The dialectics of universalism and particularism: World society, religious traditions, and women’s political representation, 1960–2013

Cross Cultural ◽

World Society ◽

Cultural Resistance ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Religious Traditions ◽

Cultural Heterogeneity ◽

World Society Theory ◽

This study develops a model of macro-cultural identity inspired by the work of George Herbert Mead. The model puts world society theory, which emphasizes the homogenizing effects of ‘world culture,’ into conversation with civilization-analytic perspectives, which contend that religious and civilizational differences grow increasingly salient over time. The author regards these approaches as dialectically co-implicated. To test the model, the article analyzes cross-cultural heterogeneity in the effects of world society linkages on women’s share of parliamentary seats between 1960 and 2013. Countries are grouped into cultural zones based primarily on religious composition and secondarily on geographical region. The results generally support world society theory. Contrary to civilization-analytic perspectives, cultural resistance to women’s representation is most pronounced early but fades over time. Despite overall increases in women’s representation, there is little cross-cultural convergence, giving rise to improvement without isomorphism. The study concludes with a refined model of world society effects.

An Introduction to Gender and Representation in Latin America

10.1093/oso/9780190851224.003.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Latin American ◽

Gender Inequality ◽

Latin American Politics ◽

Gender And Politics ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Political Crises ◽

And Gender

In this introductory chapter of Gender and Representation in Latin America, Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer argues that gender inequality in political representation in Latin America is rooted in institutions and the democratic challenges and political crises facing Latin American countries. She situates the book in two important literatures—one on Latin American politics and democratic institutions, the other on gender and politics—and then explains how the book will explore the ways that institutions and democratic challenges and political crises moderate women’s representation and gender inequality. She introduces the book’s framework of analyzing the causes and consequences of women’s representation, overviews the organization of the volume, and summarizes the main arguments of the chapters.

Electoral Systems and Women’s Representation

The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190258658.013.27 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 174-192 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mona Lena Krook

Keyword(s):

Comparative Research ◽

Electoral Systems ◽

Important Variable ◽

Political Life ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Cross National

Comparative research highlights electoral systems as an important variable explaining cross-national variations in women’s political representation worldwide. This chapter summarizes key patterns in women’s representation globally. It maps existing research on gender and electoral systems, focusing on the role of electoral formulas, district and party magnitude, and ballot structure in shaping women’s opportunities to be elected. It then identifies three areas within the gender literature that have foregrounded elements of electoral systems to generate new insights into central dynamics of political life. The chapter concludes with a discussion of emerging areas of research related to gender, electoral systems, and political representation.

Introduction

The Inclusion Calculation ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190936198.003.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 1-17

Author(s):

Melody E. Valdini

Keyword(s):

Political Behavior ◽

Political Party ◽

The Self ◽

Descriptive Representation ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Political Office ◽

New Perspective

Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of the central theory of this book: women’s political representation depends in part on whether men in power see a benefit to associating their political party or government with women. It begins with a brief discussion of the existing literature on women’s representation to establish the foundations of what is already known about women’s path to political office. It then engages the literature on the rational incentives that drive political behavior and goes on to suggest that the self-interested motivations of gate-keepers should be considered in any analysis of women’s descriptive representation. Finally, it presents a synopsis of the following chapters of the book and briefly describes the theoretical contributions and empirical examinations presented to culminate in a new perspective on women’s descriptive representation.

Alternate Paths to Power? Women's Political Representation in Nicaragua

Latin American Politics and Society ◽

10.1111/j.1548-2456.2012.00173.x ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 54 (4) ◽

pp. 61-88 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Magda Hinojosa ◽

Ana Vijil Gurdián

Keyword(s):

Political Parties ◽

Conventional Wisdom ◽

Women's Representation ◽

National Assembly ◽

Women’S Representation

AbstractPolitical alternate positions (otherwise known as substitutes) can have important effects on women's abilities to enter politics. Using the case of Nicaragua, this study assesses whether these alternate positions are being used to increase women's political representation or as a tool to undermine women's advancement into positions of power. By examining patterns of women's representation as candidates in the 1996, 2001, and 2006 elections for the National Assembly and as elected officeholders (as both alternates for those assembly members and titleholders), the article analyzes how various political parties are utilizing these alternate positions. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, this study finds no evidence that these alternate positions are used to undermine women's political progress.

