Showing papers in "Politics & Gender in 2010"
TL;DR: The authors compared women parliamentarians to their male counterparts and to women elected before 2002 to see whether there are any noticeable differences in their background (profession, age, and prior experience) and their levels of parliamentary activity (including numbers of bills, reports, and questions introduced).
Abstract: The introduction of France’s “parity” law in 2000 raised fears of electing inferior women candidates via a gender quota. France has since held two legislative elections, with the proportion of women in parliament rising from 10.9% to 12.3% in 2002, and 18.5% in 2007. These rises permit an empirical evaluation of whether “quota women” measure up to those elected without a quota. New women parliamentarians are compared to their male counterparts and to women elected before 2002 to see whether there are any noticeable differences in their background (profession, age, and prior experience) and their levels of parliamentary activity (including numbers of bills, reports, and questions introduced). The findings challenge the notion that parity is producing weak politicians. The slightly different profiles of men and women politicians reflect wider barriers to women’s political careers that would not have been overcome without the parity law. Once women are elected, the volume of activity shows no evidence of being gendered, suggesting that women are as effective in the job as men. These findings imply that sex is a barrier to entry but not to performance, reinforcing claims for the use of quotas to overcome entry barriers and negating claims that quotas produce second-rate parliamentarians.
93 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the political consequences of being a parent for men and women seeking political office and found that voters rate childless female candidates substantially lower than childless male candidates, mother candidates, and father candidates, while mothers of young children are not significantly disadvantaged compared to mothers of older children and women with no children.
Abstract: In this article, I explore the political consequences of being a parent for men and women seeking political office. Although a long-standing body of research has concluded that family obligations constrain the political careers of women but not of men, almost no research examines how family status can affect voter evaluations of political candidates. Using an experiment in which I varied the candidate's gender and parental status, I find that on a number of indicators, voters rate childless female candidates substantially lower than childless male candidates, mother candidates, and father candidates. Childless women also lose the traditional “female advantage” on child-care and children's issues. Additionally, while mothers of young children are not significantly disadvantaged compared to mothers of older children and women with no children, they are disadvantaged in comparison to male candidates with young children. Furthermore, this study finds evidence that male candidates may receive a “fatherhood penalty” compared to men with no children. Thus, there are political consequences of being a parent, but the consequences are dependent on the candidate's gender. These findings have important implications for candidate campaign strategy and how female candidates should think about presenting their family lives to voters.
51 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a method to solve the problem of how to find the shortest path between two points of interest in a video sequence, which is also available electronically from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X09990511
Abstract: This is the publisher's version, which is also available electronically from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X09990511
43 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined newspaper coverage of U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and found that women tend to receive less coverage overall and that the coverage they do receive tends to focus disproportionately on their appearance, personality and family status at the expense of their qualifications and issue positions.
Abstract: Studies of press coverage afforded women running for public office indicate that historically, women tend to garner less coverage overall and that the coverage they do receive tends to focus disproportionately on their appearance, personality, and family status at the expense of their qualifications and issue positions. This study examines newspaper coverage of U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. Notably, Clinton did not allege that she was receiving too little coverage or coverage that focused disproportionately on her clothing or appearance. Rather, she charged that she was being treated negatively relative to her chief rival, U.S. Senator Barack Obama. More than 6,000 articles from 25 leading newspapers from across the country were content-coded from Labor Day through Super Tuesday in order to assess Clinton's coverage on two dimensions: traditional and tonal. On a range of traditional indicators of bias, such as coverage amount and mentions of candidate appearance, Clinton's coverage clearly broke established patterns typically afforded women presidential candidates. However, the tone of Clinton's coverage was decidedly negative relative to her male competitors. Normative implications of this mixed bag of fairness and bias are discussed.
40 citations
TL;DR: In this article, Douglass defined householding as a continuous process of social reproduction that covers all life-cycle stages and extends beyond the family, and pointed out the psychological, sociocultural, economic, and political implications of these processes are extraordinarily complex and arguably involve as much as one-quarter of the world's population.
