Meryl Kenny
Biographic Data
| ID | 4000147 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Meryl Kenny |
| GIVEN NAMES | Meryl |
| FAMILY NAME | Kenny |
| SIGNATURE | KENNY M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Edinburgh |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0455-1219 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 759 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Emerging issues and new frontiers in federalism, regionalism and territorial governance: The role of Regional & Federal Studies in shaping future research agendas
This essay marks the transition to a new editorial team at Regional & Federal Studies and offers a broad review of emerging themes and future directions in the study of federalism, regionalism, and territorial governance. Building on the journal’s legacy, it identifies key areas of conceptual and empirical development, highlights ongoing shifts in the global research landscape, and calls for greater geographical and epistemological diversity beyo…
Experiencing the executive: Gender, ministers and institutions in Scotland
Women are historically under-represented amongst government ministers. While most research on gender and executives concentrates on who gets to (and stays at) the top, we examine the executive as a gendered institution, investigating how ministers experience the ‘heart of the machine’ once they get there. Using documentary sources and interviews with former ministers, we explore these dynamics through a case study of the early years of the (then)…
The first, but not the last’: Women’s descriptive and substantive representation in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election
The 2021 Scottish Parliament election delivered the most diverse range of MSPs in Holyrood’s history, including a record number of women. We situate the 2021 election within its wider context, evaluating dynamics of party feminisation over time. Drawing on original candidate data and analysis of party manifestos across the main Scottish parties, we assess parties’ substantive appeals to women voters; the integration of different groups of women a…
Reclaiming party politics research: Response to Anika Gauja and Karina Kosiara-Pedersen. 2021. Decline, adaptation and relevance: political parties and their researchers in the twentieth century. Euro…
In a 2021 Special Issue in European Political Science, Anika Gauja and Karina Kosiara-Pedersen review the sub-field of party politics research. In doing so, they argue party politics scholarship reflects the broader development of the political science discipline, illustrating the evolving relationship between politics researchers and the organisations they study. In this reply, we argue that the party politics sub-field reflects the wider discip…
Politics and International Relations: A Gendered Discipline
This introduction provides an overview of the gendered nature of politics and international relations, before a brief summary of the articles that make-up this special issue
Rethinking the ambition gap: Gender and candidate emergence in comparative perspective
The gender gap in political ambition is often presented as an immutable fact about the political world. This special issue interrogates this fact, drawing on case studies from across the globe. Taken together, the contributions move the research agenda away from explaining why (or whether) women have less ambition than men, and towards understanding the gendered dynamics of candidate emergence. These gendered dynamics include individual, institut…
Sex and gender equality law and policy: A response to Murray, Hunter Blackburn and Mackenzie
This article is a response to ‘Losing Sight of Women's Rights: The Unregulated Introduction of Gender Self-Identification as a Case Study of Policy Capture in Scotland’ by Kath Murray, Lucy Hunter Blackburn and Lisa MacKenzie, published in Scottish Affairs 28(3). Murray et al. sought to explore the legal status of women, particularly with regard to discrimination legislation, and concluded that the interests of trans women had begun to systematic…
Doing Politics Differently? Applying a Feminist Institutionalist Lens to the U.K. Women's Equality Party
The U.K. Women's Equality Party (WEP) was established in 2015 to “bring about change by winning—support, votes and seats.” It has thus far recruited tens of thousands of members and run candidates in European, national, devolved, and local elections. This article provides one of the first empirical analyses of this new actor in U.K. politics. Adopting a feminist institutionalist lens, we examine the extent to which WEP “does things differently” b…
The Women’s Equality Party: Emergence, Organisation and Challenges
Women’s political parties are designed to increase women’s representation in politics. More than 30 have been established in Europe since 1987, yet there has been little systematic analysis of why and when they emerge, how they organise and what challenges they face. We argue that the study of women’s parties can offer insights into questions concerning inter and intra-party power relations and the relationship between social movements and politi…
Pathways to power: Women's representation in the 2014 European Parliament elections