Defining Women’s Representation: Debates around Gender Quotas in India and France

Politics and Governance ◽

10.17645/pag.v7i3.2130 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 124-136 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Virginie Dutoya ◽

Yves Sintomer

Keyword(s):

National Level ◽

Political Crisis ◽

Gender Quotas ◽

Dual Nature ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Parliamentary Debates ◽

Heated Debate ◽

The Way

In 1999, after a heated debate on gender parity in political representation, the French constitution was amended to include the principle of “equal representation” of both sexes. This paved the way for the introduction of gender quotas. In the same period, a bill providing reservations for women at the national level provoked a political crisis in India. The objective of this article is to compare both debates, looking in particular at the way women’s representation was framed. In France, the main argument against quotas was that republican representation should be unitary and transcend social differences, but at the end of the 1990s, women in mainstream politics were seen as one element of the dual nature of human kind, different from other categories such as class or race. In India, the specific representation of certain groups (Dalits, lower castes, tribal groups) had been the traditional framework for political representation since independence in 1947. But when the bill proposed to extend reservations to women, opponents of the project claimed that women did not constitute a category in themselves, and that sex should be intersected with caste and religion for the attribution of quotas. Looking at parliamentary debates, articles, and tribunes supporting or opposing quotas in both countries, we show that the arguments mobilized reveal different conceptions of the political representation of gender difference, which are partly transversal and partly specific to each country.

Women’s Representation in Subnational Governments

10.1093/oso/9780190851224.003.0006 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Maria C. Escobar-Lemmon ◽

Kendall D. Funk

Keyword(s):

Gender Equality ◽

Original Data ◽

Party Politics ◽

Women And Gender ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Gender Balance ◽

Promote Gender Equality ◽

And Gender ◽

Despite national gains, women’s representation at the subnational level has not increased much over time. In this chapter, Maria C. Escobar-Lemmon and Kendall D. Funk present and analyze original data on subnational legislatures and executives in Latin America. They examine the determinants of women’s representation in legislative and executive office and show that institutions and cross-arena diffusion are key explanations. Escobar-Lemmon and Funk show that women in local executive and legislative offices have worked to promote gender equality and women’s issues and worked to transform political arenas in ways that make them less biased toward women. They do, however, point out some significant challenges for gender equality in subnational politics—women are not getting into local executive offices to the same extent as they are legislative offices, subnational party politics has not been friendly to women, and gender balance is far from assured in local judiciaries and bureaucracies.

Gender and Representation in Latin America

10.1093/oso/9780190851224.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Gender Equality ◽

Latin American ◽

Gender Inequality ◽

Political Institutions ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Political Crises ◽

And Gender

In the past thirty years, women’s representation and gender equality has developed unevenly in Latin America. Some countries have experienced large increases in gender equality in political offices, whereas others have not, and even within countries, some political arenas have become more gender equal whereas others continue to exude intense gender inequality. These patterns are inconsistent with explanations of social and cultural improvements in gender equality leading to improved gender equality in political office. Gender and Representation in Latin America argues instead that gender inequality in political representation in Latin America is rooted in institutions and the democratic challenges and political crises facing Latin American countries and that these challenges matter for the number of women and men elected to office, what they do once there, how much power they gain access to, and how their presence and actions influence democracy and society more broadly. The book draws upon the expertise of top scholars of women, gender, and political institutions in Latin America to analyze the institutional and contextual causes and consequences of women’s representation in Latin America. It does this in part I with chapters that analyze gender and political representation regionwide in each of five different “arenas of representation”—the presidency, cabinets, national legislatures, political parties, and subnational governments. In part II, it provides chapters that analyze gender and representation in each of seven different countries—Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. The authors bring novel insights and impressive new data to their analyses, helping to make this one of the most comprehensive books on gender and political representation in Latin America today.