Abstract: Households are an enduring feature of human history. They are the building blocks of social formations in every era and at all scales: from small communities to the global economy. Like families, they “order” social relations in particular ways. But households differ from families by allowing for nonkinship members and by not presuming shared group residence. The emphasis lies, rather, in the pooling of diverse (material and nonmaterial) resources with the purpose of ensuring the continuity of the collective unit. Michael Douglass (2006, 423) deploys the term householding to underscore how “creating and sustaining a household is a continuous process of social reproduction that covers all life-cycle stages and extends beyond the family.” Global householding references the many ways in which these processes increasingly occur across national boundaries, for example, through transborder marriages, overseas education, labor migration, and war displacements. The psychological, sociocultural, economic, and political implications of these processes are extraordinarily complex and arguably involve as much as one-quarter of the world's population.
40 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study of both the substantive representation of women and the constitutive representation of gender (CRG) in the British Conservative Party is presented, through examining general election manifestos (1992?2005).
Abstract: With critical mass theory increasingly rejected as an explanatory theory of women's substantive representation, new conceptual approaches and methods are being suggested that look toward the role of multiple actors and multiple sites of representation, and which point to the importance of critical actors. Within them, there is particular concern with what constitutes the substantive representation of women (SRW). At the same time, the constitutive representation of gender (CRG) has been advanced as a complementary facet of representation. This article offers the first case study of both the SRW and the CRG in the parliamentary setting. It does so through an over-time analysis of the British Conservative Party. By examining general election manifestos (1992?2005), it considers how the Conservative Party constitutes women's concerns, the relations between the sexes, and the pledges the party makes ?for women?. The research, furthermore, suggests that in studying the SRW and the CRG, scholars should both look at changes in the representative claims and pledges that are made by individual political actors, such as political parties, and explore the relationship between the two facets of representation.
39 citations
TL;DR: This article found that women attorneys are less likely to receive a favorable vote by a justice than are the male counsel they oppose and that conservative justices are more likely than their liberal counterparts to vote against litigants represented by female counsel at oral argument.
Abstract: While the impact of an attorney's sex has been examined with respect to trial court processes (e.g., jury decision making), no one has previously studied its effects on appellate court decision making. In this article, we argue that the application of gender schemas by some justices results in a devaluing of the arguments made by women litigators. Our findings suggest that women orally arguing attorneys are less likely to receive a favorable vote by a justice than are the male counsel they oppose and that conservative justices are more likely than their liberal counterparts to vote against litigants represented by female counsel at oral argument. This suggests that the ideology of elites influences whether they apply gender schemas in a negative fashion. We also find that justices are more likely to side with female lawyers in women's issues cases, indicating that the justices' perceptions of female lawyer expertise are enhanced in those cases. These findings persist even after controlling for multiple factors, including attorney expertise, the sex of the justice, amicus participation, party capability, and judicial ideology.
36 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that men are disproportionately mobilized by the most negative campaign messages as compared to women, and that partisanship is also associated with gender and message tone to affect the likelihood of voting.
Abstract: The effect of negative campaigning on voter turnout has been a major focus of research in recent years. The general finding from this large literature is that negative campaigning does not depress voter turnout overall; however, it may still be that certain portions of the electorate are differentially mobilized or demobilized by negativity. In particular, scholars have neglected to examine whether men and women react differently to campaign attacks. This article begins by showing that evidence drawn from a variety of relevant fields outside of political science point toward the general expectation that men will be mobilized by negativity to a greater degree than women. Associated hypotheses are then tested using data from both real campaigns and experiments. In each analysis, the evidence supports the hypothesis that a “negativity gap” exists. Specifically, men are disproportionately mobilized by the most negative campaign messages as compared to women. Partisanship is also found to interact significantly with gender and message tone to affect the likelihood of voting. These results highlight the importance of studying subgroup differences when establishing the effects of campaign tone on the public.
