Sylvia Bashevkin
Biographic Data
| ID | 331287 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sylvia Bashevkin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sylvia |
| FAMILY NAME | Bashevkin |
| SIGNATURE | BASHEVKIN S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0123-9104 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 34 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 158 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Understanding Counter-Movement Success
Existing research raises crucial questions concerning anti-abortion success in Canada. What circumstances appear most conducive to anti-choice influence? Which social science theories permit analysts to develop explanations, generalizations, and predictions concerning counter-movement impact? This article, among the first to compare anti-feminist effectiveness at the provincial level, focuses on four jurisdictions where campaigns to restrict wome…
Varied paths towards feminist policy change
Guided by comparative gender and politics scholarship, this article uses publicly available sources to examine two pro-choice policy reforms: the public funding of clinic abortions and safe zone legislation, designed to protect patients and medical providers from threats posed by protesters. It focuses on partisan and religious circumstances in four Canadian provinces where feminist movements were strong and where opposition to a pro-choice Supre…
Explaining Feminist Movement Impact
Focusing on four jurisdictions where abortion facilities and providers faced violent attacks following theMorgentalerdecision of 1988, this study compares provincial government responses to core feminist demands in the area of women's reproductive health: enhanced hospital access, public funding of clinic abortions and safe zone protections. Consistent with previous research on childcare and anti-violence policies, the study finds that in neolibe…
Polarisation versus Convergence
This article is among the first to probe the views of seven women who held foreign policy cabinet positions in Democratic and Republican administrations in the United States between 1981 and 2018. Grounded in debates over a polarising ‘culture war’ versus converging social attitudes, the study uses autobiographical sources to gauge cross-party differences over time in leaders’ understandings of feminism and anti-feminism, levels of secularism and…
Second-Wave Women's Movements as Foreign Policy Actors
This article addresses second-wave feminist interventions in Canadian foreign policy debate with reference to two analytic streams: (1) political science and international relations (IR) perspectives since the late 1990s that stress the formal decisional aims of advocacy and the role of transnational networks in pressuring reluctant governments and (2) sociological approaches that underline movements’ cultural as well as statist dimensions and th…
Women as Foreign Policy Leaders
What is known about women’s participation as decision-makers in international affairs? Is it fair to assume, as many observers do, that female elites will mirror the relatively pacifist preferences of women in the general public as well as the claims of progressive feminist movements? By focusing on women’s presence in senior national security positions in the American political executive, Women as Foreign Policy Leaders offers among the first sy…
Gender
This chapter examines how gender shapes US foreign policy. It first considers key perspectives that can be drawn from the work of Cynthia Enloe and other feminist writers before discussing a series of empirical questions that follow from this background; for example, when and how women entered the main institutions of American foreign policy; how female diplomats responded to discriminatory attitudes and practices; in what ways women leaders have…
Women’s Security as National Security
Chapter 6 evaluates the trajectory of Hillary Rodham Clinton from the roles of first lady, senator, and presidential candidate to secretary of state. Similar to Albright’s actions in the Balkans, Clinton endorsed NATO intervention in Libya in 2011. Military action in North Africa formed a crucial element of President Barack Obama’s first-term foreign policy record. It paralleled Clinton’s support as a senator for the US invasion of Iraq. Efforts …
Hawk in the Cold War Twilight
Chapter 3 considers Jeane Kirkpatrick’s influence during the early 1980s as the first woman ambassador from the United States to the United Nations. Kirkpatrick built a reputation as an outspoken diplomat with a visceral belief in America’s greatness. She supported a muscular but prudent defense of US interests well before her cabinet appointment. As the only woman in President Ronald Reagan’s initial cabinet, Kirkpatrick helped to ensure that th…
Conclusion
Chapter 7 addresses the ways in which women leaders have made a difference in international relations. It considers the main findings from previous chapters in light of themes from feminist diplomatic history, including the changing status of diplomatic as contrasted with military institutions in the United States. The discussion considers what personal traits assisted each leader and compares how Kirkpatrick, Albright, Rice, and Clinton dealt wi…
Numerical and policy representation on the international stage