The 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections produced a record proportion of women MEPs overall (37 per cent). Yet, these results vary widely across countries and parties. This article aims to explain these variations, evaluating not only who the elected representatives of the 8th EP are, but also how they got there. Are the paths to the EP the same for women and men? Are there gender differences in terms of MEPs' political experience? A unique da…
Comparing Candidate Selection: A Feminist Institutionalist Approach
This contribution evaluates the theoretical and methodological challenges of researching the gendered dynamics of candidate selection in comparative perspective. It argues that comparative studies should take into account not only the gendered nature of political parties and their wider institutional context, but must also investigate the informal aspects of the selection process and their gendered consequences. The article explores these dynamic…
Opening Up the Black Box: Gender and Candidate Selection in a New Era
Recent global developments, including the feminization of parliaments and the rise of gender quotas, have transformed the ways in which parties and legislatures operate. This introduction to the special issue 'Candidate Selection: Parties and Legislatures in a New Era' puts these recent developments in context, making the case for revisiting the 'secret garden' of candidate selection in light of this 'new era' in politics. It sets out a critical …
Women and the 2015 General Election: Shattering the Political Glass Ceiling
While the 2015 General Election produced mixed electoral fortunes for the major parties, the results for women have been historic – 191 women were elected to the House of Commons on 7 May, including a record number of Scottish women MPs. This article reports on the 2015 GE from the perspective of women's representation, providing a gendered analysis of the election campaign and assessing the parties’ efforts to increase the number of women electe…
Revealing the “Secret Garden: The Informal Dimensions of Political Recruitment
Candidate selection and recruitment has been notably described as the “secret garden” of politics—an obscure process, often hidden from view, that is regulated largely by internal party rules, informal practices, and power relationships (cf. Gallagher and Marsh 1988). In this contribution, we contend that informal party practices and their gendered consequences are critically important for understanding the continuity of male political dominance …
Engendering the Independence Debate
Women's voices and issues of gender equality have been largely missing from wider constitutional debates in the run-up to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. This stands in sharp contrast to their prominence in the devolution debates of the 1990s. This contribution asks why this is the case, assessing the gendered dimensions of the referendum debate, and evaluating the opportunities and challenges that the independence referendum offers fo…
A Feminist Institutionalist Approach
The “institutional turn” in political science reflects a wider consensus among both feminist and mainstream scholars that institutions—broadly defined as the formal and informal “rules of the game”—deeply shape political life. Political institutions are also profoundly gendered. Yet, despite significant advancements in institutional analysis over the past few decades, gender politics scholars continue to grapple with how to “capture” the gendered…
When Is Contagion Not Very Contagious? Dynamics of Women's Political Representation in Scotland
Journal Article When Is Contagion Not Very Contagious? Dynamics of Women's Political Representation in Scotland Get access Meryl Kenny, Meryl Kenny * 1School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, 156 Morven Brown Building, Sydney 2052, Australia *Correspondence: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Fiona Mackay Fiona Mackay 2School of Social and Political Science, University…
Gender and Political Recruitment: Theorizing Institutional Change
This book explores the gendered dynamics of institutional innovation, continuity and change in candidate selection and recruitment. Drawing on the insights of feminist institutionalism, it extends the
Less Male, Pale and Stale? Women and the 2012 Scottish Local Government Elections
Whilst devolution heralded a 'new dawn' in women's representation - with Nordic levels of women MSPs elected to the first Scottish Parliament (Brown 1999) - the story has remained very different at local government level. The percentage of women councillors has flat-lined, hovering at around 22 per cent overall, since the creation of unitary authorities in 1995. The 2012 local elections saw a modest improvement: women are now just over 24 per cen…
In the Balance: Women and the 2011 Scottish Parliament Elections
The victory of Alex Salmond and the SNP in the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections has changed the political arithmetic of Scotland. Yet while Scottish politics adds up very differently, some numbers have remained stubbornly similar. Four elections on, the 'new polities' dream of gender equality in political representation has yet to be realized in the face of political indifference and party inaction. While the SNP has some high-profile women, on…
Gender and Devolution in Spain and the United Kingdom
