Susan Franceschet
Biographic Data
| ID | 287518 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Susan Franceschet |
| GIVEN NAMES | Susan |
| FAMILY NAME | Franceschet |
| SIGNATURE | FRANCESCHET S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Calgary |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5311-308X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 628 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Parties, Gender, and Attitudes Toward Parenthood and Politics in Germany
When most of the world’s parliaments were created, women could not vote or be elected. Correspondingly, parliaments’ rules and infrastructure as well expectations of parliamentarians’ (MPs) performance were designed around masculine standards, including the assumption that MPs had no caretaking responsibilities. Scholars seeking explanations for women’s underrepresentation argue that parliaments remain unwelcoming to those with caretaking roles. …
Parliamentarians’ perspectives on parenthood and politics in Canada’s House of Commons
Canada’s members of parliament (MPs) work long hours, travel frequently, and spend weeks away from home each year. Research on gender and politics finds that parliamentary work is not designed to accommodate those with caring obligations, usually women. In this paper, we leverage a survey of sitting Canadian MPs conducted in 2022 to assess whether women MPs report greater difficulty combining a political career with family life and to identify pa…
Gender, family status, and parliamentary careers in the German Bundestag
This study tackles several important unanswered questions about gender, family status, and parliamentary representation. We use the case of the German Bundestag to explore gender gaps in family status among elected politicians and subsequently to ask whether and how parenthood affects MPs' advancement in their political careers. Using an original dataset of biographical details for German MPs from 1994 to 2017, we find gender gaps in both marital…
Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Submissions to Politics & Gender
In the summer of 2019, two of us began our term as co-editors of Politics & Gender. We were excited to manage the top journal in the study of women, gender, and politics; help to shape our field; and advance outstanding scholarship. Before our first year ended, the global COVID-19 pandemic disrupted normal routines for many professions, including within the academy. Access to offices, professional networks, and fieldwork was halted or severely li…
Women's Representation in Canadian Municipalities
This research note uses a new and comprehensive data set of 22,333 municipal elected positions in 3,363 municipalities across Canada to provide a systematic analysis of women's presence in municipal office. Drawing on findings from cross-national research about women's representation in local governments, we examine whether district type, council size, urban setting, women's workforce participation, and degree of conservatism among voters account…
Do Women Politicians Know More about Women’s Policy Preferences? Evidence from Canada
This study draws together theories of women’s substantive representation and research on politicians’ knowledge of constituent preferences. We ask whether politicians are better at predicting their constituents’ policy preferences when they share the same gender. In doing so, we contribute to knowledge about the mechanisms underlying substantive representation. Using original surveys of 3,750 Canadians and 867 elected politicians, we test whether…
Gendering Cabinet Reshuffles in France and Spain
Presidents and prime ministers who form gender-parity cabinets receive positive news coverage and public praise. Cabinet reshuffles, with less attention, may offer scope to decrease the numbers of female ministers. Although research on the gendered impact of reshuffles is sparse, some studies suggest that women's presence declines during reshuffles. This article explores the gendered dynamics of reshuffles that follow initial gender-parity cabine…
Submitting to Politics & Gender: Advice from the Editors
For nearly 20 years, Politics & Gender has been a leading outlet for research on women, gender, and politics. As past and current editors, 1 we are happy to share our advice for early career researchers interested in submitting manuscripts to the journal. We believe that as the official journal of the Women, Gender, and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, the content of Politics & Gender should reflect the diversity of…
Policymaking, Constituency Service, and the Pandemic: How Working Remotely Transformed U.S. State Legislators’ Representative Roles
We surveyed U.S. legislators in 36 states in order to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic – and the related shift to remote work – affected legislators' representative roles. Our results offer suggestive evidence that remote work during the pandemic diminished policymaking activities while increasing constituency service. Respondents reported decreased ability to move projects forward in the legislature and in their districts, and increased work…
Cabinets, Ministers, and Gender
