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AbstractUsing theory syllabi and departmental data collected for three academic years, this paper investigates the institutional practice of theory in sociology departments across Canada. In particular, it examines the position of theory within the sociological curriculum, and how this varies among universities. Taken together, our analyses indicate that theory remains deeply institutionalized at the core of sociological education and Canadian sociologists' self‐understanding; that theorists as a whole show some coherence in how they define themselves, but differ in various ways, especially along lines of region, intellectual background, and gender; that despite these differences, the classical versus contemporary heuristic largely cuts across these divides, as does the strongly ingrained position of a small group of European authors as classics of the discipline as a whole. Nevertheless, who is a classic remains an unsettled question, alternatives to the "classical versus contemporary" heuristic do exist, and theorists' syllabi reveal diverse "others" as potential candidates. Our findings show that the field of sociology is neither marked by universal agreement nor by absolute division when it comes to its theoretical underpinnings. To the extent that they reveal a unified field, the findings suggest that unity lies more in a distinctive form than in a distinctive content, which defines the space and structure of the field of sociology.

Leslie A. Schwindt-Bayer and Santiago Alles argue that the influx of women into Latin American legislatures has been substantial, but once in office, women have struggled to attain full access to political power. They present a statistical analysis that shows that the main explanations for variation in women's representation lie with gender quotas and party system fragmentation. They show that women in national legislatures have brought women's issues to the legislative arena, and they provide a new analysis showing that female legislators are more supportive of liberal gender equality, abortion, and divorce laws. However, they argue that women have not gained access to diverse committee leadership posts or served in top chamber leadership posts to the same extent as men. Finally, they show that the presence of women in legislatures has had important effects on citizen support for female political leaders, political engagement and participation, and supportiveness of representative democracy. © Oxford University Press 2018.