, Native American, and Latina women. Asian-American women, on the other hand, are paid 85 cents for every dollar. This data is extremely important and should be present in discussions about the gender pay gap. It reminds us that when it comes to gender equality, there’s other factors at play, like racism.

Bonnie Chu is a gender equality advocate and a Forbes 30 Under 30 social entrepreneur. She’s the founder and CEO of Lensational, which empowers women through photography, and the Managing Director of The Social Investment Consultancy.

You may also like

12 Ways Poverty Affects Society

15 Great Charities to Donate to in 2024

15 Quotes Exposing Injustice in Society

14 Trusted Charities Helping Civilians in Palestine

The Great Migration: History, Causes and Facts

Social Change 101: Meaning, Examples, Learning Opportunities

Rosa Parks: Biography, Quotes, Impact

Top 20 Issues Women Are Facing Today

Top 20 Issues Children Are Facing Today

15 Root Causes of Climate Change

15 Facts about Rosa Parks

Abolitionist Movement: History, Main Ideas, and Activism Today

About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

Articles on Gender equality at work

Displaying 1 - 20 of 31 articles.

Companies vying for government contracts could soon have to meet gender targets. Will we finally see real progress?

Leonora Risse , University of Canberra

Women still face gender inequalities at work  post-pandemic

Claudine Mangen , Concordia University

How gender inequality is hindering Japan’s economic growth

Sarah Parsons , SOAS, University of London

How men can become role models for gender inclusivity in the workplace

Elisabeth Kelan , University of Essex

The pandemic deepened gender inequality in dual-career households

Tina Sharifi , York University, Canada and Ayesha Tabassum , York University, Canada

The UK government may have rejected menopause protections – but workplaces are more supportive than ever

Jo Brewis , The Open University

Gender diversity on corporate boards can improve organizational performance

Hanen Khemakhem , Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) ; Manel Maalej , Université de Sfax , and Richard Fontaine , Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

Women are struggling to regain lost ground in the workforce after  COVID-19

Gender inequality is still rampant in the maritime longshore profession

Meena Andiappan , University of Toronto and Lucas Dufour , Toronto Metropolitan University

Why are there fewer young women in entrepreneurship than young men?

Julie Tixier , Université Gustave Eiffel ; Katia Richomme-Huet , Kedge Business School ; Mathieu Dunes , Université de Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV) ; Najoua Boufaden , ISG International Business School ; Nathalie Lameta , IAE Corse ; Paola Duperray , Université catholique de l’Ouest ; Renaud Redien-Collot , ISC Paris Business School , and Typhaine Lebègue

Why women need male allies in the workplace – and why fighting everyday sexism enriches men too

Meg Warren , Western Washington University

Research: gender pay gap exists in Indonesia, especially for women under 30

Erwin Bramana Karnadi , Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya

Pensions ruling against women fails to recognise the reality of their economic disadvantage

Kathleen Riach , University of Glasgow

Hollywood’s million dollar gender pay gap – revealed

Sofia Izquierdo Sanchez , University of Huddersfield

Why we still struggle with work-home conflict in women and men

Kate O'Brien , The University of Queensland

The culture of silence that allows sexual harassment in the workplace to continue

Dulini Fernando , Warwick Business School, University of Warwick

Four big lessons from the UK’s new gender pay gap reporting rules

Jana Javornik , University of Leeds

Banning zero hours contracts would help reduce the gender pay gap

Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi , University of Hertfordshire

Email culture to blame for workplace failure on #MeToo

Hannah Piterman , Deakin University

Closing the gender pay gap: should men take a pay cut?

Scott Taylor , University of Birmingham

Related Topics

• Gender equality
• Gender inequality
• Gender pay gap
• United Kingdom (UK)

Top contributors

RBC Professor in Responsible Organizations and Full Professor, Concordia University

Associate Professor of Organisation and HRM, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick

Adjunct Associate Professor, Monash University

Adjunct Professor, Macquarie University

Director, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, and Bankwest Research Chair in Economic Policy, Curtin University

Professor in Management,, University of Glasgow

Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University

ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University

Associate Professor, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Curtin University

Associate Professor Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds

Lecturer, The University of Melbourne

Interim Pro Dean, Associate Dean of Research & Professor in Management, Macquarie Graduate School of Management

Professor, Australian National University

Professor of Work and Organisation, University of Nottingham

Professor of Law, The University of Melbourne

• X (Twitter)
• Unfollow topic Follow topic

The Political Role of Gender

How it works

Throughout life, questions of sexuality and gender have become essential to our understanding of self expression, communal involvement, and most importantly, our identity as a person. The main purpose for the political role of gender is to resolve and improve an organization that has once rejected and marginalized a certain classification of people. Although over time society has become more forgiving and accepting, we still tend to bring concern to the identity of the marginalized at the cost of seeing their true identity as nothing more than a mere expression.