Cabinets, Ministers, and Gender explores why men have been more likely than women to be appointed to cabinet, why gendered patterns of appointment vary cross-nationally, and why, over time, women’s inclusion in cabinets has grown significantly. The book is innovative in conceiving of cabinet formation as a gendered process governed by rules that empower and constrain presidents and prime ministers as selectors of cabinet ministers, and rules that…
Books by Our Readers
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
What do women symbolize? Symbolic representation and cabinet appointments
Women’s presence in cabinets around the world has expanded considerably in the past two decades. All male cabinets are all but unthinkable in most democracies today. Yet existing studies of cabinet formation pay little systematic attention to the representative dimensions of cabinets. We argue that the concept of symbolic representation is useful for analyzing ministerial recruitment because cabinets are not mere collections of individuals with p…
Supermadres, Maternal Legacies and Women's Political Participation in Contemporary Latin America
Elsa Chaney once argued that Latin American women turned to motherhood to justify their political participation. Now that Latin American women have gained unprecedented access to national-level office, we ask whether these cultural narratives of maternalism still condition female politicians' access to political power. Using public opinion data, media analysis, and elite interviews, we conceptualise four strategic frames deployed by elite women t…
Gender and the Executive Branch
The executive branch of government constitutes the pinnacle of political power. In principle, presidents and prime ministers, along with their cabinets, set the policy agenda, debate, and deliberate policy initiatives; introduce legislation; and oversee the implementation of public policies. Executives are the most visible political actors, representing the public “face” of government. Until very recently, executives were also the most masculiniz…
Resisting Parity: Gender and Cabinet Appointments in Chile and Spain
Presidents and prime ministers possess vast powers of appointment. These powers can be used to appoint cabinets with an equal number of male and female ministers. Parity cabinets make dramatic statements about gender, representation, and political power. They imply that gender balance—rather than just adding some women—is needed to overcome women's political marginalization. Cabinets with just a few token women are insufficient and undemocratic. …
Federalism, Decentralization, and Reproductive Rights in Argentina and Chile
Through a comparison of federal Argentina and unitary Chile, we ask whether federalism explains subnational protections of women's reproductive rights. We explore two factors: policy jurisdictions under decentralization and party system territorialization under federalism. We find that, under decentralization, subunits in both countries enjoy autonomy in funding and delivering health care. Yet, decentralization does not explain why specific subun…
Equality, Democracy, and the Broadening and Deepening of Gender Quotas
The diffusion of gender quotas reflects the legitimation of the normative principle of women's equality in public life. Legislative gender quotas, whether adopted through top-down elite decision making or through bottom-up feminist activism, are frequently justified via appeals to norms of inclusion and fairness. These democratic ideals of women's full representation and participation have indeed gained traction: Over the past two decades, quotas…
Sustaining Gendered Practices? Power, Parties, and Elite Political Networks in Argentina
This article investigates whether and how gender shapes access to elite political networks, using the case of Argentina, the first country in the world to adopt a national-level quota law in 1991. Quotas have significantly improved women's access to elected office, without altering either the gendered hierarchies or gendered power networks that govern political advancement. We find that while men and women elected to the national congress have co…
The Impact of Gender Quotas: Women's Descriptive, Substantive, and Symbolic Representation
The introduction of electoral gender quotas in more than 100 countries around the globe has led to a substantial increase in the number of women holding political office. To date, research on quotas has focused primarily on their design, adoption, and effects on the numbers of women elected. Yet, these measures are not simply linked to concerns about increasing the numbers of women in elected office. Arguing their case for quotas, advocates aroun…
Separate but Not Equal: The Effects of Municipal Electoral Reform on Female Representation in Chile
Chile altered its electoral rules for municipal elections in 2002. The new rules separated mayoral and council member elections, and while the latter continue to use proportional representation, mayors are now chosen based on plurality. These changes serve as a natural test of the effects of electoral rules on women’s political representation. The Chilean case demonstrates (1) that electoral reform is gendered, (2) that women’s representation is …
Gender Policy and State Architecture in Latin America
