Gender and Politics: the State of the Art
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that future research should focus not on the question of when women make a difference, but on how the substantive representation of women occurs, and the relationship between women's descriptive and substantive representation has been operationalised and investigated in empirical research.
Abstract: Over the last two decades, but particularly in the last 10 years, research into sex, gender and politics has become an established sub-field of political science. This article opens with some reflections on the position of ‘women and politics’ scholars and research within the British political science community. It then moves on to reflect upon the burgeoning literature on women's political representation. In particular, it questions the way in which the relationship between women's descriptive and substantive representation has been operationalised and investigated in empirical research, namely through the concept of critical mass. Seeking to reframe these debates, the article suggests that future research should focus not on the question of when women make a difference, but on how the substantive representation of women occurs.
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3,053 citations
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: The authors argue that representation occurs both inside and outside legislative arenas, and they call attention to the wide range of actors, sites, goal, and means that inform processes of substantive representation.
Abstract: This article seeks to rethink how scholars have traditionally studied women's substantive representation. It outlines a framework that aims to replace questions like ‘Do women represent women?’ with ones like ‘Who claims to act for women?’ and ‘Where, how, and why does the substantive representation of women occur?’ Arguing that representation occurs both inside and outside legislative arenas, the article calls attention to the wide range of actors, sites, goal, and means that inform processes of substantive representation.
282 citations
TL;DR: This article explored the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation of women and concluded that women members of Parliament (MPs) were women's most fervent representatives and contributed in a unique way to how women were represented; they stretched the borders of the political definition of women's interests and made them fit better with the way women themselves defined their interests.
Abstract: Based on empirical data, speeches from the budget debates of the Belgian Lower House (1900–1979), this article explores the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation of women. The article concludes that women members of Parliament (MPs) were women's most fervent representatives and contributed in a unique way to how women were represented; they stretched the borders of the political definition of women's interests and made them fit better with the way women themselves defined their interests. The research contributes to the development of the concepts “substantive representation” and “women's interests” and of the methodology of empirical research in this field.
141 citations
TL;DR: The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 was adopted in 2000 with a view to ensuring that all aspects of conflict management, post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding be undertaken with a sensitivity towards gender as an axis of exclusion.
Abstract: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 was adopted in October 2000 with a view to ensuring that all aspects of conflict management, post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding be undertaken with a sensitivity towards gender as an axis of exclusion. In this paper, I do not dwell on the successes and shortcomings of UNSCR 1325 for long, instead using a discussion of the Resolution as a platform for analysis of subsequent Resolutions, including UNSCRs 1820 (2008), 1882 (2009), 1888 (2009) and 1889 (2009). This last relates specifically to the participation of women in peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction and is the most recent pronouncement of the Security Council on the issue of ‘women and peace and security’. Through this analysis, I draw attention to the expectations of and pressures on (some) women in the arena of peace and security, which can only be alleviated through discursive and material change in attitudes towards equality and empowerment. I argue that the Council is beginnin...
126 citations
Cites background from "Gender and Politics: the State of t..."
...See, for example, Childs and Krook (2006, 2008)) is neither to simplify the ‘complex realities’ they attempt to capture, nor to depress any reader so thoroughly that it effectively precludes any kind of critical political action, although this would be an understandable reaction....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the notion of constitutive representation of gender has been introduced as a distinct facet of the representative process and the spheres of representative practices under consideration to include not only the parliamentary but also the extra-parliamentary arenas of women's policy agencies and feminist NGOs.
Abstract: This paper extends the focus of research on representation within the women and politics literature in two ways: firstly, by introducing the notion of ‘the constitutive representation of gender' to complement the notion of the substantive representation of women, as a distinct facet of the representative process; and secondly, by extending the spheres of representative practices under consideration to include not only the parliamentary but also the extra‐parliamentary arenas of women's policy agencies and feminist NGOs.
96 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jan 1977
TL;DR: Men and Women of the Corporation: The Population, Industrial Supply Corporation: Setting Roles And Images as discussed by the authors, Men and women of the corporation: The population, the setting roles and images, the players and the stage.