That being said, the female identity inevitably becomes associated with female art.

However, there is no single form or reference for feminist works of art. Many of the more significant feminist works from the last three decades have been influenced by feminist concerns. Those concerns include the social construction of gender identity (including that of the artist) and “the semiotic import of sexual difference” (Art Since the 1900, p. 570). This raises multiple red flags and questions towards the expectations between the female-identified and the male-identified. A key example of this can be said of Barbara Kruger’s work We Won’t Play Nature to Your Culture. Her work brings attention to feminism and the relation between women and culture. Although it can be interpreted in different ways, one representation can be drawn between women and her connection with nature. With the female’s face, on what looks like a magazine ad, facing down and with her eyes covered with leaves, the viewer can see a serene expression.

In one sense, it could be representing the strength of women, but in another, it could be a connection between domesticity and the male dominated culture of mass media. The type suggests though that women cannot be held down by men. The term “male gaze” is often associated with sexual identity. Heterosexuality is often referenced in conjunction with the male’s perspective, specifically towards women. Everyone is entitled to see and interpret things as they may, however, the male’s perspective has often been seen as negative commentary. The male gaze has been viewed as a sort of objectification, or object to be conquered. As if the male is rating and scanning a woman on the spot. Nevertheless, this gaze is still seen as a vantage point from which things are viewed. In terms of gender identity, it is presumed that all males share the same unquestioning vantage point. In terms of sexuality, the male may find himself needing to identify his work along with his sexual identity. An example of this can be said of Robert Mapplethorpe’s homoerotic and hypermasculine photograph, Ken + Taylor (1985). His photograph causes distinction between the male and female traditions by juxtaposing a darker-skinned male with a white object which, in this case, there is another nude male alongside him.

Mapplethorpe’s subject matter made his work a wildly controversial topic that transgressed to public funding for the visual arts during the 1980s. This ultimately terminated the federal government’s support for artists as it was seen as vulgar and profane for showing such erotic images. Nevertheless, his aesthetic brought new-heights to notions of sexual and gender identity. His work gave people the idea that they can test boundaries, even if things don’t end well. They are changing the path of what is and can be art. Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s action pieces on the 1980s HIV/AIDS crisis, “Untitled” (billboard of an empty bed) questioned the construction of identity, especially gay identity. Torres’s billboards seemed nothing more than just a familiar bed containing noticeable imprints left behind. Although physically true, the empty bed holds a greater underlining meaning associated with loss and the denial of same-sex love. “Gonzales-Torres’ memorialization resonated especially during a time when Ronald Reagan (U.S. President from 1981 until 1989) notoriously never uttered the word “AIDS” because of its predominant association with homosexuality” (Khan Academy). This subliminal message of an empty bed transferred something extremely private into a public place. Torres allowed this personal experience and remembrance to be visible for all in order to acknowledge and give a face to the controversial problems of intimate loss associated with gay politics and the AIDS/HIV epidemic.

For those who suffered in silence, it was important for someone to come forward and show that they were people too, and they felt grief just like everyone else. The 1960s and 70s held many major social and political disruptions. This was the time when the rise of Institutional Critique had artists question and analyze the structure of art museums and how they run. In 1970, Hans Haacke proposed a work for an exhibition to be held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In this, visitors would be asked to vote on a current socio-political issue. The question itself wasn’t shown until the day of the installation. On that day the political question was revealed asking visitors “Would the fact that Governor Rockefeller has not denounced President Nixon’s Indochina policy be a reason for you not to vote for him in November?” Haacke’s exhibition commented directly on the involvement of Nelson Rockefeller, a significant donor and one of the board members at MoMA. The question made viewers question the significance of where the money that a museum receives is coming from in relation to the choosing of the works themselves.