Latin American countries display wide variation in gender equality and organized women's capacity to mobilize and influence policy outcomes. Yet there are also many similarities in the region's political systems and sociocultural contexts that affect women's politics and its impact. These include presidential systems that, in theory, divide power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, but often concentrate power in the executive…
The Gendered Dimensions of Rituals, Rules and Norms in the Chilean Congress
This paper investigates the symbolic aspects of the legislative process, conceptualising much of the routine activities of legislators as 'rituals'. While traditional accounts of legislator behaviour view day-to-day activities as primarily instrumental, conceptualising these activities as rituals and uncovering their symbolic dimensions reveals additional sources of motivation as well as the power dynamics that are embedded in routine activities.…
Explaining Domestic Violence Policy Outcomes in Chile and Argentina
This article explains why Chile has outperformed Argentina in policy responses to the problem of domestic violence. It argues that policy variation is due to both macro-level institutional features (state capacity and centralization) and to more contingent political factors that shape the structure, role, and resources of the women's policy agencies that coordinate and implement domestic violence policies. The initial design of Chile's National W…
Gender Quotas and Women's Substantive Representation: Lessons from Argentina
This article integrates the comparative literature on gender quotas with the existing body of research on women's substantive representation. Quota laws, which bring greater numbers of women into parliaments, are frequently assumed to improve women's substantive representation. We use the Argentine case, where a law mandating a 30% gender quota was adopted in 1991, to show that quotas can affect substantive representation in contradictory and uni…
Women and Politics in Chile
Gender Quotas and Women's Substantive Representation: Lessons from Argentina
This article integrates the comparative literature on gender quotas with the existing body of research on women's substantive representation. Quota laws, which bring greater numbers of women into parliaments, are frequently assumed to improve women's substantive representation. We use the Argentine case, where a law mandating a 30% gender quota was adopted in 1991, to show that quotas can affect substantive representation in contradictory and uni…
Sustaining Gendered Practices? Power, Parties, and Elite Political Networks in Argentina
This article investigates whether and how gender shapes access to elite political networks, using the case of Argentina, the first country in the world to adopt a national-level quota law in 1991. Quotas have significantly improved women's access to elected office, without altering either the gendered hierarchies or gendered power networks that govern political advancement. We find that while men and women elected to the national congress have co…
Equality, Democracy, and the Broadening and Deepening of Gender Quotas
The diffusion of gender quotas reflects the legitimation of the normative principle of women's equality in public life. Legislative gender quotas, whether adopted through top-down elite decision making or through bottom-up feminist activism, are frequently justified via appeals to norms of inclusion and fairness. These democratic ideals of women's full representation and participation have indeed gained traction: Over the past two decades, quotas…
Explaining Social Movement Outcomes: Collective Action Frames and Strategic Choices in First- and Second-Wave Feminism in Chile
This article compares the outcomes of first- and second-wave feminism in Chile. The author argues that the double-militancy strategy of second-wave feminists emerged out of shifts in the political opportunity structure that led the movement to adapt its collective action frame. First-wave feminists had constructed a gender frame that depicted women as apolitical. In a context in which political parties were class based and saw little need to addr…
Supermadres, Maternal Legacies and Women's Political Participation in Contemporary Latin America
Elsa Chaney once argued that Latin American women turned to motherhood to justify their political participation. Now that Latin American women have gained unprecedented access to national-level office, we ask whether these cultural narratives of maternalism still condition female politicians' access to political power. Using public opinion data, media analysis, and elite interviews, we conceptualise four strategic frames deployed by elite women t…
Separate but Not Equal: The Effects of Municipal Electoral Reform on Female Representation in Chile
Chile altered its electoral rules for municipal elections in 2002. The new rules separated mayoral and council member elections, and while the latter continue to use proportional representation, mayors are now chosen based on plurality. These changes serve as a natural test of the effects of electoral rules on women’s political representation. The Chilean case demonstrates (1) that electoral reform is gendered, (2) that women’s representation is …
"State Feminism" and Women's Movements: The Impact of Chile's Servicio Nacional de la Mujer on Women's Activism