This article presents initial findings from one of the first comparative studies of women as foreign policy decision-makers in Western industrial systems. It begins with an overview of why political leaders matter to the conduct of contemporary international relations and what the existing literature tells us about women’s engagement in that domain. Next, we develop five propositions based on previous research, and evaluate them using longitudina…
Women's Work is Never Done
When do outsiders break in? Institutional circumstances of party leadership victories by women in Canada
Even though theorists disagree over the ability of newly mobilised interests to engage meaningfully with established parties, limited empirical research has probed the institutional circumstances under which outsiders ‘break in’. Second-wave feminist movements since the 1970s offer an important case study opportunity; they not only attracted women to mainstream political activism – including at top elite levels – but also challenged parties in or…
Opening doors wider
/ Caroline Andrew 3 Rebuilding the House of Canadian Feminism: NAC and the Racial Politics of Participation / Mary-Jo Nadeau Part 2: Winning Legislative Seats 4 Women in the Quebec National Assembly: Why So Many? / Manon Tremblay, with Stephanie Mullen 5 Are Cities More Congenial? Tracking the Rural Deficit in the House of Commons / Louise Carbert Part 3: Cabinet and Party Leadership Experiences 6 Making a Difference When the Doors Are Open? Wome…
Party Talk
This study examines public statements by female candidates for the leadership of major federal parties in the period 1975–2006, with reference to the conceptual literature on political representation. Was the willingness of women politicians to voice feminist rhetoric more closely related to extra-parliamentary dynamics, notably the changing fortunes of feminist and antifeminist movements, or to parliamentary factors, including the ideological as…
Welfare Hot Buttons
Training a Spotlight on Urban Citizenship
Women on the Defensive
From Tough Times to Better Times
A series of significant internal changes transformed the British Labour Party in the years following 1983. This article is among the first to probe the women and politics dimension of these reforms, focusing on three main questions: first, what benefits accrued to Labour and organized feminism as a result of changes introduced after 1983? Second, what costs were incurred by both sides due to party reform, and how might these disadvantages affect …
Rethinking Retrenchment
Since the mid–1990s, comparative research on welfare state evolution has contrasted the contours of postwar social policy expansion with the parameters of contemporary programme retrenchment. Paul Pierson's 1994 account of pension, housing and income support policies in the United Kingdom and the United States during the Thatcher and Reagan years proposed two core arguments with this literature: first, welfare state expansion and contraction were…
Women on the Defensive
Feminism underwent perhaps its most difficult challenges in the 1980s, when conservatism reached the height of its influence in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. This study explores some beliefs about women and women's movements under Conservative and Republican leaders. By identifying the policies and goals held in common by feminists in all three countries and tracing their collision course with the conservative policies of the …
Tough Times in Review
Comparative research on social movements has focused increasingly on questions of group success, yet the question of how specific movements and regimes interact has not been widely explored in this literature. This article examines the intersection of conservative and feminist politics in the United Kingdom during the period between Margaret Thatcher's first majority election in 1979 and her resignation as Conservative Party leader in 1990. Using…
Losing Common Ground
This article examines relations between organized feminism and the federal Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, focusing on elements of the Canadian women's movement that targeted federal policy change from 1984 to 1993. In questioning the main priorities of both sides and the potential for conflict between them, the discussion uses the conceptual literature on social movement evolution as a base. It assesses formal decision making across f…
International Relations and Politics
Confronting Neo-conservatism
Comparative research on women and public policy has thus far neglected the impact of neo-conservative governments on feminist inter ests. Using data on legislative and judicial decisions in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada, this article addresses policy-making in five key issue areas before and after the elections of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney. Comparative results indicate disad vantageous conditions for US fe…
Numerical and policy representation on the international stage
This article presents initial findings from one of the first comparative studies of women as foreign policy decision-makers in Western industrial systems. It begins with an overview of why political leaders matter to the conduct of contemporary international relations and what the existing literature tells us about women’s engagement in that domain. Next, we develop five propositions based on previous research, and evaluate them using longitudina…