Haacke’s work thus examined the economical and formatic influences of the museum and organized the project to reveal the museum’s architectural plans. “While the rule of the board of trustees of museums in the United States is generally uncontested, the supervisory bodies of public institutions elsewhere have to contend much more with public opinion and the prevailing political climate. It follows that political considerations play a role in the appointment of museum directors.” (Grasping the World, p. 407) This explains how museums have a lot of critique to deal with from the public eye, so they must hold those in political power in high regards with their choices and ideas in first place in order to stay in the public’s good standings. Another example that had a huge impact towards Institutional Critique is of the work of Fred Wilson’s 1992 “Mining the Museum.” His exhibition reevaluated how institutions can be racially unequal by displaying juxtaposing silver metalworks; elegant victorian armchairs with slave shackles and a whipping post. “Wilson has formidable narrative skills and a talent for fashioning installations that pack a punch more powerful than their individual components” (Art in America, p. 113).

Wilson’s unspoken comments on past historical events created a striking language with the viewer. Although his exhibition has been said to have expressed ironic and humorous touches, Fred Wilson’s intentions were to delve deeper into the historical period of slavery and reveal to society how people of color were treated unequal within the household. For people who lived so close together, they were very impactfully different. This work troubled the previous way of understanding a traditional work of art. Instead of outright explaining the impact of slavery, Wilson showed his interpretation by not censoring out the tools that were so commonly used to constrain those enslaved, no matter how disturbing. Artists like Wilson used explicit visuals in order to overcome the political blinds that traditional exhibitions have held in their arms in the past. New critiques wanted to challenge how art is being seen and showcased, and how the location can affect its meaning. Bringing attention to the politics of Institutional Critique meant artists could expose art institution’s true and real judgment towards the various topics in the forefront of art, including economic, social, and self-identification.

Cite this page

The Political Role of Gender. (2019, Jan 25). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/the-political-role-of-gender/

"The Political Role of Gender." PapersOwl.com , 25 Jan 2019, https://papersowl.com/examples/the-political-role-of-gender/

PapersOwl.com. (2019). The Political Role of Gender . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/the-political-role-of-gender/ [Accessed: 22 Apr. 2024]

"The Political Role of Gender." PapersOwl.com, Jan 25, 2019. Accessed April 22, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/the-political-role-of-gender/

"The Political Role of Gender," PapersOwl.com , 25-Jan-2019. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/the-political-role-of-gender/. [Accessed: 22-Apr-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2019). The Political Role of Gender . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/the-political-role-of-gender/ [Accessed: 22-Apr-2024]

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Hire a writer to get a unique paper crafted to your needs.

Our writers will help you fix any mistakes and get an A+!

Please check your inbox.

You can order an original essay written according to your instructions.

Trusted by over 1 million students worldwide

1. Tell Us Your Requirements

2. Pick your perfect writer

3. Get Your Paper and Pay

Hi! I'm Amy, your personal assistant!

Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert.

short deadlines

100% Plagiarism-Free

Certified writers

Browse Course Material

Course info, instructors.

• Dr. Andrea Walsh
• Dr. Elizabeth M. Fox

Departments

• Women's and Gender Studies

As Taught In

• Gender Studies
• Women's Studies

Learning Resource Types

Introduction to women's and gender studies, essay 3: final reflection, essay 3 information.

• Due: at the end of the semester
• Length: essay/brochure section: approx. 4 pp. (1000 words) 
• List of items for display: approx. 3 pp. 
• Final reflection: ½–1 p. (125–250 words) 

Assignment: A WGS Museum Exhibit 

This assignment provides a rich opportunity to visually present your knowledge about women’s and gender issues as museum artifacts, and create an informational essay/brochure, drawing from course materials, to orient viewers. Assume, for this assignment, that you are designing a gender studies museum exhibit for an audience of teens and adults around one of these two topic areas: 

• From 1848 Onward: The Struggle for Gender Equality in the U.S. (historical and contemporary focus)
• Gender, Work, and Families (more contemporary focus) 

Write a short informative essay/guide (4 pp. / 1000 words) to orient viewers to the gender issues and critical questions in the exhibit, drawing explicitly upon at least six course readings. (The essay addresses a popular readership; include a thesis or “mapping” statement previewing central issues/questions of the exhibit.) Envision yourself as a museum educator or curator; the essay should motivate engagement with the exhibit. In your essay/guide, pose critical questions to open up new ways of thinking about gender, sexuality, work, and families, rather than explicitly advocating specific position(s). Imagine this essay as a brochure accompanying a visual exhibit, which may be online or in a museum building. 

