Political Women and American Democracy

Description

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

Christina Wolbrecht is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Program of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame. Her book, The Politics of Women's Rights: Parties, Positions, and Change (2000), was recipient of the 2001 Leon Epstein Outstanding Book Award from the American Political Science Association (Political Organizations and Parties Section). She has published articles in many journals, including the American Journal of Political Science and the Journal of Politics. Karen Beckwith is the Flora Stone Mather Professor in the Department of Political Science at Case Western Reserve University. She is co-editor of Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State (with Lee Ann Banaszak and Dieter Rucht; Cambridge University Press, 2003), and has published articles on women, gender and politics in the European Journal of Political Research, Politics & Society, Signs, and several other journals. She is founding editor, with Lisa Baldez, of Politics & Gender, the journal of the Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association. Lisa Baldez is Associate Professor in the Government and Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies Departments at Dartmouth College. She is founding editor, with Karen Beckwith, of Politics & Gender, the journal of the Women and Political Research Section of the American Political Science Association. She is author of Why Women Protest: Women's Movements in Chile (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and numerous journal articles.

'... a powerful statement, sure to engender creative dialogue.' Journal of Politics 'Thorough and insightful, this edited collection will benefit scholars at every level of expertise. It is a must-read for gender and politics scholars. However, it should be a must-read for every scholar whose work touches on US electoral and legislative politics. ... If the potential of Political Women and American Democracy is ultimately recognised, its influence will ultimately go beyond the gender and politics subfield, to shape the work of the broader US politics field, inspiring scholars previously unaware of gender's centrality to their own work to think in new ways.' Politics and Gender