The Effect of Gender Quotas in the First Decade of the Twenty-first Century: A Global Comparison

Comparative Sociology ◽

10.1163/15691330-12341385 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 179-205 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

John Högström

Keyword(s):

Important Determinant ◽

First Century ◽

Gender Quotas ◽

Female Representation ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Global Comparison ◽

Low Levels ◽

Twenty First Century ◽

The goal of this study is to examine to what extent gender quotas have contributed to recent increases in women’s representation in parliaments. The results show that the effect of quotas on women’s representation in parliaments increased over time during the first decade of the twenty-first century, and that in the mid and late parts of the decade quotas are an important determinant of women’s representation in parliaments. However, the results from this study demonstrate that several countries that use gender quotas still have low levels of female representation in parliaments, which indicates that the designs of the quotas are important.

IMPLIKASI KETENTUAN KUOTA 30% CALON ANGGOTA DPRD PEREMPUAN PADA PEMILU LEGISLATIF 2014 DI KOTA CILEGON

Asy-Syari ah ◽

10.15575/as.v20i1.3006 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 59-70

Author(s):

Istiqomah Istiqomah

Keyword(s):

Women's Rights ◽

General Election ◽

Women’S Rights ◽

Men And Women ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Religious Traditions ◽

Women’S Representation

AbstrakTulisan ini menguraikan bagaimana mayoritas masyarakat kota Cilegon sangat kental dengan tradisi dan adat istiadat keagamaannya. Tidak sedikit dari mereka membatasi hak perempuan di luar permasalahan rumah tangga, terlebih untuk berkarir di bidang politik. Padahal negara Indonesia sudah menerapkan Hak Asasi Manusia dalam Undang-Undang Dasar 1945 yang mana tidak membeda-bedakan antara perempuan dan laki-laki. Serta di dalam undang-undang nomor 2 tahun 2011 tentang partai politik disinggung dalam pasal 29 bahwa dalam penyelenggaraan pemilihan umum harus menyertakan kuota 30% keterwakilan perempuan dalam pencalonan. Implikasi yang muncul dari ketentuan tersebut, meski dalam pemilihan umum memenuhi kuota yang dimaksud, namun tidak berdampak pada jumlah anggota DPRD perempuan terpilih pada pemilu legislatif 2014 di Kota Cilegon, yang hanya mencapai 14% dari seluruh anggota anggota DPRD.Kata Kunci: Politik, Hak Perempuan, Pemilu AbstractMost of Cilegon people are devoted to religious traditions and customs. Many of them limit women’s rights to the household matters, leave alone political carrier. The Indonesia Constitution of 1945 gives no distinction between men and women. It also stated in article 29 Act No. 2 Year 2011 on Politics Party, that 30% of legislative candidate on general election should be women. Even though this stipulation can promote the women’s representation in the 2014 legislative general election in Cilegon and reach 30% of the quota, the number of women who were elected in the said year is 14% from the total of elected Cilegon legislative members. Keywords: Politics, Women Right,General Election

Contesting Elections

Performing Representation ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199489053.003.0004 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 80-122

Author(s):

Shirin M. Rai ◽

Carole Spary

Keyword(s):

Political Parties ◽

Women's Representation ◽

Women's Participation ◽

Election Process ◽

General Elections ◽

Qualitative Methodologies ◽

Parliamentary Politics ◽

The chapter argues that although women’s representation has increased in numerical terms over the last 20 years, this increase has been marginal. It traces this argument through an analysis of the role of political parties as gatekeepers to parliamentary politics. Using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, this chapter explores women’s participation as candidates in general elections for the Lok Sabha over the last two decades to understand the role that elections and the election process have on opportunities for women to enter Parliament. By analysing trends in the nomination of women by political parties and across states and regions it contests notions of incrementalism, which are often used to counter proposals for quotas, and which argue that women’s presence in elected bodies will increase over time.