Rethinking Retrenchment
Since the mid–1990s, comparative research on welfare state evolution has contrasted the contours of postwar social policy expansion with the parameters of contemporary programme retrenchment. Paul Pierson's 1994 account of pension, housing and income support policies in the United Kingdom and the United States during the Thatcher and Reagan years proposed two core arguments with this literature: first, welfare state expansion and contraction were…
Losing Common Ground
This article examines relations between organized feminism and the federal Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, focusing on elements of the Canadian women's movement that targeted federal policy change from 1984 to 1993. In questioning the main priorities of both sides and the potential for conflict between them, the discussion uses the conceptual literature on social movement evolution as a base. It assesses formal decision making across f…
Women on the Defensive
Confronting Neo-conservatism
Comparative research on women and public policy has thus far neglected the impact of neo-conservative governments on feminist inter ests. Using data on legislative and judicial decisions in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada, this article addresses policy-making in five key issue areas before and after the elections of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney. Comparative results indicate disad vantageous conditions for US fe…
From Tough Times to Better Times
A series of significant internal changes transformed the British Labour Party in the years following 1983. This article is among the first to probe the women and politics dimension of these reforms, focusing on three main questions: first, what benefits accrued to Labour and organized feminism as a result of changes introduced after 1983? Second, what costs were incurred by both sides due to party reform, and how might these disadvantages affect …
When do outsiders break in? Institutional circumstances of party leadership victories by women in Canada
Even though theorists disagree over the ability of newly mobilised interests to engage meaningfully with established parties, limited empirical research has probed the institutional circumstances under which outsiders ‘break in’. Second-wave feminist movements since the 1970s offer an important case study opportunity; they not only attracted women to mainstream political activism – including at top elite levels – but also challenged parties in or…
Free Trade and Canadian Feminism
Sylvia Bashevkin, Free Trade and Canadian Feminism: The Case of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Dec., 1989), pp. 363-375
Toeing the Lines
Solitudes in Collision
This article examines two main questions using mass-level survey data from the late 1970s. First, to what extent was pan-Canadian nationalism limited by a bias favoring continentalism among Quebec nationalists? Second, was Quebec nationalism at the same time constrained by a centralist bias among pan-Canadian nationalists? The data analysis provides little confirmation of either assumption and suggests instead that Quebec nationalists were consid…
Toeing the Lines
Facing a Renewed Right
American feminism at the point of Ronald Reagan's first election to the White House in 1980 appeared to merge the mobilizational strengths of social movement activism with the institutional professionalism that comes from interest-group experience. Unlike the British women's movement at the time of Margaret Thatcher's first majority in 1979, or organized feminism in Canada at the point of Brian Mulroney's first majority in 1984, the American move…
Tough Times in Review
Comparative research on social movements has focused increasingly on questions of group success, yet the question of how specific movements and regimes interact has not been widely explored in this literature. This article examines the intersection of conservative and feminist politics in the United Kingdom during the period between Margaret Thatcher's first majority election in 1979 and her resignation as Conservative Party leader in 1990. Using…
Training a Spotlight on Urban Citizenship
Does public opinion matter? The adoption of federal royal commission and task force recommendations on the national question, 1951–1987
Existing research in the field of Canadian public administration reveals relatively little about the presumed linkage between royal commissions and mass‐level attitudes on the one hand, and government policy‐making on the other. Focusing on the case of federal royal commission and task force recommendations in the fields of cultural and economic nationalism, this paper questions the extent to which such recommendations coincide with the results o…
Changing Patterns of Politicization and Partisanship Among Women in France
During the past decade, political researchers have devoted growing attention to women's political involvement and, to a somewhat lesser extent, their political attitudes in Western cultures. This interest has been a response in part to contemporary feminist movements and, more specifically, to the increasingly visible role of women as social activists, partisan elites and governmental decision makers in Western European and North American society
