State Feminism and Political Representation

Description

How can women maximise their political influence? Does state feminism enhance the political representation of women? Should feminism be established in state institutions to treat women's concerns? Written by experts in the field, this book uses an innovative model of political influence to construct answers to these and other questions in the long-running debate over the political representation of women. The book assesses how states respond to women's demands for political representation both in terms of their inclusion as actors and the consideration of their interests in the decision making process. Debates on the issue vary from country to country, depending on institutional structures, women's movements, and other factors, and this book offers the first comparative account of the subject. The authors analyse eleven democracies in Europe and North America and present comprehensive research from the 1960s to the present.

Joni Lovenduski is Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. She is author of Women and European Politics (1986) and Feminising Politics (1995) and editor of Feminism and Politics (2000). She has co-authored and co-edited a number of other books and has published numerous papers, articles and chapters on gender and politics.

'... a valuable contribution to the field ...' Political Studies Review 'this volume is the product of a ten-year collaborative effort to assess the impact of state feminism on women's political representation ... [it] is essential reading for students and scholars interested in issues of women's political representation in Europe ...'. International Feminist Journal of Politics