Feminist Democratic Representation

Feminist Democratic Representation PDF Author: Karen Celis
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190087730
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Popular consensus has long been that if "enough women" are present in political institutions they will represent "women's interests." Yet many believe that differences among women--women disagreeing about what is in "their interest"--fatally undermine both the principle and the practice of women's group representation. In this book, Karen Celis and Sarah Childs redress women's poverty of political representation with a new feminist account of democratic representation. Rather than giving up on women's group representation, Celis and Childs re-think and re-design representative institutions, taking women's differences--both ideological and intersectional--as their starting point. Feminist Democratic Representation considers a broad spectrum of contemporary problematics--abortion, prostitution/sex work, Muslim women's dress, and Marine Le Pen--to discuss women's under- and misrepresentation and the "good, bad and the ugly" representative. As problem-driven scholars firmly grounded in feminist and democratic empirical and theoretical political science, Celis and Childs imagine what good representation for women in all their diversity could look like--representation as it should be. To realize this ideal in today's established representative democracies, they present a second-generation feminist design for parliaments and legislatures, underpinned by a re-thinking of feminist and democratic principles. Celis and Childs conceive of representation as a mélange of dimensions, and they shift the focus in women's group representation from feminist outcome to feminist process. Inclusive, responsive, and egalitarian representation for all women demands a new category of representatives in parliaments: the "affected representatives of women" who are epistemologically and experientially close to differently affected women. Affected representatives passionately advocate within political institutions, and publicly hold elected representatives to account. Feminist processes of representation have wide effects and deepen relationships between women and their democratic institutions. Against the more fashionable tide of post-representative politics, Feminist Democratic Representation argues not simply for more, but significantly better, representation.

Feminist Democratic Representation

Feminist Democratic Representation PDF Author: Karen Celis
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190087722
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Popular consensus holds that if "enough women" are present in political institutions they will represent "women's interests," however, such generalized assumptions are frequently queried on theoretical grounds and consistently shown to be conditional in practice. In this book, Karen Celis and Sarah Childs address women's poverty of political representation with a new feminist account of democratic representation. Celis and Childs rethink and redesign representativeinstitutions, taking ideological and intersectional differences as their starting point. Inclusive, responsive, and egalitarian representation for all women demands a new category of representatives in parliaments: the "affected representatives of women," those who are epistemologically andexperientially close to differently affected women. Affected representatives advocate within political institutions and publicly hold elected representatives to account, transforming representational effects, deepening relationships between women and their democratic institutions.

Seeing Women, Strengthening Democracy

Seeing Women, Strengthening Democracy PDF Author: Magda Hinojosa
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197526969
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
Under what conditions do citizens most effectively connect to the democratic process? We tend to think that factors like education, income, and workforce participation are most important, but research has shown that they exert less influence than expected when it comes to women's attitudes and engagement. Scholars have begun to look more closely at how political context affects engagement. This book asks how contexts promote women's interest and connection to democracy, and it looks to Latin America for answers. The region provides a good test case as the institution of gender quotas has led to more recent and dramatic increases in women's political representation. Specifically, Magda Hinojosa and Miki Caul Kittilson argue that the election of women to political office--particularly where women's presence is highly visible to the public--strengthens the connections between women and the democratic process. For women, seeing more "people like me" in politics changes attitudes and orientations toward government and politics. The authors untangle the effects of gender quotas and the subsequent rise in women's share of elected positions, finding that the latter exerts greater impact on women's connections to the democratic process. Women citizens are more knowledgeable, interested, and efficacious when they see women holding elected office. They also express more trust in government and in political institutions and greater satisfaction with democracy when they see more women in politics. The authors look at comparative data from across Latin America, but focus on an in-depth case study of Uruguay. Here, the authors find that gender gaps in political engagement declined significantly after a doubling of women's representation in the Senate. The authors therefore argue that far-reaching gender gaps can be overcome by more equitable representation in our political institutions.