Much of the literature on Latin American women's movements finds that movements have grown weaker since transitions to democracy in part because of the "institutionalization" of gender policy within states. This article advances an alternative argument drawing on evidence from the Chilean case. Using a historical institutionalist approach and the framework of state feminism, I outline the way Chile's Servicio Nacional de la Mujer (SERNAM) has alt…
Explaining Domestic Violence Policy Outcomes in Chile and Argentina
This article explains why Chile has outperformed Argentina in policy responses to the problem of domestic violence. It argues that policy variation is due to both macro-level institutional features (state capacity and centralization) and to more contingent political factors that shape the structure, role, and resources of the women's policy agencies that coordinate and implement domestic violence policies. The initial design of Chile's National W…
Resisting Parity: Gender and Cabinet Appointments in Chile and Spain
Presidents and prime ministers possess vast powers of appointment. These powers can be used to appoint cabinets with an equal number of male and female ministers. Parity cabinets make dramatic statements about gender, representation, and political power. They imply that gender balance—rather than just adding some women—is needed to overcome women's political marginalization. Cabinets with just a few token women are insufficient and undemocratic. …
The Gendered Dimensions of Rituals, Rules and Norms in the Chilean Congress
This paper investigates the symbolic aspects of the legislative process, conceptualising much of the routine activities of legislators as 'rituals'. While traditional accounts of legislator behaviour view day-to-day activities as primarily instrumental, conceptualising these activities as rituals and uncovering their symbolic dimensions reveals additional sources of motivation as well as the power dynamics that are embedded in routine activities.…
What do women symbolize? Symbolic representation and cabinet appointments
Women’s presence in cabinets around the world has expanded considerably in the past two decades. All male cabinets are all but unthinkable in most democracies today. Yet existing studies of cabinet formation pay little systematic attention to the representative dimensions of cabinets. We argue that the concept of symbolic representation is useful for analyzing ministerial recruitment because cabinets are not mere collections of individuals with p…
Women in Politics in Post-Transitional Democracies: The chilean case
This article looks at women's participation in formal political institutions in posttransition politics. Employing the case of post-dictatorship Chile, it outlines the barriers to women's participation in the formal political arena; discusses the various strategies that Chilean women are currently employing to overcome their exclusion; and finally, examines the challenges that political women confront in promoting 'women's interests' in political…
Gender Policy and State Architecture in Latin America
Latin American countries display wide variation in gender equality and organized women's capacity to mobilize and influence policy outcomes. Yet there are also many similarities in the region's political systems and sociocultural contexts that affect women's politics and its impact. These include presidential systems that, in theory, divide power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, but often concentrate power in the executive…
Democratization and State Feminism: Gender Politics in Africa and Latin America
This article addresses the link between state feminism and democratization in the global South. The authors use the contrasting cases of Chile and Nigeria to show some of the factors that encourage women to exploit the opportunities presented by transitions to democracy, and link the outcome of state feminism to the strategies and discourses available to women during democratization. Based on evidence from the cases analysed, the authors propose …
Federalism, Decentralization, and Reproductive Rights in Argentina and Chile
Through a comparison of federal Argentina and unitary Chile, we ask whether federalism explains subnational protections of women's reproductive rights. We explore two factors: policy jurisdictions under decentralization and party system territorialization under federalism. We find that, under decentralization, subunits in both countries enjoy autonomy in funding and delivering health care. Yet, decentralization does not explain why specific subun…
Gendering Cabinet Reshuffles in France and Spain
Presidents and prime ministers who form gender-parity cabinets receive positive news coverage and public praise. Cabinet reshuffles, with less attention, may offer scope to decrease the numbers of female ministers. Although research on the gendered impact of reshuffles is sparse, some studies suggest that women's presence declines during reshuffles. This article explores the gendered dynamics of reshuffles that follow initial gender-parity cabine…
Hard times for citizenship: Women's movements in Chile and Mexico
