Political Women and American Democracy / Edition 1

by Christina Wolbrecht, Karen Beckwith, Lisa Baldez

Overview

What do we know about women, politics, and democracy in the United States? The last thirty years have witnessed a remarkable increase in women’s participation in American politics and an explosion of research on female political actors, and the transformations effected by them, during the same period. Political Women and American Democracy provides a critical synthesis of scholarly research by leading experts in the field. The collected essays examine women as citizens, voters, participants, movement activists, partisans, candidates, and legislators. The authors provide frameworks for understanding and organizing existing scholarship; focus on theoretical, methodological, and empirical debates; and map out productive directions for future research. As the only book to offer “state of the field” essays on women and gender in U.S. politics, Political Women and American Democracy will be an invaluable resource for scholars and students studying and conducting women and politics research.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521886239
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/24/2008
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.45(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Christina Wolbrecht is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Director of the Program of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame. Her book, The Politics of Women's Rights: Parties, Positions, and Change (2000), was recipient of the 2001 Leon Epstein Outstanding Book Award from the American Political Science Association (Political Organizations and Parties Section). She has published articles in many journals, including the American Journal of Political Science and the Journal of Politics.

Karen Beckwith is the Flora Stone Mather Professor in the Department of Political Science at Case Western Reserve University. She is co-editor of Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State (with Lee Ann Banaszak and Dieter Rucht; Cambridge University Press, 2003), and has published articles on women, gender and politics in the European Journal of Political Research, Politics and Society, Signs, and several other journals. She is founding editor, with Lisa Baldez, of Politics and Gender, the journal of the Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association.

Lisa Baldez is Associate Professor in the Government and Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies Departments at Dartmouth College. She is founding editor, with Karen Beckwith, of Politics and Gender, the journal of the Women and Political Research Section of the American Political Science Association. She is author of Why Women Protest: Women's Movements in Chile (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and numerous journal articles.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: what we saw at the Revolution: women in American politics and political science Christina Wolbrecht; 2. Gender as a category of political analysis in American political development Gretchen Ritter; 3. Gender, public opinion, and political reasoning Leonie Huddy, Erin Cassese, and Mary-Kate Lizotte; 4. Gender in the aggregate, gender in the individual, gender and political action Nancy Burns; 5. What revolution? Incorporating intersectionality in women and politics Jane Junn and Nadia Brown; 6. Women's movements and women in movements: influencing American democracy from the 'outside'? Lee Ann Banaszak; 7. Representation by gender and parties Kira Sanbonmatsu; 8. Women as candidates in American politics: the continuing impact of sex and gender Kathleen Dolan; 9. Women as office holders: linking descriptive and substantive representation Beth Reingold; 10. Theorizing women's representation in the United States Suzanne Dovi; 11. Political women in comparative democracies: a primer for Americanists Lisa Baldez; Conclusion: between participation and representation: political women and democracy in the United States Karen Beckwith.

Editorial Reviews

"Thorough and insightful, this edited collection will benefit scholars at every level of expertise....Indeed, it brings to light the gendered nature of institutions and culture. In doing so, it sets the stage for rethinking the fairness of those things that are taken for granted as the ways a democracy 'should' work, and for establishing new standards against which traditions, old and new, should be measured....If the potential of Political Women and American Democracy is ultimately recognized, its influence will ultimately go beyond the gender and politics subfield, to shape the work of the broader U.S. politics field, inspiring scholars previously unaware of gender's centrality to their own work to think in new ways."
Debra L. Dodson, Girl Scout Research Institute, Politics & Gender

"...the book covers a refreshingly wide range of topics centered on a single broad and important question: "What do we know about women, politics, and democracy in the United States" (p. ix)?...[it contributes] greatly to the content of our knowledge in America politics."
Perspectives on Politics, Ange-Marie Hancock, University of Southern California

From the Publisher