35 citations
TL;DR: The authors found that mothers see the political world a bit differently from other women, and that women with children have different priorities and concerns and, at times, different positions on political issues.
Abstract: From Dwight Eisenhower to John McCain, presidential candidates have appealed to female voters by highlighting motherhood in their campaigns. The most recent example of this has been the “hockey mom” trope introduced by the first hockey mom to earn a slot on the GOP presidential ticket, Governor Sarah Palin. These appeals, while motivated by political gamesmanship, imply that mothers see the political world a bit differently from other women. They suggest that women with children have different political priorities and concerns and, at times, different positions on political issues. This article takes this proposition seriously, and asks the question: Does becoming a mother have a transformative effect on women's political attitudes? Using longitudinal data from the four-wave 1965–97 Political Socialization Panel Study, I track the movement of women's political attitudes on partisan identification, ideological identification, and policy issues. I find that the effects of motherhood on women's political attitudes, while not uniform in nature, do push some women to adopt more conservative political attitudes. Thus, these results suggest that while motherhood does not transform women's political attitudes, for some women motherhood does promote interesting attitudinal shifts.
26 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the ideological differences in the voting records of male and female members of the U.S. House of Representatives using a relatively novel natural-experiment research design to account for variations in district-level factors.
Abstract: Our analysis investigates the ideological differences in the voting records of male and female members of the U.S. House of Representatives using a relatively novel natural-experiment research design to account for variations in district-level factors. We ask whether it makes a difference when a woman succeeds a man or a man succeeds a woman in a given congressional district. To answer this question, we created a database consisting of predecessor-successor pairs in all elections to the House between 1937 and 2008. In the case of intraparty change, we find that there is no significant difference in the voting scores of female and male members of the House; the roll call scores of female Democrats who replace male Democrats are virtually identical, as are the scores of male Democrats who replace female Democrats. The same results hold for Republicans. We also demonstrate that when interparty change occurs in a district, there is no evidence that the resulting ideological change is greater when the successor or predecessor is a woman. In other words, the voting records of consecutive members of Congress that come from a particular district are virtually the same regardless of their gender.
22 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the use of gender in constitutions and its significance for gender equality and trace the political use of gendered constitutional provisions in Botswana and South Africa, countries that differ substantially with respect to how they have “constitutionalized” gender.
Abstract: This article examines the use of gender in constitutions and its significance for gender equality. New democracies, and some older ones, are increasingly including gender provisions in their constitutions. What is the impact of these provisions on women's political and economic status? Does constitutionalizing gender serve to empower women? If so, what kinds of provisions have an empowering effect and under what conditions? To address these questions, we trace the political use (legislation, policy, and judicial interpretation) of gendered constitutional provisions in Botswana and South Africa, countries that differ substantially with respect to how they have “constitutionalized” gender. The case studies demonstrate how constitutional provisions provide a legal basis and legitimacy for women's rights advocacy and how they influence the content of legislation and judicial review of laws and policies.
TL;DR: The appointment of Sonia Sotomayor and the nomination of Elena Kagan to the United States Supreme Court provides a timely opportunity for scholars, policymakers, and members of the legal community to consider why there are so few women on the world's highest courts.
Abstract: The appointment of Sonia Sotomayor and the nomination of Elena Kagan to the United States Supreme Court provides a timely opportunity for scholars, policymakers, and members of the legal community to consider why there are so few women on the world's highest courts. Although singular moments draw our attention to the importance of women on high courts, sadly, this attention is rarely sustained over long periods. While much was made of Ronald Reagan's historic nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to serve as the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, more than a decade and four nomination opportunities passed by before Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed. On this point, Paula Monopoli aptly observes: “[T]he assumption that progress would steadily continue until gender parity was achieved has proven to be wrong” (2007, 43). Unfortunately, this same observation could be said of virtually all other high courts across the globe.
TL;DR: The social movements that first flourished in the 1960s and 1970s were initially characterized by protest activity against the state and against dominant norms, and by their only loosely organized structures.