Following the essay, list at least ten different items to display (in order) with a brief interpretive caption (1–2 lines) for each (approx. 3 pp.). (Display items can include timelines, charts/graphs, ads, clips from films or TV shows, short quotes from course readings or newspaper articles, photos, etc. Include images from the Internet, if you can.) Your focus may be global as well as U.S.-based. The essay/guide should refer explicitly to some, but not necessarily all, items on display; aim for at least five. Depending on which option you choose, there are many different gender issues that you might cover in your museum exhibit. Feel free to focus your museum exhibit on a particular topic, e.g., gender issues for African-American women in the first wave and second and later waves of women’s rights activism; same-sex couples and gender/work/family issues; or work/family and other gender issues for women in STEM fields. 

Note: Draw examples from readings (and films) to support your points; use parenthetical citations to document sources (see citation handout). Feel free to use material from your first and second essays, as well as oral presentations. Be sure to introduce quotes adequately, creating smooth transitions between your writing and that of sources.

Tips for Essay 3 (PDF) ( DOC )

Final Reflection

Due with Essay 3

In what ways has WGS. 101: Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies —readings, films, lectures, discussions, your own essays/presentations—influenced your thinking about gender and women’s roles in society and in your own   life? Name two or three questions this course has generated for you (½–1 p.).

You are leaving MIT OpenCourseWare

• Faculty of Arts and Sciences
• FAS Theses and Dissertations
• Communities & Collections
• By Issue Date
• FAS Department
• Quick submit
• Waiver Generator
• DASH Stories
• Accessibility
• COVID-related Research

Terms of Use

• Privacy Policy
• By Collections
• By Departments

Essays on Gender and Decision Making in Political Economy

Access Status

Citable link to this page

Collections.

• FAS Theses and Dissertations [6136]

Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)

• Browse by author
• Browse by year
• Departments
• History of Thought
• Advanced search

Despite substantial progress, gender gaps in labour market outcomes persist. Several key factors help explain remaining gaps. First, men and women continue to work in different jobs. Second, parenthood appears to be a crucial point in the life course at which gender gaps widen. Third, traditional beliefs and norms about the appropriate roles of men and women, particularly in the context of parenthood, are obstacles to closing remaining gender gaps. At the same time, advancements in automation technologies are transforming the world of work and may have genderspecific impacts. Motivated by these observations, this thesis advances understanding of several factors related to gender inequality in the labour market. These factors are gendered university major choices, attitudes towards gender roles in the context of parenthood, and effects of recent transformations in labour markets on the gender gap in pay. The thesis consists of four empirical papers. The first paper studies the role of intergenerational transmission for gendered university major choices of young adults. Using regression analysis and exploiting survey data from a recent cohort of university students in Germany, the paper investigates to what extent and why gender-typicality of mother's and father's occupation affect the gender-typicality of their child's university major. Results show signifficant intergenerational associations and indicate that parental resources and a transmission of gender roles are both relevant transmission channels, particularly for sons' major choices. The second and third paper examine how gender role attitudes are shaped in the context of parenthood. The second paper analyses effects of the 2007 paid parental leave reform (Elterngeld) in Germany on parents' gender role attitudes; specifically, attitudes towards the gender division of work, towards the roles of fathers, and towards the labour force participation of mothers. Exploiting the reform as a natural experiment, results indicate that men affected by the reform hold more traditional attitudes towards the role of fathers, whereas there is no effect on the other two iv outcomes. Focusing on the UK, the third paper explores whether parenting daughters affects attitudes towards a traditional male breadwinner model in which it is the husband's role to work and the wife's to stay at home. Using panel data and individual fixed effects models, the results indicate that fathers are less likely to hold traditional views on the gender division of work if they raise a girl. No robust effects on mothers' attitudes are found. Results from the second and third paper inform the broader literature on attitudinal change, suggesting that gender role attitudes are not stable throughout the life course and can be significantly shaped by adulthood experiences. The final paper studies whether technological change increases gender inequality. Using individual-level data from around 28 million individuals in 20 European countries and an instrumental variable strategy, the study provides the first large-scale evidence concerning the impact of industrial robots on the gender gap in earnings. Findings indicate that robot adoption increases both male and female earnings but also increases the gender pay gap. These results are driven by countries with high initial levels of gender inequality and can be explained by the fact that men in medium- and high-skilled occupations disproportionately benefit from robotization, through a productivity effect.