The starting point of this essay is that the emerging literature on gender politics and state architecture needs to take seriously the insights from devolving multilevel states, as well as from formal federations and classic unitary states. The formal components of state architecture, and the dynamics of scale, are important—but hitherto neglected—features to consider in any gendered analysis of politics. We argue, however, that it is impossible …
New Institutionalism Through a Gender Lens: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism
New institutionalism (NI) may no longer qualify as being ‘new’, but since re-emphasizing institutions as a central explanatory variable in political analysis over two decades ago, it continues to provide scholars with a useful perspective through which to analyse political dynamics and outcomes that shape everyday life. The renewed focus on institutions has rebalanced the structure/agency scales back toward the former without losing important ins…
Already Doin' It for Ourselves? Skeptical Notes on Feminism and Institutionalism
Let us first lay our cards on the table: We are both invested in the “feminist institutionalist project” and have highlighted the potential benefits of such a synthesis in earlier interventions (Kenny 2007; Lovenduski 1998; Mackay and Meier 2003; see also Lovenduski 1998). However, in this essay we sound a cautionary note and urge a more skeptical approach. We pose the questions: Why does feminism need new institutionalism? What do neoinstitution…
Gender, Institutions and Power: A Critical Review
Both feminist and mainstream political science has taken an institutional ‘turn’, opening up possibilities for interchange between the two fields. This article explores the potential for theoretical synthesis between feminist gender analysis and new institutional theory, focusing particularly on issues of power. After providing a brief overview of approaches to power in the institutionalist and feminist literature, it outlines some initial possib…
Women's Representation in the 2007 Scottish Parliament: Temporary Setback or Return to the Norm
NTRODUCTION Since devolution, Scotland has been one of the world leaders in terms of levels of women’s representation: substantial proportions of female parliamentarians were returned in both the 1999 and 2003 elections. The ‘female face’ of the Scottish parliament was widely regarded as one of the ‘success stories’ of devolution and as evidence of a new kind of politics (Brown 2001, Burnside et al. 2003, Mackay et al. 2003). However the 2007 ele…
New Institutionalism Through a Gender Lens: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism
New institutionalism (NI) may no longer qualify as being ‘new’, but since re-emphasizing institutions as a central explanatory variable in political analysis over two decades ago, it continues to provide scholars with a useful perspective through which to analyse political dynamics and outcomes that shape everyday life. The renewed focus on institutions has rebalanced the structure/agency scales back toward the former without losing important ins…
Opening Up the Black Box: Gender and Candidate Selection in a New Era
Recent global developments, including the feminization of parliaments and the rise of gender quotas, have transformed the ways in which parties and legislatures operate. This introduction to the special issue 'Candidate Selection: Parties and Legislatures in a New Era' puts these recent developments in context, making the case for revisiting the 'secret garden' of candidate selection in light of this 'new era' in politics. It sets out a critical …
Comparing Candidate Selection: A Feminist Institutionalist Approach
This contribution evaluates the theoretical and methodological challenges of researching the gendered dynamics of candidate selection in comparative perspective. It argues that comparative studies should take into account not only the gendered nature of political parties and their wider institutional context, but must also investigate the informal aspects of the selection process and their gendered consequences. The article explores these dynamic…
Revealing the “Secret Garden: The Informal Dimensions of Political Recruitment
Candidate selection and recruitment has been notably described as the “secret garden” of politics—an obscure process, often hidden from view, that is regulated largely by internal party rules, informal practices, and power relationships (cf. Gallagher and Marsh 1988). In this contribution, we contend that informal party practices and their gendered consequences are critically important for understanding the continuity of male political dominance …
A Feminist Institutionalist Approach
The “institutional turn” in political science reflects a wider consensus among both feminist and mainstream scholars that institutions—broadly defined as the formal and informal “rules of the game”—deeply shape political life. Political institutions are also profoundly gendered. Yet, despite significant advancements in institutional analysis over the past few decades, gender politics scholars continue to grapple with how to “capture” the gendered…
Pathways to power: Women's representation in the 2014 European Parliament elections