Abstract: The social movements that first flourished in the 1960s and 1970s were initially characterized by protest activity against the state and against dominant norms, and by their only loosely organized structures. Over time, however, these social movements, including feminism, have become partially institutionalized in government and nongovernment bodies, and in policies, practices, and social norms.
TL;DR: The authors argued that systematic rape should be conceptualized not only as a war crime, but also as a destructive and increasingly deployed war weapon, and argued that international relations should consider rape as a weapon of war for two major reasons.
Abstract: This article argues that systematic rape should be conceptualized not only as a war crime, but also as a destructive and increasingly deployed war weapon. As such, rape becomes a subject of arms control and thus directly relevant to security studies. Consequently, I argue that international relations should consider rape as a weapon of war for two major reasons. First, the categorization of rape as a weapon of war fits with core disciplinary theoretical definitions and assumptions. Namely, rape as a weapon of war compromises state security, operates in a conception of power defined as material/“power-over”/zero-sum, and corresponds with a rational actor model. Second, although wartime rape has often been marginalized as a “women's issue,” empirical evidence persuasively demonstrates how this categorization is incomplete; rather, women, girls, men, and boys all suffer direct and/or indirect consequences from the increasing prevalence and brutality of this weapon's deployment. Overall, the article maintains that excluding rape from security studies precludes comprehensive, accurate analysis within areas of theoretical and practical concern to IR. Thus, I conclude by suggesting avenues of research, from diverse theoretical perspectives, that may persuade IR scholars to view rape as an increasingly relevant and analytically rich topic of study.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the problem is not simply the short attention span of the media and the constant quest for newness but also the terms in which social movements have been understood.
Abstract: Why have there been so many obituaries for the women's movement, written in so many different countries, despite so many continuing manifestations of life? We argue here that the problem is not simply the short attention span of the media and the constant quest for newness but also the terms in which social movements have been understood. This is partly a methodological question concerning how social movements are distinguished from other political actors, the repertoires that are expected of them, and the associated measurement of social movement activity through protest event databases. It is also a question of how “institutionalization” is understood. It has often been assumed that social movement activism is by definition extrainstitutional or that institutionalization is something that comes after, replaces, or usurps the role of social movements.
TL;DR: The Ministry of Women's Affairs in Aotearoa/New Zealand was established as a stand-alone agency in 1986 and has remained institutionally intact for more than 20 years, unlike many women's policy agencies that have been downsized or eliminated as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The Ministry of Women's Affairs in Aotearoa/New Zealand was established as a stand-alone agency in 1986. It has remained institutionally intact for more than 20 years, unlike many women's policy agencies that have been downsized or eliminated. It has survived significant economic and state sector restructuring and weathered the extension of neoliberal orientations into the reform of social policy. We analyze New Zealand's version of state feminism during three political periods since its inception. For each period, we identify significant developments both in the broader political context and within the ministry itself, and examine how effective Women's Affairs has been in advancing the substantive interests of diverse groups of women. Our analysis identifies three key features of the Ministry of Women's Affairs—its political context, its political and bureaucratic leadership, and its institutional design—as important in explaining both the ministry's continued existence and the limits on what it has been able to achieve.
TL;DR: The International Criminal Court (ICC) has a majority of women judges, most of whom are from outside the West and many of whom have expertise in gender-based violence as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Imagine this: a court presided over by a majority of women judges—many of whom are from racially marginalized backgrounds—and which has a “constitution” that has gender justice at its core. Incredibly, given what we know about gender and judging cross-nationally, this is not some utopian vision but the current reality at the International Criminal Court (ICC). As of May 2010, the 18 member ICC bench consisted of 11 women judges, most of whom were from outside the West and many of whom have expertise in gender-based violence. This development raises a range of important questions, two of which I want to speculate on in the following discussion: How is it that the sex profile of the ICC bench differs so dramatically from domestic-level courts? What difference might this profile make to the transformation of international law in terms of expanding gender justice principles?