Party Talk
This study examines public statements by female candidates for the leadership of major federal parties in the period 1975–2006, with reference to the conceptual literature on political representation. Was the willingness of women politicians to voice feminist rhetoric more closely related to extra-parliamentary dynamics, notably the changing fortunes of feminist and antifeminist movements, or to parliamentary factors, including the ideological as…
Social Change and Political Partisanship
This article employs 1965 and 1979 survey data in an analysis of two specific questions. First, to what extent did a historical alliance between feminism and the Liberal Party affect party identification in Quebec, particularly among women voters who came of age politically during the suffragist period? Second, how have more recent processes of social change that are broadly associated with Quebec's “Quiet Revolution” influenced partisanship, and…
Explaining Feminist Movement Impact
Focusing on four jurisdictions where abortion facilities and providers faced violent attacks following theMorgentalerdecision of 1988, this study compares provincial government responses to core feminist demands in the area of women's reproductive health: enhanced hospital access, public funding of clinic abortions and safe zone protections. Consistent with previous research on childcare and anti-violence policies, the study finds that in neolibe…
Polarisation versus Convergence
This article is among the first to probe the views of seven women who held foreign policy cabinet positions in Democratic and Republican administrations in the United States between 1981 and 2018. Grounded in debates over a polarising ‘culture war’ versus converging social attitudes, the study uses autobiographical sources to gauge cross-party differences over time in leaders’ understandings of feminism and anti-feminism, levels of secularism and…
Social Change and Political Partisanship
This article employs 1965 and 1979 survey data in an analysis of two specific questions. First, to what extent did a historical alliance between feminism and the Liberal Party affect party identification in Quebec, particularly among women voters who came of age politically during the suffragist period? Second, how have more recent processes of social change that are broadly associated with Quebec's “Quiet Revolution” influenced partisanship, and…
Political Participation, Ambition and Feminism
(1985). POLITICAL PARTICIPATION, AMBITION AND FEMINISM: WOMEN IN THE ONTARIO PARTY ELITES. American Review of Canadian Studies: Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 405-419
Changing Patterns of Politicization and Partisanship Among Women in France
During the past decade, political researchers have devoted growing attention to women's political involvement and, to a somewhat lesser extent, their political attitudes in Western cultures. This interest has been a response in part to contemporary feminist movements and, more specifically, to the increasingly visible role of women as social activists, partisan elites and governmental decision makers in Western European and North American society
Toeing the Lines
Does public opinion matter? The adoption of federal royal commission and task force recommendations on the national question, 1951–1987
Existing research in the field of Canadian public administration reveals relatively little about the presumed linkage between royal commissions and mass‐level attitudes on the one hand, and government policy‐making on the other. Focusing on the case of federal royal commission and task force recommendations in the fields of cultural and economic nationalism, this paper questions the extent to which such recommendations coincide with the results o…
Free Trade and Canadian Feminism
Sylvia Bashevkin, Free Trade and Canadian Feminism: The Case of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Dec., 1989), pp. 363-375
Solitudes in Collision
This article examines two main questions using mass-level survey data from the late 1970s. First, to what extent was pan-Canadian nationalism limited by a bias favoring continentalism among Quebec nationalists? Second, was Quebec nationalism at the same time constrained by a centralist bias among pan-Canadian nationalists? The data analysis provides little confirmation of either assumption and suggests instead that Quebec nationalists were consid…
Toeing the Lines
International Relations and Politics
Confronting Neo-conservatism
Comparative research on women and public policy has thus far neglected the impact of neo-conservative governments on feminist inter ests. Using data on legislative and judicial decisions in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada, this article addresses policy-making in five key issue areas before and after the elections of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney. Comparative results indicate disad vantageous conditions for US fe…
Facing a Renewed Right
American feminism at the point of Ronald Reagan's first election to the White House in 1980 appeared to merge the mobilizational strengths of social movement activism with the institutional professionalism that comes from interest-group experience. Unlike the British women's movement at the time of Margaret Thatcher's first majority in 1979, or organized feminism in Canada at the point of Brian Mulroney's first majority in 1984, the American move…