This article comparatively analyses the cases of Mexico and Chile to understand how women's movements contest the meaning of citizenship in various national contexts. We also assess the consequences that different movement strategies, such as ‘autonomy’ versus ‘double militancy’, have for movements' citizenship goals. To explain the different outcomes in the two cases, we focus on the nature of the democratic transition, the internal coherence of…
Women's Representation in Canadian Municipalities
This research note uses a new and comprehensive data set of 22,333 municipal elected positions in 3,363 municipalities across Canada to provide a systematic analysis of women's presence in municipal office. Drawing on findings from cross-national research about women's representation in local governments, we examine whether district type, council size, urban setting, women's workforce participation, and degree of conservatism among voters account…
Submitting to Politics & Gender: Advice from the Editors
For nearly 20 years, Politics & Gender has been a leading outlet for research on women, gender, and politics. As past and current editors, 1 we are happy to share our advice for early career researchers interested in submitting manuscripts to the journal. We believe that as the official journal of the Women, Gender, and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, the content of Politics & Gender should reflect the diversity of…
Gender, family status, and parliamentary careers in the German Bundestag
This study tackles several important unanswered questions about gender, family status, and parliamentary representation. We use the case of the German Bundestag to explore gender gaps in family status among elected politicians and subsequently to ask whether and how parenthood affects MPs' advancement in their political careers. Using an original dataset of biographical details for German MPs from 1994 to 2017, we find gender gaps in both marital…
Do Women Politicians Know More about Women’s Policy Preferences? Evidence from Canada
This study draws together theories of women’s substantive representation and research on politicians’ knowledge of constituent preferences. We ask whether politicians are better at predicting their constituents’ policy preferences when they share the same gender. In doing so, we contribute to knowledge about the mechanisms underlying substantive representation. Using original surveys of 3,750 Canadians and 867 elected politicians, we test whether…
Policymaking, Constituency Service, and the Pandemic: How Working Remotely Transformed U.S. State Legislators’ Representative Roles
We surveyed U.S. legislators in 36 states in order to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic – and the related shift to remote work – affected legislators' representative roles. Our results offer suggestive evidence that remote work during the pandemic diminished policymaking activities while increasing constituency service. Respondents reported decreased ability to move projects forward in the legislature and in their districts, and increased work…
Gender and the Executive Branch
The executive branch of government constitutes the pinnacle of political power. In principle, presidents and prime ministers, along with their cabinets, set the policy agenda, debate, and deliberate policy initiatives; introduce legislation; and oversee the implementation of public policies. Executives are the most visible political actors, representing the public “face” of government. Until very recently, executives were also the most masculiniz…
Women in Politics in Post-Transitional Democracies: The chilean case
This article looks at women's participation in formal political institutions in posttransition politics. Employing the case of post-dictatorship Chile, it outlines the barriers to women's participation in the formal political arena; discusses the various strategies that Chilean women are currently employing to overcome their exclusion; and finally, examines the challenges that political women confront in promoting 'women's interests' in political…
Democratization and State Feminism: Gender Politics in Africa and Latin America
This article addresses the link between state feminism and democratization in the global South. The authors use the contrasting cases of Chile and Nigeria to show some of the factors that encourage women to exploit the opportunities presented by transitions to democracy, and link the outcome of state feminism to the strategies and discourses available to women during democratization. Based on evidence from the cases analysed, the authors propose …
"State Feminism" and Women's Movements: The Impact of Chile's Servicio Nacional de la Mujer on Women's Activism
Much of the literature on Latin American women's movements finds that movements have grown weaker since transitions to democracy in part because of the "institutionalization" of gender policy within states. This article advances an alternative argument drawing on evidence from the Chilean case. Using a historical institutionalist approach and the framework of state feminism, I outline the way Chile's Servicio Nacional de la Mujer (SERNAM) has alt…
Explaining Social Movement Outcomes: Collective Action Frames and Strategic Choices in First- and Second-Wave Feminism in Chile