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on what they consider to be one of the most troubling aspects of marriage for feminists, highlighting the fact that marriage automatically confers bourgeois respectability on its participants.
Abstract: Feminist critics of the institution of marriage point to its tendency to reproduce and solidify a gendered division of labor, norms of dependency and protection, and mandated monogamy. While I support the feminist call for a decoupling of state benefits, such as rights to health care and legal proxy, from the institution of marriage in light of discrimination against same-sex couples who are denied the right to marry, in this essay I draw attention to a separate but related issue. I focus here on what I consider one of the most troubling aspects of marriage for feminists, one highlighted by Simone de Beauvoir in her classic and still timely critique of marriage in The Second Sex (1952): the fact that marriage automatically confers bourgeois respectability on its participants. Even as we oppose antigay marriage legislation and recognize that marriage can protect vulnerable parties by guaranteeing health care, equity upon divorce, tax benefits, and so forth, feminists must continue to refuse the bourgeois respectability that is so deeply linked with the institution of marriage. Having the state accord legitimacy to some kinds of intimate relationships and consensual sex, but not others, goes against basic ideas of feminist freedom articulated most convincingly, I argue, by Beauvoir. While arguing this position, however, I will also ask whether only the relatively privileged are able to refuse the bourgeois respectability that marriage promises.
TL;DR: Although most states select their judges via merit selection or an appointive process, a number of states choose their trial and appellate judges on the basis of contested elections as mentioned in this paper, and approximately one-half of all state judges reach their state court benches by winning partisan or nonpartisan races.
Abstract: Although most states select their judges via merit selection or an appointive process, a number of states choose their trial and appellate judges on the basis of contested elections. Currently, approximately one-half of all state judges reach their state court benches by winning partisan or nonpartisan races. In the 21 states that elect their judges, women with judicial aspirations must be as competitive as men in these elections. Specifically, they must finance increasingly expensive judicial campaigns, garner widespread support from influential political elites, and, most importantly, convince voters that they are as capable as men. Do aspiring women judges experience similar barriers or challenges as women running for legislative or executive office?
TL;DR: This paper explored the notion of ascriptive autonomy as a conceptual and political tool that can be used to understand and enact potentially liberatory practices that enable marginalized people to have greater individual autonomy.
Abstract: I explore the notion of ascriptive autonomy as a conceptual and political tool that can be used to understand and enact potentially liberatory practices that enable marginalized people to have greater individual autonomy. “Ascriptive autonomy” refers to the sense in which autonomy is partly constituted by the conferral of the status of “autonomous individual.” Autonomy is both a capacity to determine one's own ends and a status conferred by virtue of being recognized by others. I focus on the link between these two facets of autonomy insofar as recognition may enable the development of capacity. In certain situations, autonomy may be ascribed even if one lacks some requirements associated with the capacity for autonomy because of either institutional or psychic constraints that follow from oppression. In such instances of “selective, purposeful misrecognition,” ascription may lead to the cultivatation of the capacity for autonomy while opening up a space for politics. To demonstrate this, I recast the feminist debate over sexuality using the terms of ascriptive autonomy. When viewed through the lens of misrecognition, we can better respond to critiques that charge proponents of the “pro-sex”position with focusing on sexual pleasure at the expense of sufficient attention paid to the constraints faced by women.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on global householding associated with educational migration, and in particular the flow of students and scholars from Asia to the United States, in particular from Hong Kong to the US.
Abstract: Global householding encompasses a variety of (re)configurations of family and household arrangements due to people on the move across national boundaries (Douglass 2006). My essay focuses on global householding associated with educational migration, and in particular, the flow of students and scholars from Asia to the United States.
TL;DR: In America, the arguments for same-sex marriage are articulated primarily in the language of liberalism: justice, rights, and equality as mentioned in this paper, and they appeal to rational and intuitive, or at least culturally relevant notions of justice and fairness.