Party Institutionalization and Women's Representation in Democratic Brazil

Party Institutionalization and Women's Representation in Democratic Brazil PDF Author: Kristin N. Wylie
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781108453530
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Brazil's quality of democracy remains limited by enduring obstacles including the weakness of parties and underrepresentation of marginalized groups. Party Institutionalization and Women's Representation in Democratic Brazil theorizes the connections across those problems, explaining how weakly institutionalized and male-dominant parties interact to undermine descriptive representation in Brazil. This book draws on an original multilevel database of 27,653 legislative candidacies spanning six election cycles, over 100 interviews, and field observations from throughout Brazil. Wylie demonstrates that more inclusive participation in candidate-centered elections amidst raced-gendered structural inequities relies on institutionalized parties with the capacity to support women, and the will, heralded by party leadership, to do so. The book illustrates how women leaders in Brazil's more institutionalized parties enable white and Afro-descendant female aspirants to navigate the masculinized terrain of formal politics. It enhances our understanding of how parties mediate electoral rules, as well as institutional and party change in the context of weak but robustly gendered institutions.

Representation

Representation PDF Author: Maria C. Escobar-Lemmon
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199340110
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
The essays in this book constitute a comparative move toward defining new and unified theoretical orientations to studying representation among women. The book begins with a theoretical positioning of the meaning of women's interests, issues and preferences. It then looks at descriptive representation in political parties, high courts, and legislatures, as well as how definitions of 'interest' affect who represents women in legislatures and social movements. Chapters include cases from the United States, Latin America, Western Europe and Africa. Contents: 1. Dilemmas in the meaning and measurement of representation / Maria C. Escobar-Lemmon, and Michelle M. Taylor-Robinson; 2. Plotting the path from one to the other / Karen Beckwith; 3. Intersectional representation or representing intersectionality? / Ange-Marie Hancock; 4. Representing women / Drude Dahlerup; 5. The effect of preferential voting on women's representation / Richard E. Matland, and Emelie Lilliefeldt; 6. Gender, high courts, and ideas about representation in Western Europe / Valerie Hoekstra, Miki Caul Kittilson, and Elizabeth Andrews Bond; 7. Political inclusion and representation of afrodescendant women in Latin America / Mala Htun; 8. How civil society represents women / Alice J. Kang; 9. Unpacking women's issues / Michele L. Swers; 10. Representing women's interests and intersections of gender, race, and ethnicity in US State Legislatures / Beth Rein Gold, and Kerry L. Haynie; 11. Representing women / Maria C. Escobar-Lemmon, Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer, and Michelle M. Taylor-Robinson; 12. Does presence produce representation of interests? / Maria C. Escobar-Lemmon, and Michelle M. Taylor-Robinson.

Engendering Democracy

Engendering Democracy PDF Author: Anne Phillips
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745677959
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
Democracy is the central political issue of our age, yet debates over its nature and goals rarely engage with feminist concerns. Now that women have the right to vote, they are thought to present no special problems of their own. But despite the seemingly gender-neutral categories of individual or citizen, democratic theory and practice continues to privilege the male. This book reconsiders dominant strands in democratic thinking - focusing on liberal democracy, participatory democracy, and twentieth century versions of civic republicanism - and approaches these from a feminist perspective. Anne Phillips explores the under-representation of women in politics, the crucial relationship between public and private spheres, and the lessons of the contemporary women's movement as an experience in participatory democracy.

State Feminism and Political Representation

State Feminism and Political Representation PDF Author: Joni Lovenduski
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781139446761
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book 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 2005 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 offered 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.

State Feminism and Political Representation

State Feminism and Political Representation PDF Author: Joni Lovenduski
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521852227
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
This 2005 book offers an assessment of the impact of women's movements on public policy.

How Women Represent Women

How Women Represent Women PDF Author: Tracy L. Osborn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199845344
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
This title argues that political parties fundamentally structure the ways in which women legislators represent women's interests. Using original election, sponsorship and roll call data across the US state chambers, Osborn shows how parties shape the policy alternatives women offer.

Women, Gender, and Politics

Women, Gender, and Politics PDF Author: Mona Lena Krook
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195368800
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
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.