This article compares the outcomes of first- and second-wave feminism in Chile. The author argues that the double-militancy strategy of second-wave feminists emerged out of shifts in the political opportunity structure that led the movement to adapt its collective action frame. First-wave feminists had constructed a gender frame that depicted women as apolitical. In a context in which political parties were class based and saw little need to addr…
Hard times for citizenship: Women's movements in Chile and Mexico
This article comparatively analyses the cases of Mexico and Chile to understand how women's movements contest the meaning of citizenship in various national contexts. We also assess the consequences that different movement strategies, such as ‘autonomy’ versus ‘double militancy’, have for movements' citizenship goals. To explain the different outcomes in the two cases, we focus on the nature of the democratic transition, the internal coherence of…
Women and Politics in Chile
Why have women remained marginalized in Chilean politics, even within a context of democratization? Addressing this question, Susan Franceschet traces women's political activism in the country—from the early twentieth century struggles for suffrage to current efforts to expand and deepen the practice of democracy. Franceschet highlights the gendered nature of political participation in Chile, as well as changing perceptions of what is and is not …
Women and Politics in Chile
Gender Quotas and Women's Substantive Representation: Lessons from Argentina
This article integrates the comparative literature on gender quotas with the existing body of research on women's substantive representation. Quota laws, which bring greater numbers of women into parliaments, are frequently assumed to improve women's substantive representation. We use the Argentine case, where a law mandating a 30% gender quota was adopted in 1991, to show that quotas can affect substantive representation in contradictory and uni…
The Gendered Dimensions of Rituals, Rules and Norms in the Chilean Congress
This paper investigates the symbolic aspects of the legislative process, conceptualising much of the routine activities of legislators as 'rituals'. While traditional accounts of legislator behaviour view day-to-day activities as primarily instrumental, conceptualising these activities as rituals and uncovering their symbolic dimensions reveals additional sources of motivation as well as the power dynamics that are embedded in routine activities.…
Explaining Domestic Violence Policy Outcomes in Chile and Argentina
This article explains why Chile has outperformed Argentina in policy responses to the problem of domestic violence. It argues that policy variation is due to both macro-level institutional features (state capacity and centralization) and to more contingent political factors that shape the structure, role, and resources of the women's policy agencies that coordinate and implement domestic violence policies. The initial design of Chile's National W…
Gender Policy and State Architecture in Latin America
Latin American countries display wide variation in gender equality and organized women's capacity to mobilize and influence policy outcomes. Yet there are also many similarities in the region's political systems and sociocultural contexts that affect women's politics and its impact. These include presidential systems that, in theory, divide power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, but often concentrate power in the executive…
The Impact of Gender Quotas: Women's Descriptive, Substantive, and Symbolic Representation
The introduction of electoral gender quotas in more than 100 countries around the globe has led to a substantial increase in the number of women holding political office. To date, research on quotas has focused primarily on their design, adoption, and effects on the numbers of women elected. Yet, these measures are not simply linked to concerns about increasing the numbers of women in elected office. Arguing their case for quotas, advocates aroun…
Separate but Not Equal: The Effects of Municipal Electoral Reform on Female Representation in Chile
Chile altered its electoral rules for municipal elections in 2002. The new rules separated mayoral and council member elections, and while the latter continue to use proportional representation, mayors are now chosen based on plurality. These changes serve as a natural test of the effects of electoral rules on women’s political representation. The Chilean case demonstrates (1) that electoral reform is gendered, (2) that women’s representation is …
Federalism, Decentralization, and Reproductive Rights in Argentina and Chile
Through a comparison of federal Argentina and unitary Chile, we ask whether federalism explains subnational protections of women's reproductive rights. We explore two factors: policy jurisdictions under decentralization and party system territorialization under federalism. We find that, under decentralization, subunits in both countries enjoy autonomy in funding and delivering health care. Yet, decentralization does not explain why specific subun…
Equality, Democracy, and the Broadening and Deepening of Gender Quotas