The 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections produced a record proportion of women MEPs overall (37 per cent). Yet, these results vary widely across countries and parties. This article aims to explain these variations, evaluating not only who the elected representatives of the 8th EP are, but also how they got there. Are the paths to the EP the same for women and men? Are there gender differences in terms of MEPs' political experience? A unique da…
Already Doin' It for Ourselves? Skeptical Notes on Feminism and Institutionalism
Let us first lay our cards on the table: We are both invested in the “feminist institutionalist project” and have highlighted the potential benefits of such a synthesis in earlier interventions (Kenny 2007; Lovenduski 1998; Mackay and Meier 2003; see also Lovenduski 1998). However, in this essay we sound a cautionary note and urge a more skeptical approach. We pose the questions: Why does feminism need new institutionalism? What do neoinstitution…
Rethinking the ambition gap: Gender and candidate emergence in comparative perspective
The gender gap in political ambition is often presented as an immutable fact about the political world. This special issue interrogates this fact, drawing on case studies from across the globe. Taken together, the contributions move the research agenda away from explaining why (or whether) women have less ambition than men, and towards understanding the gendered dynamics of candidate emergence. These gendered dynamics include individual, institut…
When Is Contagion Not Very Contagious? Dynamics of Women's Political Representation in Scotland
Journal Article When Is Contagion Not Very Contagious? Dynamics of Women's Political Representation in Scotland Get access Meryl Kenny, Meryl Kenny * 1School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, 156 Morven Brown Building, Sydney 2052, Australia *Correspondence: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Fiona Mackay Fiona Mackay 2School of Social and Political Science, University…
Doing Politics Differently? Applying a Feminist Institutionalist Lens to the U.K. Women's Equality Party
The U.K. Women's Equality Party (WEP) was established in 2015 to “bring about change by winning—support, votes and seats.” It has thus far recruited tens of thousands of members and run candidates in European, national, devolved, and local elections. This article provides one of the first empirical analyses of this new actor in U.K. politics. Adopting a feminist institutionalist lens, we examine the extent to which WEP “does things differently” b…
Engendering the Independence Debate
Women's voices and issues of gender equality have been largely missing from wider constitutional debates in the run-up to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. This stands in sharp contrast to their prominence in the devolution debates of the 1990s. This contribution asks why this is the case, assessing the gendered dimensions of the referendum debate, and evaluating the opportunities and challenges that the independence referendum offers fo…
Women's Representation in the 2007 Scottish Parliament: Temporary Setback or Return to the Norm
NTRODUCTION Since devolution, Scotland has been one of the world leaders in terms of levels of women’s representation: substantial proportions of female parliamentarians were returned in both the 1999 and 2003 elections. The ‘female face’ of the Scottish parliament was widely regarded as one of the ‘success stories’ of devolution and as evidence of a new kind of politics (Brown 2001, Burnside et al. 2003, Mackay et al. 2003). However the 2007 ele…
Sex and gender equality law and policy: A response to Murray, Hunter Blackburn and Mackenzie
This article is a response to ‘Losing Sight of Women's Rights: The Unregulated Introduction of Gender Self-Identification as a Case Study of Policy Capture in Scotland’ by Kath Murray, Lucy Hunter Blackburn and Lisa MacKenzie, published in Scottish Affairs 28(3). Murray et al. sought to explore the legal status of women, particularly with regard to discrimination legislation, and concluded that the interests of trans women had begun to systematic…
The Women’s Equality Party: Emergence, Organisation and Challenges
Women’s political parties are designed to increase women’s representation in politics. More than 30 have been established in Europe since 1987, yet there has been little systematic analysis of why and when they emerge, how they organise and what challenges they face. We argue that the study of women’s parties can offer insights into questions concerning inter and intra-party power relations and the relationship between social movements and politi…
Reclaiming party politics research: Response to Anika Gauja and Karina Kosiara-Pedersen. 2021. Decline, adaptation and relevance: political parties and their researchers in the twentieth century. Euro…
In a 2021 Special Issue in European Political Science, Anika Gauja and Karina Kosiara-Pedersen review the sub-field of party politics research. In doing so, they argue party politics scholarship reflects the broader development of the political science discipline, illustrating the evolving relationship between politics researchers and the organisations they study. In this reply, we argue that the party politics sub-field reflects the wider discip…
Gender and Devolution in Spain and the United Kingdom
