In recent years, political parties and national legislatures in more than one hundred countries have adopted quotas for the selection of female candidates to political office. Despite the rapid international diffusion of these measures, most research has focused on single countries - or, at most, the presence of quotas within one world region. Consequently, explanations for the adoption and impact of gender quotas derived from one study often contradict with findings from other cases. Quotas for Women in Politics is the first book to address quotas as a global phenomenon to explain their spread and impact in diverse contexts around the world. It is organized around two sets of questions. First, why are quotas adopted? Which actors are involved in quota campaigns, and why do they support or oppose quota measures? Second, what effects do quotas have on existing patterns of political representation? Are these provisions sufficient for bringing more women into politics? Or, does their impact depend on other features of the broader political context? Synthesizing literature on quota policies, this book develops a framework for analyzing the spread of quota provisions and the reasons for variations in their effects. It then applies this framework to examine and compare campaigns for reserved seats in Pakistan and India, party quotas in Sweden and the United Kingdom, and legislative quotas in Argentina and France.

Six areas of research of the subjects of women, gender and politics are debated: social movements, political parties, elections, political representation, public policy, and the state.

This timely collection offers a fresh look on the impact of gender perspectives in the discipline of political science at the beginning of the 21st century. Jane Bayes combats the Eurocentric focus that has characterised both fields and suggests viable alternatives for the future of the disciplines.

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

Traditional analyses of nineteenth-century politics have assigned women a peripheral role. By adopting a broader interpretation of political participation, the author identifies how middle-class women were able to contribute to political affairs in the nineteenth century. Examining the contribution that women made to British political life in the period 1800-1870 stimulates debates about gender and politics, the nature of authority and the definition of political culture. This volume examines female engagement in both traditional and unconventional political arenas, including female sociability, salons, child-rearing and education, health, consumption, religious reform and nationalism. Richardson focuses on middle-class women’s social, cultural, intellectual and political authority, as implemented by a range of public figures and lesser-known campaigners. The activists discussed and their varying political, economic and religious backgrounds will demonstrate the significance of female interventions in shaping the political culture of the period and beyond.

This book presents an original and groundbreaking approach to gender inequality. Looking at women's power in the home, in the workplace, and in politics from a political economy perspective, the authors demonstrate that equality is tied to demand for women's labor outside the home, which is a function of structural, political, and institutional conditions.--[book jacket].

Women, Gender, and Politics brings together both classic and recent readings on central topics in the study of gender and politics, and places an emphasis on comparing developed and developing countries. Genuinely international in its focus, the book is divided into six sections to reflect the range of research in the subfield: (1) women and social movements, (2) women and political parties, (3) women, gender, and elections, (4) women, gender, and political representation, (5) women, gender, and social policies, and (6) women, gender, and the state. Each section serves as an introduction to general trends in thinking about women and politics, and the readings capture the ways that research has developed both thematically and chronologically in all of the six broad areas. The volume's innovative design, global approach, and comprehensive coverage make it an ideal teaching book and a valuable resource for students and scholars throughout the world.