Gender and Party PoliticsJoni Lovenduski, Pippa Norris This book is the first systematic study of how political parties have responded to women's claims for representation. It brings together the work of experts on gender and politics in 11 liberal democracies including Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United States. By the end of the 1970s party systems in most liberal democracies were under pressure to devise strategies to bring women into the political system and to present policies aimed at bringing about sex equality in social life. Gender and Party Politics shows that responses varied by system and ideology but, by the beginning of the 1990s, most political parties had policies to enhance the representation of women. Moreover, parties accommodated women at the same time as they implemented new systems of candidate selection, new means of policymaking and other organizational reforms. Gender is now an explicit issue for many political parties, and the way it is treated gives a good insight into the imperatives of party politics. This study of women's progress illuminates such important aspects of party politics as the nature of cultural and institutional restraints, the pitfalls of modernization and democratization, the role of ideology, the impact of electoral systems and the significance of party organization. -- Publisher description. |
Contents
Women and | 16 |
Gender and Party Politics in Britain | 35 |
Women Parties and Candidacies | 60 |
Copyright | |
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40 per cent active activists affirmative action Bundestag cabinet campaign candidate selection career Centre party Christian Democrats Christian People's party committee competition Conservative party constituency councils decision-making delegates Democratic party elected office electoral system elite factors favour federal feminist Fianna Fail Fine Gael German ideology important incumbents influence labour market Labour party Left party legislative Liberal party major parties male members of parliament national executive national party nomination Norwegian number of women organizational parliamentary participation party list party members party membership party organizations party politics party system party's percentage of women policies political parties proportion of women PvdA quotas recruitment regional representation of women representatives Republican Riksdag role seats selection process Senate Social Democrats Socialist Left party strategies Table voters woman women candidates women members women MPs women's issues women's organizations women's political women's representation