The starting point of this essay is that the emerging literature on gender politics and state architecture needs to take seriously the insights from devolving multilevel states, as well as from formal federations and classic unitary states. The formal components of state architecture, and the dynamics of scale, are important—but hitherto neglected—features to consider in any gendered analysis of politics. We argue, however, that it is impossible …
Politics and International Relations: A Gendered Discipline
This introduction provides an overview of the gendered nature of politics and international relations, before a brief summary of the articles that make-up this special issue
Women and the 2015 General Election: Shattering the Political Glass Ceiling
While the 2015 General Election produced mixed electoral fortunes for the major parties, the results for women have been historic – 191 women were elected to the House of Commons on 7 May, including a record number of Scottish women MPs. This article reports on the 2015 GE from the perspective of women's representation, providing a gendered analysis of the election campaign and assessing the parties’ efforts to increase the number of women electe…
Less Male, Pale and Stale? Women and the 2012 Scottish Local Government Elections
Whilst devolution heralded a 'new dawn' in women's representation - with Nordic levels of women MSPs elected to the first Scottish Parliament (Brown 1999) - the story has remained very different at local government level. The percentage of women councillors has flat-lined, hovering at around 22 per cent overall, since the creation of unitary authorities in 1995. The 2012 local elections saw a modest improvement: women are now just over 24 per cen…
In the Balance: Women and the 2011 Scottish Parliament Elections
The victory of Alex Salmond and the SNP in the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections has changed the political arithmetic of Scotland. Yet while Scottish politics adds up very differently, some numbers have remained stubbornly similar. Four elections on, the 'new polities' dream of gender equality in political representation has yet to be realized in the face of political indifference and party inaction. While the SNP has some high-profile women, on…
The first, but not the last’: Women’s descriptive and substantive representation in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election
The 2021 Scottish Parliament election delivered the most diverse range of MSPs in Holyrood’s history, including a record number of women. We situate the 2021 election within its wider context, evaluating dynamics of party feminisation over time. Drawing on original candidate data and analysis of party manifestos across the main Scottish parties, we assess parties’ substantive appeals to women voters; the integration of different groups of women a…
Gender, Institutions and Power: A Critical Review
Both feminist and mainstream political science has taken an institutional ‘turn’, opening up possibilities for interchange between the two fields. This article explores the potential for theoretical synthesis between feminist gender analysis and new institutional theory, focusing particularly on issues of power. After providing a brief overview of approaches to power in the institutionalist and feminist literature, it outlines some initial possib…
Women's Representation in the 2007 Scottish Parliament: Temporary Setback or Return to the Norm
NTRODUCTION Since devolution, Scotland has been one of the world leaders in terms of levels of women’s representation: substantial proportions of female parliamentarians were returned in both the 1999 and 2003 elections. The ‘female face’ of the Scottish parliament was widely regarded as one of the ‘success stories’ of devolution and as evidence of a new kind of politics (Brown 2001, Burnside et al. 2003, Mackay et al. 2003). However the 2007 ele…
Already Doin' It for Ourselves? Skeptical Notes on Feminism and Institutionalism
Let us first lay our cards on the table: We are both invested in the “feminist institutionalist project” and have highlighted the potential benefits of such a synthesis in earlier interventions (Kenny 2007; Lovenduski 1998; Mackay and Meier 2003; see also Lovenduski 1998). However, in this essay we sound a cautionary note and urge a more skeptical approach. We pose the questions: Why does feminism need new institutionalism? What do neoinstitution…
New Institutionalism Through a Gender Lens: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism
New institutionalism (NI) may no longer qualify as being ‘new’, but since re-emphasizing institutions as a central explanatory variable in political analysis over two decades ago, it continues to provide scholars with a useful perspective through which to analyse political dynamics and outcomes that shape everyday life. The renewed focus on institutions has rebalanced the structure/agency scales back toward the former without losing important ins…
In the Balance: Women and the 2011 Scottish Parliament Elections
The victory of Alex Salmond and the SNP in the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections has changed the political arithmetic of Scotland. Yet while Scottish politics adds up very differently, some numbers have remained stubbornly similar. Four elections on, the 'new polities' dream of gender equality in political representation has yet to be realized in the face of political indifference and party inaction. While the SNP has some high-profile women, on…