Abstract: In America, the arguments for same-sex marriage are articulated primarily in the language of liberalism: justice, rights, and equality. Activists in the public square appeal to rational and intuitive, or at least culturally relevant, notions of justice and fairness. In countering such a defense of same-sex marriage, feminists may feel compelled to rearticulate fundamental concerns about how gender normativity of marriage oppresses women. Marriage, feminists are certain, has never been a good thing, economically or politically, for women.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose to set aside, for the sake of argument, my own radical egalitarian commitments and to speak directly to the liberal feminist in her own terms, and explore whether the paternafare rule within this hypothetical world would pass the capabilities-oriented undue burden test.
Abstract: When policymakers invoke liberal democratic tropes while endorsing welfare reform, and, in particular, “paternafare”—the mandatory child support and paternity identification requirement—are they contradicting themselves? Can paternafare be defended in liberal democratic terms? In this article, I propose to set aside, for the sake of argument, my own radical egalitarian commitments and to speak directly to the liberal feminist in her own terms. Because the capabilities approach of Martha Nussbaum is one of the less demanding liberal democratic theories of justice, insofar as it permits a relatively large degree of inequality, it provides a particularly helpful framework for this feminist dialogue. I construct a hypothetical world in which the needy single mother has an entitlement to a basic income under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and I draw up my own version of an undue burden test on the basis of Nussbaum's theory. I explore whether the paternafare rule within this hypothetical world would pass the capabilities-oriented undue burden test. Finally, I argue that Nussbaum's nonfungibility principle can yield surprisingly robust redistributive results within specific historical conditions.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that conventional forms of protest event analysis may have significant limitations when applied to feminist protest, and they suggest that repertoires may be gendered, that this is unacknowledged by those who use the concept and has implications for its normative dimensions.
Abstract: Protest event data (PEA) and the related concept of repertoire of contention is widely used in the study of social movements. I argue that conventional forms of protest event analysis may have significant limitations when applied to feminist protest. Unobtrusive or individualised forms of resistance and protest associated with feminism are difficult to measure through typical protest event data. Moreover, the concept of repertoires of contention retains within it a number of unwarranted gendered assumptions. Some flow from being too reliant upon protest event data. I suggest that repertoires may be gendered, that this is unacknowledged by those who use the concept and has implications for its normative dimensions.
TL;DR: In this paper, the state defines, confers, and uses marital status as a vehicle for protecting and supporting associations of intimate caregivers, also known as families, and it must offer the status to same-sex intimate caregiving couples.
Abstract: So long as the state defines, confers, and uses marital status as a vehicle for protecting and supporting associations of intimate caregivers, also known as families, it must offer the status to same-sex intimate caregiving couples. A commitment to equal treatment before the law demands it. Period.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a study of women's mobilization and feminist agency in Mozambique and Nicaragua as case studies, as well as a first-rate comparative analysis.
Abstract: and mobilization from the perspectives of the women involved, making it a valuable contribution to the growing body of global feminist literature. While her approach to feminist agency in history and politics is not pathbreaking, her novel and interesting choices of Mozambique and Nicaragua as case studies, as well as her first-rate comparative analysis, yields insightful, valuable, and relevant information about women’s mobilization beyond these two countries. Moreover, her research is theoretically useful to the study of women’s mobilization and feminist agency worldwide. This book is a solid piece of scholarship that would be useful reading for college courses on gender and development, global feminisms, feminist theory, and post-revolutionary politics.
TL;DR: The trajectories of social and political change in very specific political, economic, and cultural contexts have been studied in this paper, where the authors present a method to locate, measure, and record these trajectories.
Abstract: Social movements seek social and political change in very specific political, economic, and cultural contexts. Their very imperative for structural change means that they are nonbureaucratic, noninstitutional, fluid collectives that have no single head office and few formal records of their existence. This poses a substantial problem for researchers—how do we locate, measure, and record the trajectories of these phenomena?