Tough Times in Review
Comparative research on social movements has focused increasingly on questions of group success, yet the question of how specific movements and regimes interact has not been widely explored in this literature. This article examines the intersection of conservative and feminist politics in the United Kingdom during the period between Margaret Thatcher's first majority election in 1979 and her resignation as Conservative Party leader in 1990. Using…
Losing Common Ground
This article examines relations between organized feminism and the federal Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, focusing on elements of the Canadian women's movement that targeted federal policy change from 1984 to 1993. In questioning the main priorities of both sides and the potential for conflict between them, the discussion uses the conceptual literature on social movement evolution as a base. It assesses formal decision making across f…
Women on the Defensive
Feminism underwent perhaps its most difficult challenges in the 1980s, when conservatism reached the height of its influence in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. This study explores some beliefs about women and women's movements under Conservative and Republican leaders. By identifying the policies and goals held in common by feminists in all three countries and tracing their collision course with the conservative policies of the …
From Tough Times to Better Times
A series of significant internal changes transformed the British Labour Party in the years following 1983. This article is among the first to probe the women and politics dimension of these reforms, focusing on three main questions: first, what benefits accrued to Labour and organized feminism as a result of changes introduced after 1983? Second, what costs were incurred by both sides due to party reform, and how might these disadvantages affect …
Rethinking Retrenchment
Since the mid–1990s, comparative research on welfare state evolution has contrasted the contours of postwar social policy expansion with the parameters of contemporary programme retrenchment. Paul Pierson's 1994 account of pension, housing and income support policies in the United Kingdom and the United States during the Thatcher and Reagan years proposed two core arguments with this literature: first, welfare state expansion and contraction were…
Women on the Defensive
Welfare Hot Buttons
Training a Spotlight on Urban Citizenship
Opening doors wider
/ Caroline Andrew 3 Rebuilding the House of Canadian Feminism: NAC and the Racial Politics of Participation / Mary-Jo Nadeau Part 2: Winning Legislative Seats 4 Women in the Quebec National Assembly: Why So Many? / Manon Tremblay, with Stephanie Mullen 5 Are Cities More Congenial? Tracking the Rural Deficit in the House of Commons / Louise Carbert Part 3: Cabinet and Party Leadership Experiences 6 Making a Difference When the Doors Are Open? Wome…
Party Talk
This study examines public statements by female candidates for the leadership of major federal parties in the period 1975–2006, with reference to the conceptual literature on political representation. Was the willingness of women politicians to voice feminist rhetoric more closely related to extra-parliamentary dynamics, notably the changing fortunes of feminist and antifeminist movements, or to parliamentary factors, including the ideological as…
When do outsiders break in? Institutional circumstances of party leadership victories by women in Canada
Even though theorists disagree over the ability of newly mobilised interests to engage meaningfully with established parties, limited empirical research has probed the institutional circumstances under which outsiders ‘break in’. Second-wave feminist movements since the 1970s offer an important case study opportunity; they not only attracted women to mainstream political activism – including at top elite levels – but also challenged parties in or…
Women's Work is Never Done
Numerical and policy representation on the international stage
This article presents initial findings from one of the first comparative studies of women as foreign policy decision-makers in Western industrial systems. It begins with an overview of why political leaders matter to the conduct of contemporary international relations and what the existing literature tells us about women’s engagement in that domain. Next, we develop five propositions based on previous research, and evaluate them using longitudina…
Women as Foreign Policy Leaders
What is known about women’s participation as decision-makers in international affairs? Is it fair to assume, as many observers do, that female elites will mirror the relatively pacifist preferences of women in the general public as well as the claims of progressive feminist movements? By focusing on women’s presence in senior national security positions in the American political executive, Women as Foreign Policy Leaders offers among the first sy…
Political science (30 works) · Law (27 works) · Politics (25 works) · Sociology (22 works) · Law (20 works) · Gender Politics and Representation (15 works) · Gender Studies (15 works) · Public Administration (14 works) · Canadian Identity and History (13 works) · Gender Studies (11 works)