Gender and Devolution in Spain and the United Kingdom
The starting point of this essay is that the emerging literature on gender politics and state architecture needs to take seriously the insights from devolving multilevel states, as well as from formal federations and classic unitary states. The formal components of state architecture, and the dynamics of scale, are important—but hitherto neglected—features to consider in any gendered analysis of politics. We argue, however, that it is impossible …
Less Male, Pale and Stale? Women and the 2012 Scottish Local Government Elections
Whilst devolution heralded a 'new dawn' in women's representation - with Nordic levels of women MSPs elected to the first Scottish Parliament (Brown 1999) - the story has remained very different at local government level. The percentage of women councillors has flat-lined, hovering at around 22 per cent overall, since the creation of unitary authorities in 1995. The 2012 local elections saw a modest improvement: women are now just over 24 per cen…
Gender and Political Recruitment: Theorizing Institutional Change
This book explores the gendered dynamics of institutional innovation, continuity and change in candidate selection and recruitment. Drawing on the insights of feminist institutionalism, it extends the
Engendering the Independence Debate
Women's voices and issues of gender equality have been largely missing from wider constitutional debates in the run-up to the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. This stands in sharp contrast to their prominence in the devolution debates of the 1990s. This contribution asks why this is the case, assessing the gendered dimensions of the referendum debate, and evaluating the opportunities and challenges that the independence referendum offers fo…
A Feminist Institutionalist Approach
The “institutional turn” in political science reflects a wider consensus among both feminist and mainstream scholars that institutions—broadly defined as the formal and informal “rules of the game”—deeply shape political life. Political institutions are also profoundly gendered. Yet, despite significant advancements in institutional analysis over the past few decades, gender politics scholars continue to grapple with how to “capture” the gendered…
When Is Contagion Not Very Contagious? Dynamics of Women's Political Representation in Scotland
Journal Article When Is Contagion Not Very Contagious? Dynamics of Women's Political Representation in Scotland Get access Meryl Kenny, Meryl Kenny * 1School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, 156 Morven Brown Building, Sydney 2052, Australia *Correspondence: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Fiona Mackay Fiona Mackay 2School of Social and Political Science, University…
Women and the 2015 General Election: Shattering the Political Glass Ceiling
While the 2015 General Election produced mixed electoral fortunes for the major parties, the results for women have been historic – 191 women were elected to the House of Commons on 7 May, including a record number of Scottish women MPs. This article reports on the 2015 GE from the perspective of women's representation, providing a gendered analysis of the election campaign and assessing the parties’ efforts to increase the number of women electe…
Revealing the “Secret Garden: The Informal Dimensions of Political Recruitment
Candidate selection and recruitment has been notably described as the “secret garden” of politics—an obscure process, often hidden from view, that is regulated largely by internal party rules, informal practices, and power relationships (cf. Gallagher and Marsh 1988). In this contribution, we contend that informal party practices and their gendered consequences are critically important for understanding the continuity of male political dominance …
Pathways to power: Women's representation in the 2014 European Parliament elections
The 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections produced a record proportion of women MEPs overall (37 per cent). Yet, these results vary widely across countries and parties. This article aims to explain these variations, evaluating not only who the elected representatives of the 8th EP are, but also how they got there. Are the paths to the EP the same for women and men? Are there gender differences in terms of MEPs' political experience? A unique da…
Comparing Candidate Selection: A Feminist Institutionalist Approach
This contribution evaluates the theoretical and methodological challenges of researching the gendered dynamics of candidate selection in comparative perspective. It argues that comparative studies should take into account not only the gendered nature of political parties and their wider institutional context, but must also investigate the informal aspects of the selection process and their gendered consequences. The article explores these dynamic…
Opening Up the Black Box: Gender and Candidate Selection in a New Era