The diffusion of gender quotas reflects the legitimation of the normative principle of women's equality in public life. Legislative gender quotas, whether adopted through top-down elite decision making or through bottom-up feminist activism, are frequently justified via appeals to norms of inclusion and fairness. These democratic ideals of women's full representation and participation have indeed gained traction: Over the past two decades, quotas…
Sustaining Gendered Practices? Power, Parties, and Elite Political Networks in Argentina
This article investigates whether and how gender shapes access to elite political networks, using the case of Argentina, the first country in the world to adopt a national-level quota law in 1991. Quotas have significantly improved women's access to elected office, without altering either the gendered hierarchies or gendered power networks that govern political advancement. We find that while men and women elected to the national congress have co…
Gender and the Executive Branch
The executive branch of government constitutes the pinnacle of political power. In principle, presidents and prime ministers, along with their cabinets, set the policy agenda, debate, and deliberate policy initiatives; introduce legislation; and oversee the implementation of public policies. Executives are the most visible political actors, representing the public “face” of government. Until very recently, executives were also the most masculiniz…
Resisting Parity: Gender and Cabinet Appointments in Chile and Spain
Presidents and prime ministers possess vast powers of appointment. These powers can be used to appoint cabinets with an equal number of male and female ministers. Parity cabinets make dramatic statements about gender, representation, and political power. They imply that gender balance—rather than just adding some women—is needed to overcome women's political marginalization. Cabinets with just a few token women are insufficient and undemocratic. …
Supermadres, Maternal Legacies and Women's Political Participation in Contemporary Latin America
Elsa Chaney once argued that Latin American women turned to motherhood to justify their political participation. Now that Latin American women have gained unprecedented access to national-level office, we ask whether these cultural narratives of maternalism still condition female politicians' access to political power. Using public opinion data, media analysis, and elite interviews, we conceptualise four strategic frames deployed by elite women t…
What do women symbolize? Symbolic representation and cabinet appointments
Women’s presence in cabinets around the world has expanded considerably in the past two decades. All male cabinets are all but unthinkable in most democracies today. Yet existing studies of cabinet formation pay little systematic attention to the representative dimensions of cabinets. We argue that the concept of symbolic representation is useful for analyzing ministerial recruitment because cabinets are not mere collections of individuals with p…
Cabinets, Ministers, and Gender
Cabinets, Ministers, and Gender explores why men have been more likely than women to be appointed to cabinet, why gendered patterns of appointment vary cross-nationally, and why, over time, women’s inclusion in cabinets has grown significantly. The book is innovative in conceiving of cabinet formation as a gendered process governed by rules that empower and constrain presidents and prime ministers as selectors of cabinet ministers, and rules that…
Books by Our Readers
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Policymaking, Constituency Service, and the Pandemic: How Working Remotely Transformed U.S. State Legislators’ Representative Roles
We surveyed U.S. legislators in 36 states in order to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic – and the related shift to remote work – affected legislators' representative roles. Our results offer suggestive evidence that remote work during the pandemic diminished policymaking activities while increasing constituency service. Respondents reported decreased ability to move projects forward in the legislature and in their districts, and increased work…
Submitting to Politics & Gender: Advice from the Editors
For nearly 20 years, Politics & Gender has been a leading outlet for research on women, gender, and politics. As past and current editors, 1 we are happy to share our advice for early career researchers interested in submitting manuscripts to the journal. We believe that as the official journal of the Women, Gender, and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, the content of Politics & Gender should reflect the diversity of…
Gender, family status, and parliamentary careers in the German Bundestag
This study tackles several important unanswered questions about gender, family status, and parliamentary representation. We use the case of the German Bundestag to explore gender gaps in family status among elected politicians and subsequently to ask whether and how parenthood affects MPs' advancement in their political careers. Using an original dataset of biographical details for German MPs from 1994 to 2017, we find gender gaps in both marital…
Political science (28 works) · Gender Politics and Representation (27 works) · Law (23 works) · Politics (23 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (14 works) · Political economy (12 works) · Gender Studies (10 works) · Economics (9 works)