TL;DR: Sotomayor's confirmation hearings in the U.S. Supreme Court were characterized by media attacks, arguing that she lacked judicial temperament (too mean) and was racist, coming straight from the misogynist playbook well thumbed from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: I began to write this essay as confirmation hearings opened for President Barack Obama's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, and long before he nominated Elena Kagan. The nominations have made the gender and ethnic identities of judges and senators alike salient. In their opening statements, senators burst with pride about a great country where anyone can achieve anything, regardless of gender, class, or ethnicity, while some equated empathy with prejudice and difference with partiality. In a New York Times Magazine interview the Sunday before, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stressed the importance of more women on the bench (Bazelon 2009). Opponents' carefully orchestrated media attacks against Sotomayor, arguing that she lacked judicial temperament (too mean) and was racist, came straight from the misogynist playbook well thumbed from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. I share Nancy Maveety's disappointment that the hearings squelched, rather than explored, the questions of what Martha Minow (1987) has so aptly named “the dilemma of difference”—how women can be both equal to and different from men—and the nature of judging, which has to do with how one's social location and life experiences inevitably shape judgment. The dullness of the actual hearings stood in sharp contrast to the euphoria in the Latino community where many sported the latest fashion: “Wise Latina Woman” T-shirts, dispelling any doubt about the symbolic importance of such appointments.
TL;DR: The authors found that same-sex marriage and civil unions are more likely to be found in American states where public opinion on gay rights is relatively liberal, but they are most likely to find in states that, in addition to being more accepting of gays and lesbians, also have institutional rules that make it difficult to overturn enacted laws and court rulings.
Abstract: making the ceteris paribus effects of these two factors difficult to identify. Compounding the difficulty is that it is almost certainly the case that public opinion and institutions not only have independent effects on policy outcomes but in fact interact in important ways. For example, same-sex marriage and civil unions are more likely to be found in American states where public opinion on gay rights is relatively liberal. But they are most likely to be found in states that, in addition to being more accepting of gays and lesbians, also have institutional rules that make it difficult to overturn enacted laws and court rulings. This sort of interaction effect is impossible to pin down in a study that compares only two cases. All told, however, Smith has made a foundational contribution to our understanding of when and why struggles for social change succeed or fail. The institutional explanations offered by Political Institutions and Lesbian and Gay Rights in the United States and Canada are persuasive, and every scholar of the movement for lesbian and gay rights must now contend with these compelling arguments.
TL;DR: Gender Violence in Russia as mentioned in this paper provides an excellent account of the trials and tribulations of global feminism in Russia during this last, difficult decade, and provides a fine-grained analysis of the intersections between transnational feminism and Russian society, though, one should supplement a reading of this book with recent work by Julie Hemment (Empowering Women in Russia: Activism, Aid and NGOs, 2007) and Suvi Salmenniemi (Democratization and Gender in Contemporary Russia, 2008).
Abstract: book is also one of very few accounts of transnational feminist advocacy in Russia that carries the story well into the 2000s, when Russian feminist organizations were scrambling to adjust to new funding constraints. Still, this reviewer would have preferred if Johnson had strayed a little more frequently from the heroic narrative of global feminism to consider more closely the workings of politics and power within these advocacy networks. One wonders, for example, how the disparity of resources between the local and transnational feminists, who were themselves constrained by the priorities of donors, may have preempted more indigenous debates about Russian women’s economic plight. It would also have been useful had she considered in more detail the tensions within the Russian network against domestic violence, between the organizations in Moscow and those in the regions, or between those funded by outside donors and others funded by the state. Again, Johnson recognizes these issues but dispatches them quickly, even though they may help explain why the movement collapsed so quickly when funding ceased. In sum, Gender Violence in Russia provides an excellent account of the trials and tribulations of global feminism in Russia during this last, difficult decade. For a more fine-grained analysis of the intersections between transnational feminism and Russian society, though, one should supplement a reading of this book with recent work by Julie Hemment (Empowering Women in Russia: Activism, Aid and NGOs, 2007) and Suvi Salmenniemi (Democratization and Gender in Contemporary Russia, 2008).