Recent global developments, including the feminization of parliaments and the rise of gender quotas, have transformed the ways in which parties and legislatures operate. This introduction to the special issue 'Candidate Selection: Parties and Legislatures in a New Era' puts these recent developments in context, making the case for revisiting the 'secret garden' of candidate selection in light of this 'new era' in politics. It sets out a critical …
Doing Politics Differently? Applying a Feminist Institutionalist Lens to the U.K. Women's Equality Party
The U.K. Women's Equality Party (WEP) was established in 2015 to “bring about change by winning—support, votes and seats.” It has thus far recruited tens of thousands of members and run candidates in European, national, devolved, and local elections. This article provides one of the first empirical analyses of this new actor in U.K. politics. Adopting a feminist institutionalist lens, we examine the extent to which WEP “does things differently” b…
The Women’s Equality Party: Emergence, Organisation and Challenges
Women’s political parties are designed to increase women’s representation in politics. More than 30 have been established in Europe since 1987, yet there has been little systematic analysis of why and when they emerge, how they organise and what challenges they face. We argue that the study of women’s parties can offer insights into questions concerning inter and intra-party power relations and the relationship between social movements and politi…
Rethinking the ambition gap: Gender and candidate emergence in comparative perspective
The gender gap in political ambition is often presented as an immutable fact about the political world. This special issue interrogates this fact, drawing on case studies from across the globe. Taken together, the contributions move the research agenda away from explaining why (or whether) women have less ambition than men, and towards understanding the gendered dynamics of candidate emergence. These gendered dynamics include individual, institut…
Sex and gender equality law and policy: A response to Murray, Hunter Blackburn and Mackenzie
This article is a response to ‘Losing Sight of Women's Rights: The Unregulated Introduction of Gender Self-Identification as a Case Study of Policy Capture in Scotland’ by Kath Murray, Lucy Hunter Blackburn and Lisa MacKenzie, published in Scottish Affairs 28(3). Murray et al. sought to explore the legal status of women, particularly with regard to discrimination legislation, and concluded that the interests of trans women had begun to systematic…
Politics and International Relations: A Gendered Discipline
This introduction provides an overview of the gendered nature of politics and international relations, before a brief summary of the articles that make-up this special issue
Reclaiming party politics research: Response to Anika Gauja and Karina Kosiara-Pedersen. 2021. Decline, adaptation and relevance: political parties and their researchers in the twentieth century. Euro…
In a 2021 Special Issue in European Political Science, Anika Gauja and Karina Kosiara-Pedersen review the sub-field of party politics research. In doing so, they argue party politics scholarship reflects the broader development of the political science discipline, illustrating the evolving relationship between politics researchers and the organisations they study. In this reply, we argue that the party politics sub-field reflects the wider discip…
The first, but not the last’: Women’s descriptive and substantive representation in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election
The 2021 Scottish Parliament election delivered the most diverse range of MSPs in Holyrood’s history, including a record number of women. We situate the 2021 election within its wider context, evaluating dynamics of party feminisation over time. Drawing on original candidate data and analysis of party manifestos across the main Scottish parties, we assess parties’ substantive appeals to women voters; the integration of different groups of women a…
Experiencing the executive: Gender, ministers and institutions in Scotland
Women are historically under-represented amongst government ministers. While most research on gender and executives concentrates on who gets to (and stays at) the top, we examine the executive as a gendered institution, investigating how ministers experience the ‘heart of the machine’ once they get there. Using documentary sources and interviews with former ministers, we explore these dynamics through a case study of the early years of the (then)…
Emerging issues and new frontiers in federalism, regionalism and territorial governance: The role of Regional & Federal Studies in shaping future research agendas
This essay marks the transition to a new editorial team at Regional & Federal Studies and offers a broad review of emerging themes and future directions in the study of federalism, regionalism, and territorial governance. Building on the journal’s legacy, it identifies key areas of conceptual and empirical development, highlights ongoing shifts in the global research landscape, and calls for greater geographical and epistemological diversity beyo…
Gender Politics and Representation (24 works) · Political science (24 works) · Law (21 works) · Politics (20 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Law (19 works) · Political economy (14 works) · Public Administration (13 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (13 works) · Gender Studies (12 works)