Women, Politics, and Change

by Ross, Karen

• ISBN13: 9780198515418
• ISBN10: 0198515413
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-02
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Women, Politics, and Change is concerned with the relationship between women and politics from a variety of perspectives covering a wide range of geographical as well as political contexts. Essays span the theory/practice divide and everything between, from chapters which look at the broadtheoretical discussions concerning symbolic and substantive representation of and by women within formal politics, through to empirically informed studies based on interviews with women parliamentarians and women activists. Contributors are keen to analyze the contribution that women have made andcontinue to make to the development of the democratic project, through their different perspectives and (sometimes different) concerns. Crucially, though, many of the contributions explore the tensions which still exist for women when they attempt to work effectively in contexts which have beentraditionally hostile to women, and to examine the strategies which women devise to push a differently nuanced political agenda forward.Unusually, the political contexts that form the foci of this collection include both the 'usual suspects' of developed Western democracies but also news of and from other places, such as Kosova, China, Iran and Africa, where we still know relatively little about their political systems and even lessabout the gendered dimension of their political worlds. Closer to (the European) home, we can no longer speak of Westminster as the only seat of British Government. The past three years have seen the setting up of Assemblies in Wales, Northern Ireland and London and a Parliament in Scotland, andthe role of women in both the background and the foreground of those new political structures has been significant.The book carries on where Women in Politics, an earlier title in this series, left off. Then, the contributions were exclusively British, whereas the great strength of this volume lies precisely in the diversity of its geographical foci, spanning several continents as well as exploring manydifferent parliamentary, social, economic and cultural environments. This more inclusive focus reflects a shift in the Zeitgeist which is pushing outwards instead of inwards, at least as far as many women scholars are concerned, but also reflects a desire to map the differences that women can makeand are making in the lives of the world's citizens, and to explore if sisters are doing it for others as well as themselves.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Questions of Representation: The Theory/Practice Gap
The Representation of Women in Australia: Meaning and Make-Believe	p. 5
Does Size Matter? Critical Mass and New Zealand's Women MPs	p. 19
Maintaining a Balance: The Retention of Women MSPs in Scotland	p. 30
Women's Political Participation in China: Struggling to Hold Up Half the Sky	p. 43
Mainstreaming in Westminster and Whitehall: From Labour's Ministry for Women to the Women and Equality Unit	p. 57
Gender and Effect: The Impact of Women in Politics
Women and Constitutional Change in Scotland and Northern Ireland	p. 71
The 'Femocrat' Strategy: Expanding the Repertoire of Feminist Activists	p. 85
Developing Democracy in Kosova: From Grass Roots to Government	p. 99
Competing Interests: Democracy, Islamification and Women Politicians in Iran	p. 109
Women and Politics in Africa: The Case of Uganda	p. 119
'All The Time His Wife': Portrayals of First Ladies in the Israeli Press	p. 129
Straight Talking: Women Politicians Talk Out Experience
Hitting the Target: Are Labour Women MPs 'Acting For' Women?	p. 143
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back? Women in the Two Main Political Parties in Wales	p. 154
Invisible Women: The Political Roles of Unionist and Loyalist Women in Contemporary Northern Ireland	p. 167
Women in the European Parliament	p. 179
Women's Place in 'Male' Space: Gender and Effect in Parliamentary Contexts	p. 190
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