Actions (login required)

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

• Publications
• Our Methods
• Short Reads
• Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

About 1 in 5 U.S. teens who’ve heard of ChatGPT have used it for schoolwork

Roughly one-in-five teenagers who have heard of ChatGPT say they have used it to help them do their schoolwork, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17. With a majority of teens having heard of ChatGPT, that amounts to 13% of all U.S. teens who have used the generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot in their schoolwork.

Teens in higher grade levels are particularly likely to have used the chatbot to help them with schoolwork. About one-quarter of 11th and 12th graders who have heard of ChatGPT say they have done this. This share drops to 17% among 9th and 10th graders and 12% among 7th and 8th graders.

There is no significant difference between teen boys and girls who have used ChatGPT in this way.

The introduction of ChatGPT last year has led to much discussion about its role in schools , especially whether schools should integrate the new technology into the classroom or ban it .

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand American teens’ use and understanding of ChatGPT in the school setting.

The Center conducted an online survey of 1,453 U.S. teens from Sept. 26 to Oct. 23, 2023, via Ipsos. Ipsos recruited the teens via their parents, who were part of its KnowledgePanel . The KnowledgePanel is a probability-based web panel recruited primarily through national, random sampling of residential addresses. The survey was weighted to be representative of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 who live with their parents by age, gender, race and ethnicity, household income, and other categories.

This research was reviewed and approved by an external institutional review board (IRB), Advarra, an independent committee of experts specializing in helping to protect the rights of research participants.

Here are the  questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its  methodology .

Teens’ awareness of ChatGPT

Overall, two-thirds of U.S. teens say they have heard of ChatGPT, including 23% who have heard a lot about it. But awareness varies by race and ethnicity, as well as by household income:

• 72% of White teens say they’ve heard at least a little about ChatGPT, compared with 63% of Hispanic teens and 56% of Black teens.
• 75% of teens living in households that make $75,000 or more annually have heard of ChatGPT. Much smaller shares in households with incomes between $30,000 and $74,999 (58%) and less than $30,000 (41%) say the same.

Teens who are more aware of ChatGPT are more likely to use it for schoolwork. Roughly a third of teens who have heard a lot about ChatGPT (36%) have used it for schoolwork, far higher than the 10% among those who have heard a little about it.

When do teens think it’s OK for students to use ChatGPT?

For teens, whether it is – or is not – acceptable for students to use ChatGPT depends on what it is being used for.

There is a fair amount of support for using the chatbot to explore a topic. Roughly seven-in-ten teens who have heard of ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use when they are researching something new, while 13% say it is not acceptable.

However, there is much less support for using ChatGPT to do the work itself. Just one-in-five teens who have heard of ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use it to write essays, while 57% say it is not acceptable. And 39% say it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT to solve math problems, while a similar share of teens (36%) say it’s not acceptable.

Some teens are uncertain about whether it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT for these tasks. Between 18% and 24% say they aren’t sure whether these are acceptable use cases for ChatGPT.

Those who have heard a lot about ChatGPT are more likely than those who have only heard a little about it to say it’s acceptable to use the chatbot to research topics, solve math problems and write essays. For instance, 54% of teens who have heard a lot about ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use it to solve math problems, compared with 32% among those who have heard a little about it.

Note: Here are the  questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its  methodology .

• Artificial Intelligence
• Technology Adoption
• Teens & Tech

Many Americans think generative AI programs should credit the sources they rely on

Americans’ use of chatgpt is ticking up, but few trust its election information, q&a: how we used large language models to identify guests on popular podcasts, striking findings from 2023, what the data says about americans’ views of artificial intelligence, most popular.

1615 L St. NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 |  Media Inquiries

Research Topics

• Age & Generations
• Coronavirus (COVID-19)
• Economy & Work
• Family & Relationships
• Gender & LGBTQ
• Immigration & Migration
• International Affairs
• Internet & Technology
• Methodological Research
• News Habits & Media
• Non-U.S. Governments
• Other Topics
• Politics & Policy
• Race & Ethnicity
• Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

Copyright 2024 Pew Research Center

Terms & Conditions

Privacy Policy

Cookie Settings

Reprints, Permissions & Use Policy