Abstract: * Introduction The Players And The Stage * Men and Women of the Corporation: The Population * Industrial Supply Corporation: The Setting Roles And Images * Managers * Secretaries * Wives Structures And Processes * Opportunity * Power * Numbers: Minorities and Majorities Understanding The Action * Contributions to Theory: Structural Determinants of Behavior in Organizations * Contributions to Practice: Organizational Change, Affirmative Action, and the Quality of Work Life * Afterword to the 1993 Edition
7,680 citations
3,053 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a framework is developed for conceptualizing the processes that occur between dominants and tokens, and three perceptual phenomena are associated with tokens: visibility, polarization, and assimilation, where tokens' attributes are distorted to fit preexisting generalizations about their social type.
Abstract: Proportions, that is, relative numbers of socially and culturally different people in a group, are seen as critical in shaping interaction dinamics, and four group types are identified in the basis of varying proportional compositions. "Skewed" groups contain a large preponderance of one type (the numerical "dominants") over another (the rare "tokens"). A framework is developed for conceptualizing the processes that occur between dominants and tokens. Three perceptual phenomena are associated with tokens: visibility (tokens capture a disproportionate awareness share), polarization (differences between tokens and dominants are exaggerated), and assimilation (tokens' attributes are distorted to fit preexisting generalizations about their social type). Visibility generates performance pressures; polarization leads dominants to heighten their group boundaries; and assimilation leads to the tokens' role entrapment. Illustrations are drawn from a field study in a large industrial corporation. Concepts are exten...
2,426 citations
"Gender and Politics: the State of t..." refers background in this paper
...…Association one another’; and with increased absolute numbers, even with a small shift in relative numbers, women might develop ‘a close alliance and refuse to be turned against each other [due to] strong identification with the feminist cause or with other women’ (Kanter, 1977a, pp. 209, 238)....
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...…for resolving these debates is to acknowledge that Rosabeth Moss Kanter, in her seminal contributions on the effects of proportions on group life (Kanter, 1977a and 1977b), in fact makes three claims regarding the relative balance of women and men in corporations: with increased relative…...
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Book•
01 Jan 1995
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss race-conscious districting in the USA and Canada and the Politics of Inclusion, from a politics of ideas to a Politics of Presence, and discuss loose ends and larger ambitions.
Abstract: 1. From a Politics of Ideas to a Politics of Presence? 2. Political Equality and Fair Representation 3. Quotas for Women 4. Race-Conscious Districting in the USA 5. Canada and the Politics of Inclusion 6. Deliberation, Accountability, and Interest 7. Loose Ends and Larger Ambitions
1,649 citations
"Gender and Politics: the State of t..." refers background in this paper
...Many contemporary feminist theorists argue that there are theoretically coherent grounds for presuming a relationship between the numbers of women elected to political office and the passage of legislation beneficial to women as a group (see for example Phillips, 1995 and 1998)....
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TL;DR: The authors assesses Rosabeth Moss Kanter's work on tokenism in light of more than a decade of research and discussion, concluding that performance pressures, social isolation, and role encapsulation were the consequences of disproportionate numbers of women and men in a workplace.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to assess Rosabeth Moss Kanter's work on tokenism in light of more than a decade of research and discussion. While Kanter argued that performance pressures, social isolation, and role encapsulation were the consequences of disproportionate numbers of women and men in a workplace, a review of empirical data concludes that these outcomes occur only for token women in gender-inappropriate occupations. Furthermore, Kanter's emphasis on number balancing as a social-change strategy failed to anticipate backlash from dominants. Blalock's theory of intrusiveness suggests that surges in the number of lower-status members threaten dominants, thereby increasing gender discrimination in the forms of sexual harassment, wage inequities, and limited opportunities for promotion. Although Kanter's analysis of the individual consequences of tokenism was compelling to researchers and organizational change agents, continued reliance on numbers as the theoretical cause of, and as the solution to...
516 citations
Additional excerpts
...18 Lovenduski and Norris (2003); Yoder (1991); Reingold (2000); Beckwith (2003); Weldon (2002)....
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